*** Carl Craig DESIGNER MUSIC: THE REMIXES VOLUME ONE (Planet E)

After the heady free jazz, abstract ambiance, and freaky digital burn of 1999's Innerzone Orchestra album, Carl Craig returns to his club roots on Designer Music, a collection of remixes that touches down on acid house, spacy downtempo, and Latin grooves. Best known as a key figure in the Detroit techno scene, Craig recalls that genre's dark and detached vibe in the clanging rework of Spacetime Continuum's "Kairo" and in the cyborg vocals of Telex's "Moskow Diskow." But his warm and earthy side is also on display, in the Latin-house rerub of Johnny Blas's "Picadillo," which comes complete with flamenco-guitar flourishes and Eddie Palmieri-style piano vamps. With five tracks clocking in at more than nine minutes, Craig needs to bind the diverse material, and he does so with an inclination for spacious build and release. On his remix of Inner City's house classic "Good Life," he teases you with what seems an eternity of a cappella soul singing and gently hissing hi-hat before house music's signature thump finally enters the mix. The wait is excruciating; the payoff is sweet.

-- Michael Endelman