Carl Craig: classic or dud?

There is a compilation called “Time: Space” that came out on Transmat that has that kind of feel. It really holds together well as an album, not just a bunch of odd tracks put together.

Carl Craig’s “Landcruising” is another good listen, if you liked “More Songs”. It is a more raw record production wise, but has some really fine music and a couple of surprises.

Kenny Larkin’s two albums are pretty good, but not better than “More Songs…” and not near as varied in sound.

Black Dog’s “Spanners” also has that kind of eclectic sound, perhaps not quite as funky. It is another album that you would probably enjoy.

There simply is no other record like More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art. Certainly lots of records have been influenced by it (some are great in their own right, too -- like Aardvarck's Find the Cow).

One of my Craig-related favorites is "Low Berth," a co-production with Sherard Ingram on the Urban Tribe LP. It has made me cry more than once.

the climax = dancefloor or home record? does it succeed either way? ditto programmed, just what is it really? note this isn't me being flummoxed by kerayzee boundary-busting it just feels like he fudges everything he chances his arm at. he tries for a bit and then...shrug

A track for me that seems to work equally as well in both situations. Derrick May gave it a floggin in his most recent visit to my antipodean city.... using the eerie melody motif consistently throughout his five-hour set. wild.

I also like Jam The Box.

If you like Jam the Box you should track down the other 69 stuff, all of which is actually better than Jam the Box I think. He used that pseudonym to do his rawest stuff, there's some great hip-hop/proto-jungle breakbeat stuff overlaid with atonal noise type effects. Wish he'd done more of that.

That record for me summed up a era of beautiful emotional techno music

also, what about the detroit experiment, any good?

You'd hate the Detroit Experiment LP, Ronan. It's a very Gilles Peterson record (occasionally in the worst way possible). Beyond Midnight at the Twenty Grand, there's not much there that I find myself going back to.

I mean since I've just been listening to Amp Fiddler! With broadband I can take more risks.

Tres Demented, yeah -- "Demented Drums." Berserk percussion freak-out with divebomb FX and Craig screaming his ass off. Love it.

at les, microlovr, rushed, dominas, stam, throw the list is almost endless.

microlovr one of the most beautiful tracks ever.

microlovr, god yes

actually bits of it are alright. the world didn't need another version of people make the world go round though...

Landcruising is cool, but kinda cheezy, science fiction is the best track off that.

Great artist with the occasional dodgy moment.

I did not care for Landcruising myself, I felt the production was kind of boring and that the tracks just dragged on way too long. If he would have just introduced more musical ideas and sounds onto those basic tracks it would have been great, but instead is just kind of noodles along and never, ironically enough, never drives forward.

That being said, I honestly believe that the Psyche/BFC comp is one of the single greatest electronic music albums of all time. And also, you absolutely cannot fuck with Televised Green Smoke.

Ahh. Probably my favorite Carl Craig track. In a tie with "At Les". Gorgeous.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with Rebukes: "tres Demented" notwithstanding, it seems that CC's been lured into the black hole of awful Gilles Peterson-y, Straight No Chaser "jazzy" /Jazzanova-y I Wanna Be Brazilian pap based on some of his most recent stuff. I hope he has a sitdown with his machines real soon and goes back to what he does best: making outstanding machine music.

Nah, thats the thing about him, he has always done it all. He has done some incredible remixes of late - Angola (as ronan said - immense!) beanfield, Throbbing Gristle, Directions, as well as Tres Demented, of course - you caouldnt call that Noodley!

I don't know what he's like these days, but I started to see a pattern emerging.

As for his records, if it has his name on it I’ll probably buy it unheard. I have yet to regret picking up a C. Craig track (although Domina, At Les, The Climax, Chicken Noodle Soup, Neurotic Behavior, Suspiria and 4 My Peepz are all standouts for me).

Definite classic.

got me thinking that maybe this is really all that he does (and i'm not saying this is bad). out of all those detroit peeps, he is the least "innovative", his influences are immediately noticeable in his trax. i would say that he tweaks ideas rather than constructs them.

and i think the reason people are so meh when they've finally heard these recent flurry of remixes is because all craig does is take the original and streamline it so it works better on the dancefloor.

i s'pose the fact that he makes trax "work" means he is definitely a house and not a techno producer.

