A Sharper Edge

'A Sharper Edge'. Following the 8-million-Spotify-streamsand-

counting 'One Second Closer', the album is another implicitly titled collection, alluding to Craig's

unlike-any-other approach.

At the core of its production lies something that is the result of - if not quite soul searching by Craig,

then certainly some introspection. Whilst other artists root their album biases in the instrumental or the

vocal, or a particular stylistic bandwidth, Craig composed his down four very specific thematic lines.

"I wanted to try a non-traditional approach to this album, says the Manchester born-and-based DJ, and

I thought a little pre-production mental exercise might give me some insight. So before 'A Sharper

Edge's day-one, I crunched what seemed important in my life and more and more four words kept

popping back. So when I sat down to compose each track, I tried to bring one of the four - Destiny,

Energy, Travel or Optimism to my foreground and subsequently channel it into that piece of music.

Whilst all the tracks represent a more radio or club focused sound, every one was designed to have its

own story - regardless of whether it has lyrics or not. Even the instrumentals were written with the

intention of being anchored in a strong human emotion or feeling."

That 'A Sharper Edge' spans trance's stylistic spectrum and breaks down evenly into seven vocals

and seven instrumentals is significantly less by design and more by the innateness of Craig's process.

While never absolute, the tracks' titles offer prime indicators of which theme drove them.

Likely, 'California' and 'Tranceatlantic' are amongst those that have their mental foundations in Travel,

whilst 'Earth Dimension C-137' and current single 'Time Machine' similarly channel it - albeit less

terrestrially. Destiny is most clearly touched on with 'Life Half Lived' (spiritually sung by Karina

Ramage) and Cammie Robinson's wondrously carefree turn on 'Run Away'. The album's overture

'Sonic Grey' and the bassy judder of 'Everyone Loves A Triplet' meanwhile address it in more opaque

fashions.