M Craft: Blood Moon Deconstructed – reworked classic is not a dog’s dinner

"Deconstructed" is a term now synonymous with would-be winners of MasterChef messing around with their shepherd's pie until it becomes a completely unrecognisable brown postage stamp surrounded by gravy "fog". Why bother changing a classic? Last year, M Craft's Blood Moon had critics swooning with its sombre, piano-led atmospherics, but now Craft has decided to tinker with the album and release another version, this time sans vocals.

What is revealed through this revision – with added orchestration and without the delicate Sufjan Stevens style crooning – is a full ambient soundtrack. As the original was based on piano improvisations, the deconstructed version gives Craft the opportunity to embellish, with the previous title track transforming into new song Mud Bloom, a haunting, string-drenched piece that adds a density to the fragility once found.

Although there is a creeping sense that there is one cohesive, definitive piece of work to be found between the two albums rather than this slightly po-faced endeavour, there are moments where Blood Moon Deconstructed becomes a fulfilling album in its own right.

It is an illumination rather than an accompanying piece, a journey further away from the sometimes limiting singer-songwriter surroundings into the more liberating terrain of an Apollo-era Eno. A deconstruction that's more than the sum of its parts. mcraftmusic.com