Wait, so you can't hear Kraftwerk/Parliament in Juan Atkins? Or Ron Hardy/Kraftwerk/Larry Heard in Derrick May? Disco in Kevin Saunderson?

First and foremost a techno producer. Before the last 2 (3) years of remixes he crafted a bunch of great techno albums. But you probably know this already.

what i mean is carl craig (and maybe i do mean recent carl craig, but there are plenty of exceptions to prove that i don't) is the most derivative (again, not a bad thing) and that is why he seems like a house producer.

house, like jungle, is amalgam music, it harks back, it has roots. techno is purer, more futuristic, which is why initially it was also more political, more revolutionary.

I don't think either idea holds, especially pre-1990. To my ears, a lot of acid house and jack tracks are far more distant from their influences than anything coming out of Detroit at the time. Atkins is recognizably a development of electro - where is Phuture coming from? Similarly, I'd have trouble identifying any political message in techno that compares to that in 'Promised Land'.

Post-1990 is admittedly a more complicated situation. The second-wave of Detroit was on a pretty radical trajectory away from it's influences, whereas house in general was moving back towards them. I suppose you could argue that Techno also became more political, although I always found URs revolutionary posturing somewhat banal.

I wouldn't disagree that CC wears his influences on his sleeve, but I don't see how that identifies him as a house producer rather than a techno producer. If anything, the influences point him even more strongly towards techno - Jazz and Funk vs Disco, Gospel and Soul?

We really need Mike Taylor in this thread.

this isn't true at all (anyway "people" [who?] aren't meh about them, i've seen dancefloors go crazy to them and i don't even go out that much!) the d&g and rhythm&sound remixes are totally radical ground up rebuilds that actually end up completely different entities to the original tracks. he does so much more in these remixes than "take the original and streamline it so it works better on the dancefloor" but if that WAS all he did then what the hell is wrong with it?

xpost to myself

the meh-ness referred to the general (web-specific) backlash to cc hype. carl craig is and always has been godhead to me.

i hadn't noticed a backlash, thankfully.

jng you are just playing the reactionary "whoa, the real black ghetto acid house is WAY more BUGGED OUT and OUT THERE than european detroit techno" trendy revisionism game.

let's look at the facts, ok?

phuture - "acid tracks" - 1988
rhythim is rhythim - "nude photo" - 1987
reese & santonio - "the sound" - 1987
adonis - "no way back" - 1986
mr fingers - "washing machine" - 1986
model 500 - "no ufos" - 1985
???

there simply *isn't* a whole lot of electronics-heavy machine music between the last gasp of electro (when it turned into uptempo proto-bass - world class wreckin cru?) and 1988 when acid house blew up.

the striking thing when you look at comps from this era is how many chicago producers were putting out very samey and formulaic "love can't turn around" or "jack your body" tributes (plaintive vocal + 4/4) ... then in '88 you had the acid house explosion ... two years later maurice joshua and laurent x and are STILL pumping out "acid tracks" style bangers, detroit has moved on to classic-era transmat and early carl craig productions.

in other words, your chronology is fairly screwed up ... atkins' early work (electro-derivative, whatever) predates your acid-house golden era by 3-5 years. there's a small body of electronics-heavy music that would fit with today's current sounds / conception of techno, which is pretty much on equal footing between detroit/chicago. THEN there's the big post-88 acid boom, but this is more or less tweaks on an existing fingers / reese / adonis / atkins sound ... and big ups to dj pierre for the synth tweak of the decade, but two years later while chicago is JUST drawing the acid-house/hip-house well dry we're well into the "second wave"

I actually agree with this (minus the straw man bashing). I was thinking of Adonis and "Washing Machine" more than Phuture when I wrote my post above, although clearly I failed to express that. I'm probably also guilty of overstating the case in reaction to Nebbesh's "House = derivative" declaration, which still strikes me as ridiculous. I blame writing late at night post-beer.

