Carl Craig started out as Derrick May's chief
assistant in Detroit and London, then moved on to found his own label,
Planet E, and influence the direction of techno with a number of recordings
under all sorts of monikers.
As Psyche, Craig released his first single,
Elements (Transmat, 1989),
and the seminal Crackdown (Transmat, 1989), later collected with other
early tracks on Elements 1989-1990 (Planet E, 1996).
Neurotic Behavior shows his musical debt to May,
Chicken Noodle Soup sounds like future 69 singles,
Please Stand By predates Bug in the Bassbin.
As 69, he released the
EPs Four Jazz Funk Classics (1991) and Sound on Sound (R&S, 1996),
that contain experimental abrasive techno tracks such as
Ladies And Gentlemen,
If Mojo Was AM, Jam the Box, My Machines and Microlove.
Paperclip People was his plainly dancefloor project, that yielded the hits
Throw, The Climax and The Floor, later
collected on The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich (Open, 1996)
His most ambitious project, Innerzone Orchestra, was originally only a nickname
to release the highly influential jazzy single
Bug In The Bassbin (Mo Wax, 1992), but was revived in 2000 for the
album Programmed (Planet E, 1999).
This time Craig is truly conducting an orchestra, that includes
seasoned programmers such as Richie Hawtin (Plastikman) and veteran jazz players
such as Paul Randolph on bass, Craig Taborn on piano and jazz drummer
Francisco Mora. Despite the collaborators,
the cubist fusion of Eruption and Basic Math is quintessential
Craig art. The album includes old-time favorites
Galaxy, At Les, Manufactured Memories and
Bug In The Bassbin.
Carl Craig finally recorded under his own name the album
Landcruising (Planet E, 1995), later remastered and reissued as The Album Formerly Known
As, and the effect was to distance himself
from the dancefloor. The clattering
Mind Of A Machine and Einbahn are basically tributes to
his two biggest influences: Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream.
The romantic and almost ambient A Wonderful Life and
One Day Soon are equally indebted to another strong influence: Ennio
Morricone's soundtracks. And for
Landcruising and Science Fiction Craig turns to his third main
influence: 1970s orchestral disco music.
Such a fundamentally retro` album is crowned by
Home Entertainment, a futuristic concerto for electrical objects.
The fusion of past and future that has always been Craig's ideology achieves
here its grandest statement.
The follow-up,
More Songs About Food And Revolutionary Art (Planet E, 1997),
indulges in this stately romantic techno
(or "techno soul", as he likes to call it).
From the intense Es.30" to the
delicate Dreamland, from the robotic Butterfly to the
hymn-like At Les.
Movie soundtracks are still a major influence
(the haunting ambience of Red Lights and
Goodbye World), but the album is obviously trying to unify jazz and
techno.
The same kind of fusion is at the core of the vocal tracks (Attitude).
Sessions (K7, 2008) is a double-disc anthology.
69: The Legendary Adventures of a Filter King (2009) compiles the releases under the moniker 69.
Recomposed By (Universal, 2009) offers music by Ravel and Mussorgsky remixed by Carl Craig and Moritz Von Oswald.
