I had the opportunity to catch Carl Craig perform live on Saturday,
outdoors in the freezing Massachusetts cold, and he was the
hands-down highlight of an otherwise so-so party (a much-hyped east
coast rave called Green, held at the Butternut ski resort). I urge all of
you to go hear him live if you ever get a chance.
He only played five songs, but they were all wonderful, from the plaintive
Martian hip-hop of his opening track to the urgent percussive techno of
'Rushed'. And while he did make a timing mistake or two, the thing
that most impressed me was the fact that he actually bothered to *play
music* - knocking out some beautiful improvised chord progressions on
his Kurzweil. At a time when most "live performances" are simply
exercises in sequencing, it was refreshing to see Carl (looking dapper
as always, I might add) throw down some bona-fide musicianship.
I can't help but mention how much of a treat it was to be able to
finally hear such soulful, funky techno - gleaming with the melancholy
futurism of Detroit - at a rave. It really makes me wonder why Craig's
brand of stuff is so ignorantly treated as 'listening music' by the general
party-going public. My ass was certainly rocking on the dancefloor, and
many others had the same idea. But there were still far too many people
just standing there.
I guess I'll end by saying that it was pretty damn cold on that ski
slope at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. But for a stirring half-hour, Carl Craig
warmed us all up. Consider me schooled.
- Matthew
"I grew up thinking that techno music is actually something that you
can't imagine. That is techno at its best. If you hear something that
you'd never expect to hear - that's techno. If you hear something that
kind of sounds like you've heard it before, then it's not techno."
- Jeff Mills