In the minds of many, the name Carl Craig epitomizes Detroit Techno. Although he was neither the first nor the flashiest of the original Detroit innovators, his 20-plus year production and club career can boast of nearly no wrong turns nor wanderings into inconsistency. If Juan Atkins is credited with the initial push over the top and Derrick May distinguished himself as the best DJ of the famous quartet, from nearly the beginning Craig was present in the background quietly pushing the developments that would lead into the second wave of Detroit music and its spread to the furthest corners of the globe. Although the exact extent of his work behind the scenes will likely never be known, as label aide to both KMS and Transmat he adeptly learned the business end of the trade, and early studio help he received from Derrick May was returned in spades as he joined his older predecessors on their groundbreaking European tours and also for their recording sessions. If early efforts as Psyche, BFC, and 69 revealed a creative mind rapidly progressing and moving through ideas faster than most ever get them, by 1995 his name was synonymous with the best and most bracing Techno the Motor City had to offer that combined deepness, hardness, and a restless futuristic and experimental aesthetic that plowed down everything in its path.
If that wasn’t enough, the 1991 launch of his emblematic Planet E Communications found him extending his grasp past the studio board with the most important, influential Detroit-based label since Motown and Tamla. Not content simply with showcasing the seemingly limitless talent then budding in his hometown, Craig used Planet E as a platform to release tracks from unknown Techno and House experimentalists from the fringes of the scene and in the process legitimized their work while simultaneously questioning and expanding the boundaries of what could be called Techno. It would be impossible to list or accurately evaluate the extent to which these choices directed the ever-rushing forward movement of the music, but hazy left-field drops from the likes of Basic Channel (as Quadrant), Moodymann, and Newworldaquarium lent legitimacy to the farthest flung outliers of a sound exploding exponentially in diversity. Meanwhile, the endless list of productions under his many aliases and remixes for nearly every artist on Planet E simply confirmed Craig’s genius for production and A&R; Techno had found its renaissance man. Detours into leftfield Jazz, House, and experimental synthesizer music did nothing to slow the restless pace, and to this day his legacy remains unassailable as his label coasts into its 20th year with a full deck of new releases waiting in the wings. Now with a compilation, 20 Fucking Years of Planet E: We Ain’t Dead Yet, featuring handpicked selections from the finest label in Techno history and an equally long forthcoming list of remixes of these tracks by many of his famous friends, the future of Techno’s brightest star looks as assured as ever. halcyon caught up with the man himself to talk about techno futurism and current events ahead of his hugely anticipated live set as 69 for Movement 2011…
h: This is the 20th anniversary for your label this year, and also you’ve decided, you’ve resurrected 69 for the festival. That’s interesting.
C2: Yeah
h: Can you tell me a little about what you were thinking about when you decided to do that?
C2: To do 69 or to do the 20th anniversary?
h: It seems to me that the two ideas are related, right?
C2: Oh yeah, definitely. I mean on 69 was the first release on Planet E back in 1991, so you know, it just made sense to do 69 live in comparison to doing Paperclip People or anything else like that.
h: And how are you going to go about the performance? Are you bringing all of your hardware and stuff with you?
C2: I’m going to have…. actually I’m still kind of working out my last things concerning it. I’ve been preparing for the set, but it’s not until it actually happens that I’ll have the clearest idea of what we’re going to do or what I’m going to do.
20 Fucking Years of Planet E: We Ain’t Dead Yeth: Ok, that’s fair enough. There’s still a couple of weeks to go. As you’ve been… I mean, in Detroit last year there was sort of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the Techno movement and now you have the 20th anniversary of your label. Do you see some recurring themes in the music or in all of that? Is that something that important to you or relevant to you?
C2: Mmhm. The thing about music or about any trends is, it gets big and then it sort of dies down, and then it comes back again and whatever, and with Techno, it was a scenario where the music, it was developed and it went through all of these changes in the early days before it even became Detroit Techno, and then, over time, it went through these changes where it was seen as being a negative thing, like with raving, and the police, and drugs, and gabber, and hard, hard aspects of what Techno is. So it’s come back full circle to being this thing, maybe even more going from it being a club or warehouse thing to being an institutionalized scenario where you can take it to museums, art galleries, concert halls, this kinds of things and the respect factor. So, in relation to that, it’s great to be able to celebrate it last year with D25 and then, with this year, the continuation, which is Planet E 20.
h: Yeah. In the early days in Detroit there was a lot of, sort of, there was a lot of futuristic, like sci-fi , but even philosophical ideas that were brought up by the music. Do you think that stuff is still relevant now, or is it sort of moving on to something different?
