Craig, Carl

Karl Craig came to dance music in the late 1980s when he toured Europe with Rhythim is Rhythim . Craig quite naturally consider the protégé of Derrick May. It was this man who noticed and appreciated the creative potential of the young talent.

Craig, a student at Detroit College Henry Ford, was attracted by the very first records that were already called the term “ techno ”. Being very impressed with “Nude Photo” Rhythim is Rhythim and “The Groove” Suburban Knight , without much hesitation Craig transferred to the faculty of electronic music , and bought his first synthesizers home, and he did not have enough money for a drum machine and he wrote down his first work without rhythm.

At the age of 17, Craig gained courage and recorded several of his works on tape to transmit to Derrick May, who was delighted with Neurotic Behavior . May realized that he was dealing with an extremely talented personality and took him under his wing and offered his help in recording some of the tracks. Working together at Metroplex Studios, they re-record some tracks, and May himself added a rhythmic pattern to these works ^[2] .

Almost simultaneously with this work, Craig, under the pseudonym Psyche, released the Crackdown record on the Transmat label, and the Galaxy record under the pseudonym BFC on the Fragile label - all this happened at the end of 1989 . Both records produced the effect of a bursting bomb in the then still few camp of techno music fans. Almost immediately after these records Craig launched (together with Damon Booker ) ( English Damon Booker ) RetroActive label where he released several rather remarkable records - Wrap Me In Its Arms , As Time Goes By and, under the pseudonym BFC (stands for B etty F ord C linic ) ^[3] , one of his best works “Climax” (which was released in 1995 as the third single of his other project, Paperclip People). All these releases only confirmed the originality and uniqueness of the musician. At the same time, creative activity at that time did not bring large profits (for example, for RetroActive to exist, Craig worked in a store that provided photocopying services). However, RetroActive did not last very long - after a rather short time, Damon and Karl broke up, and Craig, not very upset about this, launched his own label, which is called Planet E.

On November 15, 1991, the launch of the label was marked by the revolutionary sounding record 4 Jazz Funk Classics , which Craig released under another pseudonym - 69 ^[2] . With the release of this disc, the musician received the nickname "wunderkind techno", and Karl, after a certain amount of time, released his full-fledged debut album Landcruising , which many critics, musicians and DJs recognized as classics of modern dance music. This album gave a lot of new ideas for jungle musicians (for example, take the track “Bug In Bassbin”) and many house musicians took the tracks “Throw” and “Oscillator” as the standard for house music .

No one denies the fact that Karl Craig, as well as the Basic Channel and Underground Resistance, is one of the most outstanding musicians who successfully work in the experimental dance techno genre, constantly introducing new elements and moves into the genre.

Literally right after the release of Landcruising is the album of the project 69 The Sound of Music and a collection of his early works Elements 1989-1990 , which the musician released under the pseudonyms Psyche and BFC. Both of these albums completely show the facets of Craig's talent and his authority among colleagues is recognized as unshakable. In 1996, under the pseudonym Paperclip People, Craig released another album, The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich , where works were collected that had the strongest impact on an entire generation of house musicians.

In 1997, Craig released the album More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art , which, as it would not seem surprising, should be the musician's debut album, but in the same way as cooperation with the Warner Brothers label (Craig signed a contract with them in 1994 ) , it didn’t work out, the release of the album was delayed until, according to the terms of the contract, Craig was able to dispose of his creation as he pleased. Derrick May and vocalist Naomi Daniel were involved in the work on this album. The album is notable for the fact that it contains one of the most remarkable tracks in the history of Detroit techno - “At Les”. The album was recognized in various musical circles, and Craig himself began to pay more attention to jazz and funk.

During his performance at the British Tribal Gathering festival in 1997, Craig made a completely new musical program. He invited session musicians Rodney Whitaker and Francesco Mora Catlett (who worked with jazz musicians Max Roach and Sun Ra ), and with their help added elements of jazz to techno, making a small revolution. Two years after this performance, the album “Programmed” was released from the Innerzone Orchestra project, where in addition to Craig Craig Taborn and Francesco Mora Catlett also participated, and a Canadian DJ and musician Richie Hotin participated in the recording of some tracks Hawtin ). In this project, Craig showed himself to be a man with a broad musical horizons - techno, jazz, rap , soul - all this was mixed in equal proportions and the result was an extremely original work.

After this album, Craig somewhat slowed down his studio activity, limiting himself to the release of DJ mixes and the creation of remixes for various artists. Only in 2005 Craig released his next album, which was called The Album Formerly Known As ... and was sustained in the aesthetics of Detroit techno.

In 2008, Carl Craig participated in several projects in one way or another related to classical music. On October 18, 2008, together with the pianist Francesco Tristano and the Paris orchestra Les siècles Orchestra at Cité de la Musique, he presented a new concert program based on orchestral revisions of his own tracks. And on October 10, 2008, Deutsche Grammophon released a collaboration with Moritz von Oswald ( German: Moritz von Oswald ) in the ReComposed series, which underwent significant arrangements for the work of Maurice Ravel ( French Joseph Maurice Ravel ) " Bolero " and "Spanish Rhapsody" as well as “ Pictures from the exhibition ” by Modest Mussorgsky .

Albums

Like Carl Craig

• Landcruising ( 1995 , Blanco Y Negro )
• More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art ( 1997 , Planet E )
• The Album Formerly Known As ... ( 2005 , Rush Hour Recordings )

How 69

• The Sound of Music ( 1995 , R & S Records )

Like BFC / Psyche

• Elements 1989-1990 ( 1996 , Planet E )

Like Paperclip People

• The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich ( 1996 , Planet E )

Like Innerzone Orchestra

• Programmed ( 1999 , Talkin 'Loud )

DJ Mixes

• DJ-Kicks: Carl Craig ( 1996 , Studio! K7 )
• House Party 013 - A Planet E Mix ( 1999 , Nextera )
• Onsumotahasheeat ' ( 2001 , Shadow Records )
• The Workout ( 2002 , React )
• Fabric 25 ( 2005 , Fabric )
• Sessions ( 2008 , Studio! K7 )

• Interview with Karl Craig
• Interview with Karl Craig for Resident Advisor in English