I do however stand by my ideas about Atkins. The stylistic leap between Cybotron in 1981-84 and "No UFOs" in 1985 isn't really that great. You could even argue that he was still producing Electro tracks at that point - cf "Future".

in my mind it's almost like connecting the dots between nile rodgers work w/ diana ross (those crazy hi-hats in "upside down"!! the birth of the neptunes/minimal/2step microfunk drum swing thing!!) and the sound palette of newcleus and egyptian lover and the early early kickdrum chicago thing ... yeah, it's a specfic synthesis but it's still a HUGE accomplishment and SO I HEAR very influential on the wave of trackier chicago house circa "no way back" ... i don't know, maybe someone else can speak more clearly on atkins than i can ...

i am also really curious as to how he got from something like "time, space, transmat" to "ocean to ocean".

tell me about it! i have almost no recollection of writing my previous post.

my machines - OOIOO
rushed - daft punk remix
neurotic behavior - sunroof
a wonderful life - sonic boom
science fiction - the emperor machine
home entertainment - gottsching + schulze
please stand by - moebius + plank + neumeier
poor people must eat remix - eno + byrne
falling up remix - lcd soundsystem
revelee remix - vooredoms remix

love love love all of his remixes from 06 to 07. i will list my favorites here for the uninitiated:

carl craig - poor people must work (see me yah remixes)
siobhan donaghy - don't give it up (carl craig dub remix)
junior boys - like a child (carl craig remix)
brazillian girls - last call (carl craig remix)
faze action - in the trees (c2 remix)

I picked up the Designer Music Problemz repress last week. sick sick sick!

The Designer Music "Good Girlz" repress is madness as well. I also got the Paris Live 12" today, and while I really wish he'd just release more new stuff, I'm really like this new one. I think it sounds like what I wanted the Innerzone Orchestra album to sound more like. It's definitely jazzy (it's got live saxaphone and clarinet) but retains its Carl Craig Techno feel. Oh and it's got Mad Mike on keys. Just lovely.

review of craig's most recent demon days party, penned by a fellow ilxor (who is free to name him or herself if they choose):

http://www.bigshotmag.com/news/?p=393

dud

allah ackbar

allahu, please.

I adore good kills and fades, and believe that long stretches without explicit beats are some of what help build the mountains that techno tracks can become in a club setting.

i disagree. i never understood the purpose of killing the bass for more than two seconds, and its become fashionable among mnml djs to kill it for MINUTES at a time. which caters only to those morons who go the club to get fucked up, stand around on the dancefloor, go 'wooooooooo' and wave their hands above their heads

ie trancers lol

I've never seen him live, but just going by his music I have to say sooo classic. I almost always love his remixes.

The Macallan 18 Year covered most of what I've loved lately.

His remix of Theo Parrish's Falling Up is also pretty great.

I really like is fabric set, too, I've heard people complain about the way he hollers over the music sometimes, but I love it, adds character or something.

xpost

2 second breaks are too short. I need at least 3 seconds to catch my breath.

i think a lot of good techno works just as well without the percussion

DJ Rush routinely kills the kick drum for x minutes only to bring it back in when you least expect it. Everybody loses their shit.

i disagree. i never understood the purpose of killing the bass for more than two seconds, and its become fashionable among mnml djs to kill it for MINUTES at a time. which caters only to those morons who go the club to get fucked up, stand around on the dancefloor, go 'wooooooooo' and wave their hands above their heads

that's fine for you to disagree, but i think YOU'RE the moron who can't stand a minute without an explicit beat pounding into your skull. that is more my experience in US clubs, and it gets fucking old when somebody is bang-bang-banging for three hours straight without a reprieve from bass.

also, KILLING THE BASS DOES NOT MEAN KILLING THE BEAT. if you think that, then eh, yr loss.

I don't know, I think Fez has a point. The last think we need in mnml is more music catered to druggies instead of dancing.

uh, i'd tend to agree, but the connection b/w killing the low end for more than a few seconds and dumbo druggies is not explained-- and no, "lol trance" is not an explanation. it seems to me that fez just doesn't like low-end kills, and thus clumps all who like them into the rather deplorable group of people who go to clubs to "get fucked up and wave their hands about like morons" or whatever.

this is bullshit, because there are tons of people who feel exactly like i do, who aren't druggies, and who dance till they can't stand at clubs. and sometimes *GASP* they EVEN DANCE TO TRACKS WITHOUT AN EXPLICIT BEAT!!! HORROR OF HORRORS!!!!!!

i mean really, if you need an explicit beat to dance, then maybe you shouldn't be dancing.

Killing the bass is classic.

This seems like a non-starter of an argument.

The whole point of beatless sections is that they hype people up for when the beat starts again, effectively re-energising the dancers. Nowhere is this function more brutally executed than in drum & bass - I actually think in minimal it's relatively less apparent.

