Carl Craig December 26, 2008

There's always one moment during those fortunate nights when the beats give way to enlightenment. It may be a fleeting moment but when the right oracle is behind the decks or the perfect record is put in play, it is there. The communal rhythms and shared appreciation. Not everyone can evoke such moments where the energy of the environment is corralled in just the right way but Carl Craig is certainly one of them.

It happens on any one of the many records he's cultivated, when the melodious push of the rhythm emerges from the pounding break to reveal something more meaningful than just the groove. Or on the dance floor when the grand, visceral orchestration of the night's selections connects with the people. Craig understands these moments and his audience recognizes it in his work, which is why he is respected universally as one of the foremost techno producers and DJs in the world and, more importantly, why he himself transcends the genre.

Craig began his work as an artist with an apprenticeship under legendary techno producer Derrick May. Craig helped produce May's Rhythim Is Rhythim re-working of the classic "Strings Of Life," entitled "Strings Of Life 89" (Kool Kat, 1989), while touring with him in Europe as the keyboardist in his live band. Having played guitar as a youngster, Craig was already musically adept; and he had a solid foundation for working as a producer in the studio. But the tutelage under May - who, along with Juan Atkins, were master influences on Craig - not only provided Craig with further technical knowledge but also helped teach him the nuances of life as a musician.

The first record Craig released was "Elements" (10/Virgin, from Techno 2 compilation, 1989), which was followed by "Crackdown" (Transmat, 1989), both under the guise Psyche. Like most of Craig's work since, people were instinctively drawn to the depth and originality in the songs, even if they couldn't quite articulate what they were being drawn to; and that mix of experimentalism and creative tenacity would serve as a precursor for Craig's future work.

The next mile-marker from Craig was 4 Jazz Funk Classics (Planet E, 1991), an EP under the alter-ego 69. Initially, Craig denied any association with the moniker, wanting the uniqueness of the tracks to stand on their own. Craig would use this disguise for his more progressive, experimental tracks.. The moody, textured songs, like "If Mojo Was AM," were rooted in a long lineage of black music, Craig seemed to be saying, and they were jazz and funk to him even if they didn't quite "sound" like it. The EP was the first release on his own independent label, Planet E. Another EP from 69, Sound On Sound (R&S/Planet E, 1996), would subsequently be released.

One of the guiding principles of Craig's musicianship is his intentional distortion of categorization, whether it's genre-mashing or the warping of referenced time periods. The latter has especially framed Craig's work: he frequently evokes old sounds in delivering futuristic missives, mutates conventional arrangements in inventive ways. This ethos was revealed on one of his most seminal works, "Bug In The Bassbin (Planet E, 1992/Mo' Wax, 1995). The song is dark and delicate at once, both ambient and bubbling with purged energy, and the elegant friction between melody and beats make it a resolving classic the likes of which techno music has rarely seen. Craig created the song under the lofty title Innerzone Orchestra. That alias would harbor his ambitious composition and arrangement urges when he resurrected the project for the album, Programmed (Astralwerks/Planet E, 2000.

Craig finally used his proper name for Landcruising (Planet E, 1995), an album that pushed him away from the dance-floor towards a complex and emotional musical meta-narrative. Songs like "Mind of a Machine" and "Science Fiction"

Ever prolific, Paperclip People was another alias Craig would use for a series of singles beginning in 1990. Under this name, Craig became a populist, distilling songs down to their pulsating essence to create dance floor gems. Now-classics such as "Throw," "The Climax" and "The Floor" were instantly club-friendly, following simple melodic ideas and boasting bold beats roped to heavy rhythms. These singles and other songs were collected on the Paperclip People album, The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich (Planet E, 1996), and of his various alter-egos, this remains his most popular.

Craig, too, has always been recognized as a premier remixer. His "sound," or rather, insight, has been sought by a diverse range of artists over the years. Craig's buoyant reworking of Tori Amos' "God" in 1994 remains a dance classic, and his remixes for Johnny L ("This Time"), Inner City ("Good Life"), Ron Trent ("Altered States"), La Funk Mob ("Ravers Suck Our Sound And Get Fucked"), Incognito ("Beyond The Storm"), Jah Wobble and Bill Laswell ("Alsema Dub") and dozens others, remain DJ favorites. Some of these are collected on Designer Music Volume 1 (Planet E, 2000), a collection of eight remixes Craig has authored.

That same support has helped make Craig's record label, Planet E, a vital part of the techno music universe. Planet E is as dependable a brand identity as one can have in music, with releases from artists like Craig and his aliases, Kevin Saunderson, Moodymann, Alton Miller, Mike Clark, newcomer Recloose and others. The label was created in 1991 out of Craig's frustration with the control he had – or didn't have - over his previous releases and how they were presented. In 1990, Craig had co-founded Retroactive Records with another local DJ, releasing six singles for the label under his various monikers. The label's dissolution a year later over internal conflicts set the stage for the creation of Planet E. The label is truly a family-style operation.

"Independence is the best thing one can have," he says. Those words could have been an echo from another time, the same turbulent era Craig was born in, for example, and still held just as much weight. That temporal symmetry is a vivid reminder of exactly where Carl Craig has come from, what he has become and how he has evolved as both man and musician.