Carl Craig's a lot like his music — minimalist, stylish, cool, modern and urbane. The techno pioneer's D-town pad is probably spare out of necessity — it'd be easy to see his work bury him.
Take a look at dicogs.com for the output of this DJ, producer, musician and Planet-E label head — it's dizzying. Along with his birth name, figure in his electronic alter egos (BFC, the Detroit Experiment, Innerzone Orchestra, Psyche and Paperclip People) to an ungodly number of remixes. You could fill crates of records with all the remixes he's done by DJing the world over and creating his own music.
These days, remixes are practically Craig's bread and butter. In fact, last year he nabbed a Grammy nod for his remix of the Junior Boys' "Like a Child" (and lost out to Benny Benassi's underwhelming remix of Public Enemy's "Bring the Noise"). And this year the K7 label compiled highlights of Craig's nearly 20-year remixing career on the stellar double-CD Sessions.
Craig learned mixing from some of the best DJs on the planet. As teen, he was digging Detroit legend Jeff Mills and Chicago godhead Ron Hardy. For a guy who's practically a one-man assembly line, his approach to remixing is totally intuitive. As he recounted in The Wire last May — "(My goal is) to make a hot mix. When I work I just feel shit out ... I would hope that (my remix) would inspire goose bumps." Goose bumps indeed, and a total throwdown on the dancefloor as well.
Check out Carl Craig's Sessions at carlcraig-sessions.com. Or dig his car photos at myspace.com/carlcraig.