The whole point of beatless sections is that they hype people up for when the beat starts again, effectively re-energising the dancers

thank you, tim.

Uh yeah, PEAKS AND TROUGHS people. I thought that was the whole point in the first place? Jesus.

isn't it just a personal preference? seems reasonable enough to not like a DJ dropping out the beat for minutes at a time...

sharks and jets

he's OK

it is a personal preference. thus, insulting those of us who like our peaks with troughs as "trance-headed druggies" is dumb.

I'm not sure cutting the beat is the same as peaks and troughs though. That's more like big anthem track followed by mellow track.

One problem with having too many beatless moments is that the energy/enthusiasm they provide is quite temporary, you tire a lot faster after having been revved up, and I find that if I was already getting tired whatever track immediately follows ends up feeling physically disappointing. Unless it's early on in the evening (or you're on drugs I guess) your body can't maintain the momentum generated. As a dancefloor manoeuvre it's got a high GI rating.

What would have a low GI rating? Really deep, thick surround-sound tracks or tracks with really interestingly constructed, compulsive grooves, where there's not a single rev-up moment but you get so lost in the track that it sustains your energy levels. The archetypal low-GI trick that springs to my mind is swathing the track in dub feedback noise.

As I think minimal tends to take a low-GI approach more often than not (hence all those really long, subtly inflected tracks), the high-GI trick of cutting the beat doesn't seem like it would be a terribly effective trick relative to some other dance sub-genres. It's situational though I guess.

a high GI rating

Gastrointestinal?

Seriously though, what does this stand for? Apologies if I've overlooked something obvious...

Glycaemic index. Cutting the beat and bringing it back in is like having a block of chocolate - it gives you a quick and intense burst of energy but it runs out quickly.

Actually what i'm saying is slightly wrong I think. On reflection the mellow/deeper drum & bass does this as much as the harder stuff. And some of that mellow/deep drum & bass shares quite a few sonic tendencies as minimal. So maybe it's more like: cutting out the beat on "deep" tracks makes them sound more urgent when the beat returns.

I have nothing against adding in some beatless music or dropping the bass in a set, I think I'm just dreading the thought of some mnml DJ cutting the bass for minutes while playing a string of M_nus style records.

tim, yr right about the peaks & troughs vs. cutting the beats out thing....

and michael, i agree to some extent... i'm talking about cutting the bass a bit and bringing up the mids during peak moments to build more drama, a tactic that doesn't usually mean more than 2-3 minutes without bass. if someone cut out the bass and played m_nus style records, i'd be bored too.

an example: luciano mixing the new villalobos track into a heavy banger, cutting out the bass for thirty seconds and bringing up the mids and hi-ends so that all that can be heard is the crowd noises and singing in the villalobos track, and then suddenly bringing up well-padded bass. crowd goes nuts, people keep dancing the whole time, no problems. and this was BEFORE most people in the US had heard the villalobos track.

Craig's set contained no such moments-- it was all "hit" minimal techno (with little to no trace of older detroit stylings) shoved together in a claustrophobic style more reminiscent of...say, the last time I saw Magda spin, which was great fun but without any palpable sense of curation or drama.

AND it departed greatly from the previous times i'd seen Craig DJ.

and yes, i wrote that review. might as well fess up to it, since it's probably obvious by now anyway.

the new CC rmx of siobhan donaghy is so good

yeah, i really love that track

"I think I'm just dreading the thought of some mnml DJ cutting the bass for minutes while playing a string of M_nus style records"

yes, as it would be horizontal, hermetic, airless/vacuous. i like claustrophobic when there's an escape hatch or i like when there is big conflict between drama and anti-drama. craig is really good at both of those things. i walked out of his last gig though.

some mnml DJ cutting the bass for minutes while playing a string of M_nus style records.

-- Michael F Gill, Sunday, July 1, 2007 8:55 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Link

i kinda love it when this happens, and then like ages later you realise that the bass has been back in for ages, but was it just coming in gradually again, or maybe it came back and i didnt notice, ok cards on table i like taking drugs and i think this kind of thing is great for that

but regardless of that i mean, it makes a weird kind of limbo tension which then gets elongated and then the wirde limbo tension is actually not a weird limbo tension at all but a different thing going on and actually i was waiting for the bass but now i forgot all about the bass and actually it sounds kinda bassy again so maybe it came back in and then like 30 minutes later a track with a big bass comes in and the roof blows off

^ not that carl craig ever does this, sadly

it can be great when you're not on drugs, too! i just find that the production on so many mnml records is already so tweaked that the eq tricks are already built-in most of the time.

