Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications.^[4] He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s.^[5][6][7] He has recorded under his given name in addition to a variety of aliases, including Psyche, BFC, and Innerzone Orchestra.^[8]

Craig's early releases were collected on the 1996 compilation Elements 1989-1990. He has released several studio albums, beginning with Landcruising (1995). Craig has also remixed a variety of artists including Manuel Göttsching, Maurizio, Theo Parrish, Tori Amos, and Depeche Mode.^[3] He was nominated for the 2008 Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording for his remix of the Junior Boys track "Like a Child."^[9] He has released collaborative recordings with Moritz von Oswald (2008's Recomposed) and Green Velvet (2015's Unity).

Carl Craig was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 22, 1969.^[6] His mother was a teacher's assistant and his father was a post office worker.^[7] He attended Cooley High School, where he developed an interest in music.^[6] He learned to play guitar and later became interested in club music through his cousin Doug Craig, who worked lighting for Detroit area parties.^[6] After hearing Derrick May's radio show on WJLB, Craig began experimenting with recording on a dual-deck cassette player.^[6] Craig met someone who knew May and passed along a tape of some of his home studio productions.^[6]

Since 1989, Craig has released many recordings under a large number of aliases, including Psyche, BFC, 69, Paperclip People, and Innerzone Orchestra.^[6] Many of these early Psyche and BFC releases were collected on the 1996 compilation Elements 1989–1990.^[10] Craig founded his own record label called Planet E Communications in 1991.^[7] Since then, it has released records by other artists such as Kevin Saunderson, Moodymann, and Kenny Larkin.^[11]

His first studio album, Landcruising, was released on Blanco y Negro Records in 1995.^[6] In 1996, he released The Secret Tapes of Doctor Eich under the Paperclip People moniker.^[12] In 1997, he released More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art.^[12] It was placed at number 29 on Pitchfork's "50 Best IDM Albums of All Time" list.^[13] In 1999, he released Programmed under the Innerzone Orchestra moniker.^[12]

Craig served as co-creator and artistic director for the Detroit Electronic Music Festival in 2000 and 2001.^[14] His subsequent dismissal by festival organizers caused substantial controversy within the Detroit techno community, igniting a high-profile campaign in his favor.^[15] In 2001, he filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against festival producer Pop Culture Media.^[16]

He released a reworked version of Landcruising, titled The Album Formerly Known As..., in 2005.^[17] In 2008, he released a collaborative album with Moritz Von Oswald, titled Recomposed, on Deutsche Grammophon.^[17] He returned as artistic director for the 2010 Detroit Electronic Music Festival.^[18] In 2015, he released a collaborative album with Green Velvet, titled Unity, on Relief Records.^[19] In 2017, he released Versus on InFiné.^[20]

Craig created a sound installation, titled Party/After-Party, which opened at the Dia Beacon art museum in March 2020.^[21] The culmination of a five-year-long engagement with Dia Beacon,^[22] it was his first foray into the art world.^[21] In 2023 the installation was brought to The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles and the exhibition was accompanied by Party/After-Party Sessions, a series of three live concerts that were including DJs and electronic musicians DJ Holographic, Felix Da Housecat, King Britt, Moodymann, Kenny Larkin. ^[23]

Mixmag called Carl Craig "a leading figure in Detroit techno's second generation,"^[5] while Exclaim! called him a "central figure" in the genre's second wave.^[6] Pitchfork described him as "techno pioneer."^[7] He has approached techno using inspiration from a wide range of musical genres, including soul, jazz, new wave, industrial, and krautrock, while his works have spanned ambient techno, breakbeat, house, classical, and modular synthesizer-based stylings.^[3] In a 2015 interview, he cited The Electrifying Mojo, Prince, Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins, and Jeff Mills as the major influences on his music.^[24]

Craig's 1992 track "Bug in the Bassbin", released under the Innerzone Orchestra moniker, was picked up by DJs such as 4hero, Goldie, and J Majik.^[25] In the United Kingdom, DJs started playing the track at 45 rpm instead of the intended 33 rpm.^[26] According to Now, the track "ended up providing inspiration and in many ways writing the blueprint for what drum 'n' bass was to become in England."^[26]

According to Vinyl Me, Please, Craig "managed to not only push the boundaries of Detroit techno, he also introduced an urgency and melodic richness to the sometimes navel-gazing world of IDM" with releases such as More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art (1997).^[27]