CRUDANLU

Every great artist tells a story, and Miami-based producer and live performer Crudanlu’s emotive experimentations tell a story 16-plus years in the making.

The first-gen American got his musical start playing bass guitar in jazz and metal bands, then honed his songwriting skills in the electronic dance scene. For nearly two decades, he explored various genres and styles until he discovered a means to mix his Nicaraguan & Cuban background into the left-field textures and atmospheric melodies that inspire him. The result? A signature sound that captures the beautiful chaos of his mind and lived experiences into something all at once relatable and unpredictable.

This style comes to life on his debut EP, Terra Firma. Its five tracks explore cyclical journeys with mental health struggles, heartbreak and a recent anxiety diagnosis, telling a deeply human story of coping while infusing his elegantly jarring compositions with a rhythmic sense of grounding.

Hidden between its off-kilter elements of future bass, hyper pop beats and idiosyncratic complex synth structures is his own musical history. His roots as a punk and metal bassist push him to mix feel-good house chords with cutting-edge choices, flipping the script on what’s expected while keeping the listener’s attention.

With his first production alias Atrasolis, he threw himself head first into the electronic music scene. A cracked copy of Ableton and countless nights spent soaking up the EDM explosion in Miami taught him the basics of writing a heavy dance floor track. Under Atrasolis, he blended the eruptive force of dubstep with the rock-adjacent sounds of bloghouse and the Latin-infused rhythms of moombahton. In 2016, having learned more about who he really was as a producer, he dropped the Atrasolis moniker and continued his efforts under his birth name, Luis Crucet.

When the COVID pandemic hit in 2020, he paused to dig deeper into his reasons why, as well as educate himself on the true history of electronic music. That period of creativity was marked by a stalwart studiousness. He spent years reverse engineering the production techniques of the genre’s leading outliers, taking cues from the wonky grandeur of Flume, the effervescent erraticism of SOPHIE, the warm melodies of Bonobo, and the off-center swing of Flying Lotus.

All that attention to detail is felt and heard in the work of Crudanlu, an alias adopted in 2023 to mark his ascension as an artist with a clear and potent point of view. Terra Firma is a highly-conceptual work of precision. The story is told backwards, starting with the bloom of a new dawn and working backwards to the root of the cycle.

"Mendinilla (Intro Song)," named for the medinilla magnifica flower, represents the brightness of feeling hopeful within one’s centered self. It unfolds warmly into its melody, growing gradually toward the song’s emotional builds with a pounding beat.

The intro resolves softly into the EP’s lead single “Creci,” the Spanish word for personal growth. Produced in collaboration with Colombian producer Aedhus with airy female vocals from LA-based Canadian Joss Lockwood, the song honors Crudanlu’s hispanic culture by incorporating baile funk drum patterns and converting gallops from Latin rhythms into its synth chord movements. It’s a technique he continues on the next two songs of the EP as he dives deeper into darker head spaces.

“Heal” is the EP’s center, a dramatic high point that juxtaposes the chaotic messiness of sorting through one’s doubts and damages to make sense of things that have happened in order to move forward. Clapping drums, stuttering synth melodies and echoing percussion give ambient weight to the hopeful vocal refrain, swirling somewhere between light and dark.

“Frgmnts” dissolves even more into glitched out electronic sound and metallic snares while keeping an inner glow. It’s the sound of memories floating in your head, confusing and delighting with each reminiscence, while at the base of the EP, closing track and second single “Limerance” gets at the core of the hurt. Bittersweet and evocative, it builds a club-ready bounce over rumbling bass and stomping kick drums. As the song and EP fade toward their finish, the opening melody from "Mendinilla (Intro Song)” makes a refrain, signaling the circular nature of these moods and phases in all of our lives.

Mixed and mastered by Grammy winner Daniel ‘Furbzz’ Nuñez, Terra Firma shines with clever twists and dynamic range. The sounds showcase Crudanlu’s many personal iterations and influences while shining a light on the particulars of his singular approach. It’s a bold step into a fully realized era for an artist with a story to tell.