I like both really cheesy bass cuts and more "sophisticated" ones. By cheesy I mean the ones where it is all druggy hands in the air "oo the bass is gone, weeeeeee" and then a big theatrical gesture when bringing it back in, like Reinhard Voigt when I saw him at Nitsa, the coked up goon. By more sophisticated I mean the really clever ones where you don't even realise the bass is gone 'til it comes back in (Ricardo is good at this).

yea i like that, and it makes a weird tension i think, especially if it goes on for a long time, and you kind of dont realise why it feels tense becauswe you didnt notice it disappearing

Carl Craig!

69's The Sound Of Music is underrated as a companion to SToDrE

I been going over all my carl since I finally picked up the album formerly known as and there's a lot of stuff like "Dominas" from MSAF&RA that I completely forgot how solid it is

Gotta give me some time to catch up. I'm starting with "Landcruising" here.

c2 is the man. i find it almost impossible to not use one of his tracks in every mix i do.

OTM, pipecock. i played a houseparty maybe six months back, and i think the last hour and a half was a back-to-back of nothing but carl craig and radio slave (who i'd guess you'll rate as sub-c2, but i think you get my point even if you disagree on the specifics). c2 is the one and only.

the tony allen remix is so great!

Recently, I've been very much enjoying the company of CC's Piano Mix off this one: http://www.discogs.com/release/4796. It's lovely.

i played a houseparty maybe six months back, and i think the last hour and a half was a back-to-back of nothing but carl craig and radio slave

what is that, like 5 tracks?

"Recently, I've been very much enjoying the company of CC's Piano Mix off this one: http://www.discogs.com/release/4796. It's lovely.

-- matt2"

i picked that up in detroit earlier this year, it is indeed the shiznittlebam.

derrick gave me his copy of that in 94 after a torrid night of lovemaking. later i traded juan two commes des garcons shirts and a bottle of egoiste for the (superior) promo white label edit.

is eMusic good for finding his remixes and other non-CD stuff?

xpost and jeff gave me a transparent vinyl of it at his art opening

mine has "to tricky: you taught me how to mix" etched into it

I don't see much props for Programmed here, but I really like it. One of the few examples where mixing electronic music with "proper" instruments actually. It's quite edgy, not the sort of smooth fusion stuff you'd expect. (Not that there's anything wrong with smooth fusion.) Plus it's wonderfully produced, all the instruments sound crisp and cool. I'd love to hear him produce more jazz albums.

"actually works"

I only ever want to listen to about 3 tracks off Programmed anymore, and even then I usually skip to the middle because they take so long to build up

I've been meaning to get that Herbie Hancock album he co-produced, can anyone tell if it's good?

"later i traded juan two commes des garcons shirts and a bottle of egoiste for the (superior) promo white label edit."

a+

Driving up Livernois near Baker's the other day, I had to stop in the middle of the road to pick up a 12" that rolled out of a wig shop. The run-out groove says XRAY/LETSGO/C2EDIT (yes, done when C2 was a sophomore at Cooley).

http://www.myspace.com/tribedetroit

(New Tribe -- meaning ACTUAL Tribe, plus bonus white dude(s) -- produced by C2)

nice stuff, thanks for the tip.

you should post more often.

nominated for a grammy!!

for his remix of "like a child" no less.

revelee remix still the high point of western civilization

i prefer the delia and gavin remix of "revelee" because it is so freakin otherworldly, but yeah, craig's is up there, too, especially for its otherworldliness and also/moreso for the straight up techno it is. head in the clouds, feet on the ground. on the downbeat anyway! space is the bass! i am going to play it really loud right now.

he's only up against some bullshit competition too, he might actually win this!

ts: "grammy winner carl craig" vs "oscar winners three-6 mafia"

man i forgot how great this 'revelee' remix is. it's like every period of carl craig in one remix.

still don't get why people rate it so highly over numerous mid 90s Craig trips inc. 69 stuff

JAM THE BOX. WORK THE BOX.

when my emusic downloads refill I'm going to go ahead and grab every one of his remixes on there that I don't already have. is what you guys are talking about on there?

