Music
5 albums that showcase Carl Craig's versatility
Celebrating five albums that rebel against common perceptions of techno - from 1995 until now.
Carl Craig is the most enduringly idiosyncratic figure in Detroit techno. For much of his career he's rebelled against common perceptions of techno – the auteur approaching the music less as a genre and more as a philosophy, spirit or 'attitude'.
A curious club kid, Craig emerged as part of Detroit techno's so-called 'Second Wave' – following Juan Atkins, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson. Unconventionally, he was a studio boffin, rather than a DJ-cum-producer. From the late '80s, Craig was mentored by May – who, with 1987's Strings Of Life, had blueprinted techno's romantic futurism. In 1991 Craig launched his own iconic label, Planet E (succeeding the short-lived Retroactive). Copious, he aired music under countless aliases – including 69, Paperclip People and Innerzone Orchestra.
There is a pervasive belief that the album has no place in electronic dance music – which privileges singles or EPs - but Craig has committed to the format (mythically, May has never released one). This has enabled him to widen the parameters of techno – and club culture. It's also facilitated collaboration with fellow musicians.
Ever-restless, Craig has veered into ambient, breakbeat, deep house, jazz fusion and neo-classical. Craig's boredom with techno purism is apparent, too, in his choice of remix commissions for such acts as Tori Amos, The Avalanches, and Sugababes' Siobhán Donaghy (he received a Grammy nomination for his subliminal take on Junior Boys' Like A Child.) However, Craig's music does reveal common characteristics. While associated with Detroit's electronic intelligentsia, he revels in a streetwise playfulness and soulful eccentricity.
As an 'album artist', Craig's output has decelerated in the digital era. However, he continually reissues pivotal work. This year Craig unveiled his inaugural symphonic project, Versus. In another twist, he's bringing The Versus Synthesizer Ensemble to Sydney in tandem with the Red Bull Music Academy Weekender. Now, then, is surely the time to catch up on Craig's key albums.
Carl Craig Synthesizer Ensemble
© Douglas Wojciechowski Paxahau
1. CARL CRAIG - LANDCRUISING (1995): FROM KRAUTROCK TO CRAIGROCK
Craig presented his first album as 'Carl Craig' on Blanco y Negro Records – a credible subsidiary of Warner Music UK, being home to Everything But The Girl. Landcruising explores those fascinating cross-cultural exchanges between German pioneers Kraftwerk and Detroit techno's black innovators by way of transcendent allusions to the archetypal automobile. Craig also sonically chronicles the Motor City's industrial boom and bust. He puts his own spin on May's alternately melancholy and euphoric machine music with Technology and Science Fiction. Mind Of A Machine evokes '80s synthwave.
In 2005 Craig reissued Landcruising on Planet E – but only after re-editing it (the retro guitar vanished). In a sly tribute to his beloved Prince, he retitled the LP The Album Formerly Known As… In modifying Landcruising, Craig subverted any notion that techno is an ephemeral form. Kanye West, who tweaked The Life Of Pablo even post-drop, would get it. Regardless of iteration, Landcruising remains Craig's most obviously 'techno' opus.
2. PAPERCLIP PEOPLE - THE SECRET TAPES OF DR EICH (1996): DETROIT IN THE HOUSE
Craig introduced his Paperclip People guise with 1991's Oscillator. Bigger was Throw – sampling disco queen Loleatta Holloway. A canny Craig subsequently compiled his clubbiest album in The Secret Tapes Of Dr Eich – which encompassed another old underground fave in The Climax (and the neglected Floor). Though at the time Paperclip People was classified as 'techno', Craig cut proto filter-disco – and punchy house. Auspiciously, The Secret Tapes… materialised the year before Daft Punk's Homework. LCD Soundsystem have covered Throw live, Craig releasing the New Yorkers' version on Planet E in 2010.
3. CARL CRAIG - MORE SONGS ABOUT FOOD AND REVOLUTIONARY ART (1997): A LOST SOUNDTRACK
Craig conceived an introspective – and melodic – album in the poetic More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art, revisiting the ambi-noir of Landcruising's A Wonderful Life. Brit artist Sarah Gregory sings on the hypo-chill As Time Goes By (Sitting Under A Tree). Still, there is driving, if deep, techno in the now-classic At Les and Dominas (actually a remix of Berlin's Maurizio). Craig connected with an increasingly studio-shy May for the midnight industrialism of Frustration. Today, like Boards Of Canada, More Songs… is categorised as 'IDM', but it has greater textural grit.
Carl Craig Synthesizer Ensemble
© Supplied
4. INNERZONE ORCHESTRA - PROGRAMMED (1999): HI-TECH JAZZ
Detroit auteurs like Juan Atkins have long emphasised the affinities between techno and jazz. But Craig was among the earliest to realise something identifiably 'future jazz' with his Innerzone Orchestra. He casually initiated the handle with 1992's Bug In The Bass Bin – a breaks banger that unexpectedly revolutionised the UK's nascent drum'n'bass movement. Following a jazzy re-recording of Bug…, Craig was determined to develop Innerzone Orchestra into a 'band' – recruiting Francisco Mora Catlett, a former Sun Ra Arkestra drummer/percussionist, keyboardist Craig Taborn and DJ Recloose.
The loosely-conceptual Programmed (picked up by Gilles Peterson's Talkin' Loud) hurtles through space-jazz, hip-hop and R&B. Craig revives The Stylistics' Philly soul jam People Make The World Go 'Round with Detroit vocalist Paul Randolph (Kenny Dixon, Jr turned in a groovy remix for Planet E). In contrast, he bunkered down with Canadian arch minimalist Richie Hawtin for Architecture – the pair referencing Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. As for the album's apotheosis? It's the string-bled Blakula.
Two years on from Programmed, Craig contributed to Herbie Hancock's electro-jazz Future 2 Future. He also produced The Detroit Experiment's eponymous album, showcasing local jazz legends like Bennie Maupin and Marcus Belgrave.
5. CARL CRAIG - VERSUS (2017): CLASSICAL AVANT-GARDE
Another Detroit 'Second Waver', Jeff Mills ostensibly started the trend for DJ/producer-types to work with orchestras. In 2005 he cut Blue Potential live with the Montpellier Philharmonic Orchestra. Craig has explored similar terrain since at least 2008. He and Germany's Moritz von Oswald (of Basic Channel and Maurizio legend) transformed archival Berliner Philharmoniker recordings of Maurice Ravel and Modest Mussorgsky into dubby techno for 2008's ReComposed (on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon). That same year, Craig united with Luxembourg's Francesco Tristano – a pianist/composer/arranger – and the French Les Siècles orchestra (conducted by François-Xavier Roth), to perform selections from his canon in Paris. Craig then decided to reformulate Versus for an album, applying integrative studio production.
Nine years later, he's delivered. Versus is symphonic techno at its most organic – and maximal. The highlights are a brass-stabbed Sandstorms (originally from 2004) and delicately-building version of 69's dancefloor Desire, Craig transgressively transporting the warehouse rave into the concert space.
Carl Craig will be bringing the Carl Craig Synthesizer Ensemble to Melbourne and Sydney on September 2 and 3, respectively, as part of Red Bull Music Academy Weekender.
Head here for more details.
