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.

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