Dancefloor experimentalist and top Detroit techno producer Carl Craig has few equals in terms of the artistry, influence, and diversity of his recordings. Few others have recorded so much quality music in such a variety of styles as has Craig, who jammed distorted beatbox samples into lo-fi electro riggings, crafted epic house tracks like his... [+] Read More

Dancefloor experimentalist and top Detroit techno producer Carl Craig has few equals in terms of the artistry, influence, and diversity of his recordings. Few others have recorded so much quality music in such a variety of styles as has Craig, who jammed distorted beatbox samples into lo-fi electro riggings, crafted epic house tracks like his remix of Tori Amos' "God," and recorded the most sublime Detroit techno since godfathers Juan Atkins and Derrick May were at their peak. After an apprenticeship during the late '80s with May, Craig began releasing his own recordings in 1989, first on Derrick's Transmat imprint and later on his own label, Planet E Communications. During the following decade, Craig spread his work between solo aliases -- Paperclip People, Innerzone Orchestra, 69 -- and his own name. With each new project and each change of musical direction though, he distinguished himself as one of the few artists to consistently hit the mark with productions whose subtleties in the living room more than matched their infectious energy on the dancefloor.

When he was growing up and attending Detroit's Cooley High, Craig was turned on to a diverse musical diet ranging from Prince to Led Zeppelin to the Smiths. He often practiced on his guitar, but later became interested in club music as well through his cousin, who worked lighting for various parties around the Detroit area. The first wave of Detroit techno had already set sail by the mid-'80s, and Craig began listening to tracks courtesy of May's radio show on WJLB. He began experimenting with recording techniques using dual-deck cassette players, and later convinced his parents to buy him a synthesizer and sequencer. Craig also studied electronic music, including the work of Morton Subotnick, Wendy Carlos, and Pauline Oliveros. While taking an electronics course, he met a mutual friend of May and passed on a tape including some of his home productions. May loved what he heard and brought him into the studio to re-record one track, "Neurotic Behavior." Completely beatless in its original mix (since Craig didn't own a drum machine), the track was just as sublime and visionary as Juan Atkins' blueprint for cosmic techno-funk yet called on emotions previously found only on May's material.

The British fascination with Detroit techno was just beginning to take hold by 1989, and Craig was invited to witness the phenomenon firsthand by touring with May's Rhythim Is Rhythim project (which supported Kevin Saunderson's Inner City on several English dates). The trip became an extended working holiday as Craig helped out on production for a re-recording of May's classic "Strings of Life" and the new Rhythim Is Rhythim single, "The Beginning." He also found time to record several tracks of his own at R&S Studios in Belgium. On his return to the U.S., Craig released several R&S tracks on the Crackdown EP, recorded as Psyche for May's Transmat Records. Craig then founded Retroactive Records with Damon Booker, and despite working days at a copy shop, continued recording in his parents' basement.

Craig released six singles for Retroactive during 1990-1991 (as BFC, Paperclip People, and Carl Craig) but the label was dissolved in 1991 due to disputes with Booker. That same year, Craig formed the solo concern Planet E Communications for the release of his new EP, 4 Jazz Funk Classics (recorded as 69). Deliberately lo-fi and gritty with the implementation of funky beatbox samples, tracks like "If Mojo Was AM" presented a new leap forward after the compulsive sheen of Retroactive singles like "Galaxy" and "From Beyond." Besides the distortion of 4 Jazz Funk Classics, his other Planet E work during 1991 contained off-the-cuff nods to such disparate moods as hip-hop and hardcore techno. The following year's "Bug in the Bassbin" unveiled another Carl Craig alias, Innerzone Orchestra, and added elements of jazz to his beatbox frenzy. In the process, Craig became an uncommon influence on the early progression of the British drum'n'bass movement -- DJs and producers often pitched up "Bug in the Bassbin" from 33 to 45 rpm for a do-it-yourself jungle breakbeat.