C2: Well, you know the new generation are the ones who are looking at the future in relation to imagination. The sci-fi thing was big for us 25 years ago because you know, Star Trek was still not off the air for so long and there were Star Trek movies and such. I think now that we’re living in this future it makes it a little harder to imagine what the future can bring. I mean, it’s been predicted so often, whether you’re reading Philip K. Dick novels or you’re watching The Matrix or something, you know. We’re at the point where you can have a telephone in your pocket, you can pretty much have a telephone around your wristband like Dick Tracy. You know, that kind of shit was completely unfathomable 25 years ago, or even the concept of what we have, iPads and what you can do with an iPad… it’s like the concept of the future to beat out what we already have, it’s almost like you have to sell yourself to the Devil or something in order to know where it’s going to go in the next 25 years <both laugh>. So, you know the aspect of futurism and the imagination that goes into that futurism that can come into this art form I think is down to the new generation of kids with new ideas that can take these current pieces and current things that are being done and present it as a new future.
h: You recently spent some time refitting your studio… I remember you talking about it in another interview.
C2: Yeah, the studio is a very important aspect of my art.
h: Yeah of course. How do you feel that the technology change has affected your own music making process?
C2: The technology has changed so it makes it possible for anybody to make a record these days. You know, anybody can make music that sounds like something. You know, they use Logic and you pull up a plug-in chain that gives you the perfect plug-in chain for making that kind of music whether it’s Hip-Hop or House, R&B, whatever. It’s just the concept that you have to be able to, you know, make the music. But you get programs like Reason, where you know, everything can be step sequenced, and you really don’t have to have any concept of how to play an instrument or how to put together music. You know, so it’s a scenario that anybody can do it, but it’s still that possibility that if you’re a master craftsman at being a musician or producer then you can make superior music, and that’s what it comes down to now is making superior music, not just making music.
h: Yeah, and obviously the technology has affected the record industry too, so how has that… You’re running a pretty small label still, so how has that affected Planet E as an organization?
C2: I mean, Planet E, we’re surviving as best as we can especially in these changes of the industry, you know. I mean, when I got into business I came in right after Transmat and those guys were still able to sell 100,000 copies of the record, you know, R&S selling hundreds of thousands of copies of plastic, what was it called, Plastic Dreams, you know, but now we’re at a situation where there’s no concept of going to the record store anymore, no concept of going to even Best Buy or anywhere to buy music. You’re only buying it online, and you’re buying it as ringtones, or you’re buying it as these small files, or even you’re just ripping off the files and getting them as free downloads, you know. So it makes it very difficult for any business in relationship to that to stay in business and for an artists to be able to continue their art based on music sales is not possible any more.
h: Yeah… Is Planet E mostly digital these days? Is that where you get most of your revenue from?
C2: We still press vinyl.
h: I know that, but is your revenue mostly coming from files now or is it still sort of 50/50?
C2: Neither one has outweighed the other.
h: Fair enough. Another thing, I like to talk about perspectives. So, you’ve got a good perspective on things because you’ve been in the scene forever. What to you in the lifetime of your label really stands out as interesting or important musically speaking in the scene?
C2: Yeah, well I’ve done the best that I can in order to make sure that the music being released is making a statement. You know, when I started the label the concept wasn’t to follow in the footsteps of Strictly Rhythm where there’s a trend and they just follow that trend. It was the concept of making art, and I tried to stick with that. So whether a record would sell, you know, 500 copies or 5000 copies, that was the concept that I still wanted it to make a statement.
h: Yeah, obviously because your label definitely stands out as not being a trendy label at all. It just seems like there was always something else guiding it, you know?
C2: Mmhm, yeah.
h: There’s been a certain shift in the sound of things recently, but are your ideas about right now about releasing music? I guess the sound of your label has changed a little bit over time, especially recently I’ve heard people talking about it, so about your most recent releases what do you have to say about that stuff?
C2: Um, yeah I still try to pay attention to keeping music that I like that comes out on the label, but we’re trying to focus on putting out more Detroit music, more music that comes from local artists from Detroit. We still do put out music from European artists, with us doing Oliverwho Factory, with us doing Reference, with us doing some other new artists that we’re going to spotlight on our label. We want to make sure not only that people outside of Detroit know that we’re focusing on Detroit music, but also that the people in Detroit realize it, and maybe we can develop a movement of, a new movement of Detroit artists that people pay attention to.
h: Yeah, I think that fair enough. There’s been a lot of really good music that’s been coming out of Detroit in the past few years for sure. I think everyone’s been paying attention to that recently. Actually, there’s been a lot of great Techno music coming out in general I think. Don’t you?
