Carl Craig - Sessions

Superlative retrospective and future manifesto techno titan

Carl Craig was at the forefront of Detroit techno’s second wave of producers, behind original Belleville Three Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson and Derrick May, forging a formidable reputation with a string of classics on his Retroactive and Planet E labels, while becoming one of the world’s most startlingly creative and revered remixers. Although Craig never thrust himself into the spotlight, the respect he commands is second to none.

This double-disc set goes some way to showing why, starting with 1990’s Oscillator and covering aliases including Paperclip People, Psyche, BFC, 69, Tres Demented and Innerzone Orchestra, whose Bug In The Bass Bin massively influenced the burgeoning UK drum’n’bass movement in 1992. Craig’s music has always gone much deeper than the dancefloor, incorporating classic elements of jazz, funk, soul and electro with a cool logic which can be devastatingly emotional or simply tear the roof clean off the sucker. The collection isn’t only lodged in the past, although many versions are previously unheard. Recent remixes such as his cathartic detonations of Xpress 2’s Kill 100 and Junior Boys’ Grammy nominated Like A Child show how Craig is one of the few artists constantly taking this music somewhere new, while never losing sight of the soul. Magnificent.

!K7 | 224 CD (2-CD)

Reviewed by Kris Needs
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