Dustin Craig is from Oakland, California and has worked as Elasticlego and Headphone Science, melting his interests in hip hop, dub, IDM and musique concrète together. This debut CD release is considered an EP but at 38 some minutes, I think it’s more then that. Many of the influences (which I just cited from the blurb) are not really that apperent, except hip hop. The opening title piece is an exception: this more in the directions of IDM, with jumpy beats and a piano theme. The other five tracks are clearly more hip hop inspired. The rhythm section, the dominating factor of each song, and cut up raps (I assume lifted from TV or radio?), make all the other influences very small in that respect. To Dine in Distance, again with a conversation taken from TV, and loungy trumpet, is a nice piece, but overall I wasn’t really blown away by it. Maybe it has to do with lacking interest in hip hop or anything like that. One can hear that Dustin Craig can make a nice piece of music, sampled together, but a bit more IDM and a bit less hip hop would be, at least for me, nice.