I looked El Tomboto and actually there isn't very much CC stuff up on Emusic and basically none of the remixes folks are talking about. But I did find that they have this release that I had heard nothing about: http://www.discogs.com/release/1138498 (emusic link: http://www.emusic.com/album/Various-Artists-Vexille-Soundtrack-MP3-Download/11073475.html)

The CC track "Future Love Theme" is 10:30 of goodness. How did I miss this (maybe because it's on a Japan-only soundtrack)? This isn't some old track I never knew about is it? It has the same feel of some of his more recent remixes so I'm thinking it's definitely new. There isn't really anything else on there that I'm interested in (an entire score composed by Oakenfold no thank you), but folks should definitely grab the CC track. Very nice.

I like the Underworld track off of that quite a lot, actually!

hows his dee-lite remix?

CARL CRAIG. where have you been all my life? More Songs About Food... is astounding. I've got DJ Kicks, The Album Formerly Known As..., and Sessions on deck. I envy me.

What Does The Workout sound like? I think it's lying around my local cd store used, and I've repeatedly heard it's excellent, but I don't know what to expect.

it sounds like a techno mix with most of the tracks carrying a pretty strong detroit and basic channel influence. if you've heard josh wink's "profound sounds" it's sort of like that.

So what's the deal with his DJ set up these days? At Mutek he had what appeared to be cdj's, a laptop, a mixer, another mixer-like console (for effects?) and I think something else. I wasn't there for long, but it didn't sound like your typical one's and two's mix.

ps: THE CLIMAX

FACT can exclusively reveal that Planet E will release a vinyl box set later this year compiling Carl Craig's classic 12"s made under the name 69...

ere

pronounced "six nine", who knew!

C2's DEMF set was bad.

I've been meaning to get that Herbie Hancock album he co-produced, can anyone tell if it's good?

― Tuomas, 7. marraskuuta 2007 23:19 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Turns out this is pretty good, though there's less Carl Craig involvement than what I thought. I wish these two would make a full collaborative album or something.

I haven't really followed Carl Craig's career in the 00s, has he done anything as great as he did in the 90s with Paperclip People? What 00s releases would you recommend if the Paperclip People stuff is by far my favourite work of his?

i still think the reworked version of Landcruising is the best thing he's done this decade.

^^^

As an album at any rate.

Tuomas if you love Paperclip People the most you might also like a lot of his anthemic remixes of the past 4 years or so. But it could go the other way too. They're very sleek.

I really love the Ayumi Hamasaki and Junior Boys remixes he did but what else am I looking out for?

well, remixes-wise, you definitely want to hear "relevée", "in the trees" and "falling up". or just pick up this, which has all of the above on it

Plus his remix of Siobhan Donaghy's "Don't Give Up". The remix of Beanfield's "Tides", also on the comp above, is amazing as well.

Turns out this is pretty good, though there's less Carl Craig involvement than what I thought. I wish these two would make a full collaborative album or something.

*vomits dr pepper all over keyboard*

http://laboca.co.uk/blog/2009/06/etienne-jaumet-entropy-ep/

His remix for UNKLE left me cold but I chalk that up to personal deficiency and not a mark against Thee Man

Errrrm, so does anyone know what set up he's using?

his remix for UNKLE you could easily blame on shitty source material

i vomited earlier because carl craig doesn't *need* herbie hancock, one listen to any of the mixes of "home entertainment" and you'll hear a dude who can write "nobu"-esque techno jazz bangers without help from the old guard

all the new stripped down remixes got me back into his music. Lots of super basic, like MPC stuff. So simple and so good.

i vomited earlier because carl craig doesn't *need* herbie hancock, one listen to any of the mixes of "home entertainment" and you'll hear a dude who can write "nobu"-esque techno jazz bangers without help from the old guard

Well, of course he doesn't need Herbie, but I just thought a full collaboration between the two could be nice, since the couple of tracks they did together or Future 2 Future were pretty cool. As great as Craig is, I don't think he's a master jazz improviser, so Herbie could help in that department.

he is a master techno improviser though. i wish i had a soundboard copy of his mutek set. so controlled yet effortless working the shit out of loops and really responding to the crowd.

OTM

looks like the album art for the 69 box was posted here six months ago.

I only need one of those 12"s, but damn that's a sexy box and CC deserves my money. Definitely plan on getting that.

is that a box of 12s or a box of CD singles?

