Never published. Text by Philip Ryan (1998)


Despite being referred to as the "Godfather of techno" in some quarters, 
it's not a term Carl Craig is comfortable with. Understandably so, as if 
nothing else, such a label would not do justice to his ability to turn 
his hand, successfully, to any one of a number of different styles of 
music.

Just check out his repertoire; he has released tough techno under the 
guise of 69, produced vocal house with Naomi Daniel, remixed the likes 
of Tek 9 and La Funk Mob, united house and techno with Paperclip People 
and collaborated with Jazz musicians like Francisco Mora and Rodney 
Whittaker to form the Innnerzone Orchestra, and there's plenty more 
besides. But all this begs the question as to whether there is a danger 
of him being a jack of all trades and a master at none. This is of 
course not the case, as anyone who has ever experienced the lush 
melodies of "At Les", the warped discoid grooves of "Throw" or the 
unyielding funk of "Mind Machine Part One" will testify. 

Currently however, he's putting most of his time into one single project, 
"Right now I'm concentrating on Innerzone Orchestra ...  it is quite a 
challenge on a production level - it was my graduation away from being 
a quote unquote "bedroom producer" to being a producer of some type of 
worth that goes beyond that, in the technical sense". He goes into the 
concept behind the Innerzone Orchestra collusion in more depth, 
"I try to work on a level of improv rather than me demand that it 
sounds some way. A lot of the music I listen to, for example the 
70's Myles Davis stuff seems like its more the aspect of they have 
a root, and they extent out from that root". 

It is obvious, not only from talking to him, but from listening to 
his music that there is a vast undercurrent of influences at work 
in his productions. When Carl Craig started making electronic music 
there were very few musicians of the household name variety who synthesised 
their music; hip hop wasn't the money train it is now, the term trip hop 
was a long way off being coined, house music didn't get air play on 
daytime national radio and people like Armand Van Helden were not daily 
fixtures on the TV.  So if he were starting out now, would he still 
be making the same kind of music that has earned him his current 
notoriety?  "It might be a bit different now than it was then, when 
I was growing up music was so much different, if I was starting out 
now my influences would probably be more Tupac, I'd probably make 
more hip hop...but really I make whatever I feel like, I don't give 
a damn, be it hip hop, be-bop or soul".  

The refusal to be defined as being one certain type of musician 
is evidently an ethos to which Carl passionately subscribes, "I 
feel like restriction has been the demise of this music.  If you 
put yourself into a box, then people won't let you come out of 
that box".  And he has experienced such parochiality in the past,
"When I did those house records with Naomi Daniel I had people 
coming up to me going 'Why are you doing that man? - I really like 
your music but I can't stand that Naomi Daniel stuff', it's like 
'fuck you', I care that you like the stuff I'm doing, but I don't 
give a fuck about people who come up to me and think that they are 
on this level where they can just dis what I do... it's always been 
that way with techno, the whole purism of it I think is bullshit.  
There is a lot of great music out there, and if you restrict yourself 
to Basic Channel and Aphex Twin then you don't really understand 
even what they were influenced by, believe it or not those guys 
were influenced by Lee Perry or Myles Davis or whatever, 
and that is how you come up with this hybrid".

Ultimately trying to define the Carl Craig sound in a word can't 
be done using terms like 'house' or 'techno', even 'funky' isn't 
fully descriptive of every track in his discography.  In fact so 
difficult a task is this that you are only left with words like 
'good', or indeed 'excellent', which truly capture the essence 
of his music.  He has been putting out records of many different 
styles for over ten years.  Who else can boast having released 
records for labels as varied and respected as Transmat, Mo'Wax, 
Eclipse, R&S, Open and Reinforced, not to mention running a 
label of the calibre of Planet E? 

His open-minded approach to producing different varieties of 
music is refreshing, and more importantly he is very good at it. 
Dance music needs people like Carl Craig, unafraid to cross 
boundaries while being determined to remain faithful to their 
roots, the kind of artists history will label originators.