C2: Yeah, I mean again it’s shifting. The music is shifting, and Europe has a lot to do with how those shifts are happening. I’m really interested in seeing how American music can help make those shifts very prevalent globally in dance music. Unfortunately, there’s not enough that’s happening here in the US because unfortunately the US is way too big and we’re all on the internet in comparison to being in the club, you know, so it makes it a lot more difficult for there to be another great American movement like what happened with House music and with Techno.
h: Yeah but recently there’s been a lot of American artists that are putting music out. I mean, there’s been a bunch of guys from New York like Levon Vincent and Fred P and those guys getting released even on Ostgut and things like that so I kind of feel that the pendulum has been shifting back a little bit actually.
C2: Are they being released on American labels or on European labels?
h: Well, there’s a lot of small labels in New York that have started up, Deconstruct, Strength and Soul People and stuff that releasing House and Techno really.
C2: Because if there’s not a movement of labels in the US that’s doing this, then it still defeats the purpose of doing it and putting it out on all of the European labels.
h: Yeah, there’s nothing big. There definitely hasn’t been… there’s definitely a need for a label like yours or another American label that’s bigger to be able to, that has more muscle behind it to push this music a little bit more so it can get out there a little bit more. At least that’s how I feel… there’s a lot of great music I’ve heard from American producers. It just hasn’t made quite the splash I would’ve hoped it would.
C2: Yeah, well there’s no labels right now that are like when Trax Records was putting out records, or DJ International, or Transmat, KMS, Metroplex, these really young labels that started it, and it was like a movement that was happening in town that really developed it. In Chicago, when you, take someone like Marshall Jefferson, he used to take his records down to Ron Hardy, or his tapes down to Ron Hardy, so Ron Hardy would play them, so it would develop from there. People would really respond and look for it, and really look hard for it, and go to imports or go to Gramaphone or whatever and find these records. And these guys could ship 10,000 white labels. They could ship these kind of numbers because people were really interested in it. People would come in from, you know, from Europe, like Mark from Hard Wax to find these records, like just go through his warehouse in order to find records to take back to Germany. You know, you don’t really find that kind of thing happening the way that it used to. Or you know, even in New York, when Larry Levan was alive, you’d take a record down to Larry for him to play, and that was a big deal and radio payed attention to it, you know, to what he was doing. The story of Frankie Crocker hanging out at the Paradise Garage where, and when Larry would play something new you’d hear it the next day or the next week on WBLS. There’s no movements like that that are happening and I really miss that, you know.
h: Yeah, I think everybody does. It added a lot to the scene. As far as yourself, it’s been awhile since you put out a big project, so do you have some new music coming out soon?
C2: I’ve been working on mixing a new Urban Tribe album. Of course I’ve got too many remixes that have come through my door that I have to concentrate on, but yeah, I’ve been working working on some new material.
h: Yeah, well a lot of the older artists and the artists that came out about the same time you did have expressed a lot of frustration about releasing music now because they can’t sell it basically. So…
C2: Yeah…
h: So I guess that’s one of your concerns too isn’t it?
C2: Well I’ve always been interested in taking control of my own music, so that’s what I do, that’s why I have a label, for pure control, so we find ways of selling it and we sell it, you know, and present it. So the frustrations that other artists might have I don’t have that same kind of frustration because many times artists are looking for getting their record out on a label, getting advanced for the record, and there being distributors or a label that has strong distribution that would and blah blah blah blah, but I come from working at Transmat, I come from working at KMS and all of these things and these are independent labels that are run by the artists themselves. They took the bull by the horns and took their careers into their own hands, and that’s how I learned how to do it. I take my career into my own hands, and 20 years later I’m still here.
h: Yeah, and besides the new compilation that you put on your label and the remix packages, what other releases do you have coming up for Planet E in the near future?
C2: We have a new Oliverwho Factory, we have a new… another artist, Audio Droid, we have a new Kirk DeGiorgio, we have a new Reference record, we have a new Monty Luke record, the new Urban Tribe record… a lot of new stuff. We have a remix compilation of tracks that is the complement to the 20 Fucking Years compilation.
h: Yeah.
C2: So we’ve got a bunch of stuff. We’ve got remixes done by Dubfire, Loco Dice, and Caribou, and just maybe too much material to release in one year.
h: Yeah, yeah that’s actually really exciting. I guess I’m going to wrap this up pretty much but… You’ve been here for the whole time, since you know where the music has been, so where do think it’s going in the next few years?
C2: Unfortunately I’m not a fortune teller so I never try to predict the future <both laugh>.
h: Fair enough. Well, we look forward to new stuff from you and new stuff from your label, and I look forward to seeing you in Detroit Carl.
C2: Okay, thanks a lot.
|
Further Listening from halcyondigi.com | Carl Craig / Planet e
|
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
|
|
||||||
RSVP here