The release of Paperclip People's "Throw" added disco and funk to Craig's growing list of active inspirations; his natural progression into remixes during 1994 provided the dance world with versions of Maurizio, Inner City, and La Funk Mob tracks plus a stunning reworking of the Tori Amos song "God" that lasted almost ten minutes. Thanks in large part to the Amos remix, Craig soon signed his first contract with major-label exposure, to the Blanco y Negro division of Europe's Mute Records. His first full-length, 1995's Landcruising, opened up the Carl Craig sound and gave it an epic feel closer in spirit to his earlier recordings, while the thematic tug of a journey around metro Detroit mirrored Atkins' Model 500 tracks like "Night Drive." Landcruising opened up the market for Craig's material, and several months later, R&S Records released 69's Sound of Music, a compilation of two EPs released the previous year for the Belgian label.

In 1996, the high-profile British house label Ministry of Sound released a new Paperclip People single called "The Floor," composed of hard, clipped techno beats but an elastic bass line and prevalent disco sample that earned it much airplay in house venues. Though he was already one of the most noted names in the world of techno, Craig's reputation began growing in the more general category of mainstream/global dance, and he soon became less tied to the mantle of Detroit techno than many of his contemporaries. Craig helmed one in the series of DJ Kicks albums released by Studio !K7 and spent several months based in London. He returned to Detroit later in 1996 to focus on Planet E, which released a Paperclip People album titled The Secret Tapes of Dr. Eich (mostly collecting previous singles) and a Psyche/BFC retrospective titled Elements 1989-1990. The new year brought the second proper Carl Craig LP, More Songs About Food & Revolutionary Art. He spent much of 1998 touring the world as Innerzone Orchestra with a jazzy trio. The project also released an LP, Programmed, expanding Craig's full-length output to seven -- though only three had appeared under his own name. Two collections appeared during 1999-2000, including the Planet E mix album House Party 013 and the remix compilation Designer Music.

Throughout the early 2000s, he was sporadically active, releasing a series of mix albums and compilations (2001's Onsumothasheeat and Abstract Funk Theory, 2002's The Workout, and 2005's Fabric 25), as well as the occasional production and remix. He overhauled Landcruising in 2005 and titled the release The Album Formerly Known As.... ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Robert "Noise" Hood makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul and experimentation over flash and popularity. Recording for Metroplex, as well as the Austrian Cheap label and Jeff Mills' Axis label, Hood also owns and operates the M-Plant imprint, through which he's released the bulk of his solo material. Hood was a founding member,... [+] Read More

Robert "Noise" Hood makes minimal Detroit techno with an emphasis on soul and experimentation over flash and popularity. Recording for Metroplex, as well as the Austrian Cheap label and Jeff Mills' Axis label, Hood also owns and operates the M-Plant imprint, through which he's released the bulk of his solo material. Hood was a founding member, along with Jeff Mills and Mike Banks, of the Underground Resistance label, whose influential releases throughout the early- and mid-'90s helped change the face of modern Detroit techno and sparked a creative renaissance. Infusing elements of acid and industrial into a potent blend of Chicago house and Detroit techno, UR's aesthetic project and militant business philosophy were (and remain) singular commitments in underground techno. Hood left Detroit (and UR) with Jeff Mills in 1992, setting up shop in New York and recording a series of 12-inch EPs with Mills. Through the mid-'90s, Hood has focused on his solo work, setting up M-Plant in 1994 and releasing singles such as "Internal Empire," "Music Data," and "Moveable Parts." Although his desire to remain underground has been replaced by an urge to reach a wider audience, Hood remains fiercely critical of artistic and economic movements destructive to inner-city communities and has combined his musical enterprises with outreach and social activist ends. In 1994, Berlin's techno-centric Tresor label released his debut full-length, Internal Empire, and Cheap released Nighttime World the following year. During the rest of the decade, Hood focused on DJ dates as well as a string of singles for M-Plant. Finally, in 2000, the second volume in the Nighttime World series appeared on M-Plant. [See Also: The Vision] ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide [-] Hide

