-
Mix: Carl Craig @ DEMF (2009-05-25)
C2 throwing down on his box at Movement 2009, Detroit. No tracklist for this one. Download on SoundCloud.
(Photo credit: digidug)
-
Mind of a Machine
Carl Craig - Mind of a Machine (Landcruising, Blanco Y Negro, 1995)
Andy Battaglia for The AV Club: There’s a lot of post-human fantasy in the mechanical sound of techno, but at the same time, a strong humanistic drive, a soulful sound for a very social music. Do you think about it in those terms?
Carl Craig: What I’ve done is, I’ve tried to put as much of myself and my spirit in as possible. And in Detroit, whether or not you want to abandon all the roots of Motown and jazz and whatever else, it’s still there in our spirits. We hear that stuff all the time. We’ve heard it from the time we were born all the way up. Parliament-Funkadelic, Prince, all that stuff was major here. And the way those guys used synthesizers was human. The robot funk of George Clinton was played by a real drummer playing like a drum machine. So we took those influences and put it into our music with the pure idea of keeping the funk there and developing something new. You can use the 808, and what is produced around it can inevitably make it feel more human than just an 808 machine by itself. The human aspect that comes from Detroit techno comes from the idea of trying to actually get an 808 to not sound like a typical 808. Lots of tweaks and tricks can get the sound to be more organic, but the idea was not to program it like a drummer, or to replace a drummer. It’s programming it to make it an instrument in its own right.
-
Planet (E)volution
Q&A with Carl Craig at the Red Bull Music Academy 2002 in São Paulo, Brazil.
In years to come, techno will be pored over and historicised and whatever the fate of the brave new world’s music, a handful of names will have been immortalised through it. Carl Craig’s is one.
-
Carl Craig - Futurelovetheme (Sessions, Planet E, 2008)
As per the previous post, C2 will be visiting South Africa this week. I reckon this should set off this week’s theme nicely!
-
Carl Craig — Detroit via Soweto
As part of the 20 years of Planet E celebrations, the legen — wait for the drop… — dary Detroit techno/house producer will be playing in Soweto, JHB on June 26, 2011. The supporting DJs are Culoe De Song, Vinny Da Vinci and Kid Fonque. A proper house party, and it’s free!
-
Q&A with Carl Craig
“Anyway, before techno I’d started as a guitar player, I wanted to be Prince, that’s all I wanted!”
— Joe Muggs interviews C2 (Feb 2011)
-
The World of Detroit Techno 1991-2005, A Photojournal by Todd Sines
I had first gotten my taste of “real” dance music in 1988 after hearing Kraftwerk’s Musik Non Stop. After getting sidetracked with industrial, goth, hip-hop, shoegaze and post-punk, in 1990, MTV‘s 120 Minutes showed a clip of 808 State performing “Cubik” at a Manchester rave; I immediately set my sights on techno. In 1991, I was sent an early Mute comp, Paroxysm, to review for my zine, featuring Underground Resistance; Mad Mike Banks called me afterwards, sent some records, and left a deep, lasting impression. Shortly after, I found “From Beyond,” Carl Craig’s project as Psyche—almost a fusion of Kraftwerk and This Mortal Coil. Within weeks, our band, Body Release, formed with key Ohio players Titonton Duvanté, Charles Noel [Archetyp] and Mike Szewczyk, dabbling in techno, IDM, jungle and house before we embarked on our own paths. In 1993, via Brian Gillespie, I was introduced to Detroit’s Carl Craig and Daniel Bell, which resulted in releases with Peacefrog, Planet E and 7th City within the year. We started throwing our own events, in collaboration with Ed Luna, as ele_mental in May of 1993, and brought Detroit artists to Ohio and vice versa. My world hasn’t been the same since—and these photos document our cherished memories across the midwestern rust belt in pursuit of house and techno.
— Todd Sines
Read the rest of the article on The Daily Swarm and browse the photos on Facebook.
-
Visage - Frequency 7 - Tar (Radar/WEA, 1979)
Spiralling into the future, the vocal version of “Frequency 7” on Visage’s debut single. This version has never been re-released and is a rarity [1]. The more commonly-circulated “Dance Mix” doesn’t have the excellent vocoder action. Detroit techno legend Carl Craig later channelled some “Frequency 7” in “Frequency Finale” [preview] (4 Jazz Funk Classics, Planet E, 1991).
The future is still out of control.