I'm assuming 12s since the sleeve art has As and Bs.

none of those are previously unreleased right? in fact all of them have been pressed or repressed in the last 4 years or so if i'm not mistaken. kind of odd to throw them all in a box set now.

it'$ not that odd

yeah, not that odd at all.

i am using his remix of System 7's "Sirenes" on a mix right now. love that track.

that said, the man does have a truly spotty record in terms of DJ sets. i wrote this for a site back in 2007:
Perhaps it was the season or the evening itself, but Carl Craig’s Demon Days party at Studio B in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last Saturday was poorly-attended. The last New York installment of Demon Days in January, also held at Studio B, was a jam-packed, sweaty synth throwdown inside the club, but a brittle and snowy evening out of doors—the disconnect made what was happening inside that much more of a fantastic experience. People were dripping in perspiration, losing themselves in nearly five hours of Carl Craig’s lush yet slamming sounds while the streets were still and almost without sound.
The air was temperate this past Saturday, though, and roof parties as well as other shows seemed much more the night’s agenda. Too bad in some ways, but not too bad—Craig and his openers were not in top form.
Opener Co-headliner Mirko, one half of Yugoslavia’s Switzerland’s Lazy Fat People, seemed like he was a bit overwhelmed at first; his mixing a bit unimaginative and without proper peaks and valleys. As much as I love Ricardo Villalobos, to play two of his most popular recent works seemed a bit without merit; in other words, DJs of the world, please stop playing the “Sinner in Me” remix; it’s over-played and appears a bit lazy to a crowd, at this point. Other than certain missteps here and there, though, Mirko was doing really well by the end, playing more banging takes on the Border Community style and getting the crowd frothed up for Carl Craig.
Here is where things get complicated: Craig played his usual pulsing, elegantly swirling set of Detroit techno, but like Mirko, it seemed like he was a bit lazy with his mixes; there were few beatless moments of hand-raising synth heaven, and a bit too much bias towards summer hits like Audion’s “Noiser” and Craig’s own current remixes. I want to be careful to point out that this is not an entirely bad thing: the Faze Action “In the Trees” remix and Siobhan Donaghy “Don’t Give it Up” dub are slamming, hypnotic pieces of techno mastery. What was disappointing was that all of these great tracks were just shoved together and weren’t allowed any room to percolate, which was a bit strange given Craig’s propensity for a more expansive sonic palate in his sets.
Craig’s set at the previous Demon Days was a cornucopia of sound, ranging from new minimal tracks to the most soulful diva house to pure moments of vocal bliss. On Saturday, however, it seemed like Craig was running on automatic. Sure, I’d rather dance to Carl Craig on automatic than a lot of DJs when they’re truly tearing it up, but it was hard not to notice the lackadaisical nature of Craig’s set.
A really wonderful DJ set needs many different things, and I believe that one of those is variety. I can get down to non-stop banging techno as much as the next clubgoer, but I like some palpable drama and surprise as well. I adore good kills and fades, and believe that long stretches without explicit beats are some of what help build the mountains that techno tracks can become in a club setting. Additionally, I like hearing astounding tracks that I don’t know as much as those that I do know. While Craig and Mirko certainly brought some great beats with them to Studio B, their arrangement was a bit sleepy and unsubtle. Mirko’s work with Ripperton in Lazy Fat People is quality stuff, and I would jump at the chance to see Craig do a set again, but next time, I hope that he can make me sweat to a more flavorful sound.

http://www.self-titledmag.com/home/2010/01/12/music-for-films-on-the-eve-of-his-live-blow-job-score-carl-craig-shares-his-favorite-soundtracks/

Carl Craig 6mix on iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zp3ml

http://uploaded.to/file/6zyoq8wi/01-carl_craig_-_6_mix-sat-03-27-2011-talion.mp3

also there for those who can't get that bbc link to work.

psyche "crackdown" sounds like the intro to kajagoogoo's "too shy" (in a good way)

For a guy like me, pretty much new to techno (some Kompakt and pre-techno stuff like Kraftwerk, Moroder, etc notwithstanding), "Sessions" is fucking mindblowing.

i'm also that guy, and it is totally mindblowing.

This is so very cool. Lucky us.

http://pitchfork.com/features/5-10-15-20/9274-carl-craig/

good article!

But when I was able to afford my first synthesizer—no one was ever given a synthesizer

^liked this detail