Carl Craig

Mar 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Job de Wit

At Rush Hour in Amsterdam

It's certainly not Carl Craig's first visit to this small record shop in the centuries-old city center. The Detroit DJ/producer has had a long relationship with the store, which over the past 10 years has come to encompass a distribution company, a record label and party organization. As a matter of fact, in 2005, Rush Hour released Craig's revamped version of his then 10-year-old Landcruising album, titled The Album Formerly Known as…. It should be no surprise then that the techno figurehead is feeling right at home almost 4,000 miles away from home, listening to records behind the decks on the store counter. It's dark and rainy outside, but Rush Hour's label manager, Christiaan Macdonald, only has one road to cross from his company's HQ to meet Craig on the shop floor. “Christiaan is like my brother,” the DJ says. “I know it wasn't from my mom's womb, but…. Actually, I think it was through [Detroit producer] Recloose. We just clicked!”

Macdonald is one of the first to congratulate Craig in person for his first Grammy nomination. After a very productive remixing stretch that goes back to the late '80s, including (just in the last couple years) phenomenal reworkings of records by Throbbing Gristle, Beanfield, Theo Parrish, Goldfrapp and LCD Soundsystem, the nod finally came with his remix of Junior Boys' “Like a Child.” “Finally!” exclaims the producer, who is up against a Benny Benassi remix of Public Enemy and an Eric Prydz version of a Pink Floyd track, among others.

Although hitherto lacking in Grammy awards, there aren't many dance music producers and DJs with a track record quite like Craig's. Coming into his own at the dawn of the '90s, his discography is lined with classic tracks released under various aliases such as Psyche (“Crackdown”), Paperclip People (“Throw,” “Oscillator,” “The Climax”), 69 (“Jam the Box”) and Innerzone Orchestra (“Bug in the Bassbin”). There is a great musicality at work in Craig's tracks, without losing sight of the machinelike power that propels a dancefloor. It wouldn't be hard to argue that a Grammy award is long overdue.

And the nomination couldn't have come at a better time. Carl Craig's new double mix album, Sessions (!K7, 2008), features a selection of personal career highlights, including his own releases and remixes. Whereas most dance producers tend to actively pursue remix jobs in the early stages of their career to establish a name, Carl Craig is busier than ever crafting new versions of other people's tracks. It has been over three years since he last released a 12-inch of original material, 2004's brooding Just Another Day (Planet E).

“I've gone through those years of making my records somebody else's records,” he says of his remixing style. “It's cool because of the creativity, but at the same time, there hasn't been enough of that person's record that's there. Derrick May used to say that he was tired of giving people his music in a remix. I guess the end story is that you want people to hear a record and boost the career of the artist. They hire you in order to do something for the artist. It makes the artist popular with a market that they don't see.”

With remixing inspiration in mind, Craig dives into a pile of records. “Let's listen to some Rush Hour stuff, some Dutch stuff and then maybe some Detroit or Chicago!” It's a few hours before his gig at 11, a club with a fabulous view situated on the eleventh floor of Amsterdam's former postal distribution center. “Usually when I listen to records,” he says, “I listen quite fast. Sometimes I'll throw something in a pile where I don't buy it, but then I hear somebody else play it and it sounds really good. Sometimes one man's garbage is another man's treasure.”

While Craig can definitely get his share of records for free, vinyl freeloading his not his style. “You gotta support!” he says. “If you don't support, then labels go out business, the stores go out of business. Okay, maybe a few people will buy it after I play it. But if it weren't for those guys buying my record and playing it, I wouldn't be making records anymore. I wouldn't be able to afford to do it.”

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