A former staffer at the embassy in London, Frenchman Laurent Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late '80s and became by the following decade one of the best all-around DJs in the world, able to span classic deep house and Detroit techno, the harder side of acid/trance and surprisingly jazzy tracks as well. He added production work to... [+] Read More

A former staffer at the embassy in London, Frenchman Laurent Garnier began DJing in Manchester during the late '80s and became by the following decade one of the best all-around DJs in the world, able to span classic deep house and Detroit techno, the harder side of acid/trance and surprisingly jazzy tracks as well. He added production work to his schedule in the early '90s, and recorded several brilliant LPs with a similar penchant for diversity.

One of the first Europeans to begin mixing American house music in Britain, Garnier was one of the prime cogs in the late-'80s Madchester scene. His DJing at Manchester's legendary Haçienda club provided a major inspiration for the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays to begin adding house rhythms to rock music. Garnier shifted his attention back to France in the early '90s, running the Wake Up club in Paris for three years and gradually moving into recording as well. For the FNAC label, Garnier released "French Connection" and the Bout de Souffle EP; after the label went under, though, he formed the F Communications label with Eric Morand (a friend who had also worked for FNAC). He had amassed quite a discography by the mid-'90s, but his first LP Shot in the Dark wasn't launched until 1995. His second, 30, appeared in 1997, followed by the retrospective Early Works. After trotting the globe with multiple DJ appearances during the late '90s, Garnier returned to the production realm with Unreasonable Behaviour, released in early 2000. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Although Plaid pre-existed the association, the duo's Ed Handley and Andy Turner spent most of their early recording years with Ken Downie as the dancefloor-confounding Black Dog Productions. Meshing well with Downie's vision of heavily hybridized post-techno and obscurantist thematics, the pair brought several nascent Plaid tracks to the Black... [+] Read More

Although Plaid pre-existed the association, the duo's Ed Handley and Andy Turner spent most of their early recording years with Ken Downie as the dancefloor-confounding Black Dog Productions. Meshing well with Downie's vision of heavily hybridized post-techno and obscurantist thematics, the pair brought several nascent Plaid tracks to the Black Dog table on the group's debut, Bytes, a collection of tracks recorded by various iterations of the three members. The group recorded several albums and EPs throughout the early and mid-'90s, helping to forge a style of dance music one step removed from the 12" considerations of the average faceless techno act; Handley and Turner's mutual love for early hip-hop contributed BDP's more bawdy, street-level grit.

The pair split from Downie in 1995, and began rechanneling their efforts full-time with an EP on the neo-electro Clear label before signing to Warp. (The pair also recorded an album with European techno figure Mark Broom under the pseudonym Repeat, two tracks of which also made it onto the South of Market EP, released on Jonah Sharp's similarly located Reflective imprint.) Both of Plaid's first two full-lengths, 1998's Not for Threes and the following year's Rest Proof Clockwork, were issued in the U.S. through Nothing. Once Warp set up a home on American shores, however, Plaid made the natural switch with the long-awaited collection Trainer, a retrospective including much of their early, pre-BDP work. The proper third album, Double Figure, followed in spring 2001, and the handy Plaid remix collection Parts in the Post was issued in 2003 by Peacefrog. The end of the year brought the duo's fourth proper LP, Spokes. Plaid was quiet on the recording front for several years, returning finally in mid-2006 with Greedy Baby, a mini-album that found the pair co-billed with visual artist Bob Jaroc. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Only Frankie Knuckles can lay claim to straddling a longer span of time in the thick of dance music than François Kevorkian. And though his name is no more than vaguely familiar to many dance fans, Kevorkian's influence is immense. Beginning with his production work for the crucial disco label Prelude during the late '70s and extending through... [+] Read More

Only Frankie Knuckles can lay claim to straddling a longer span of time in the thick of dance music than François Kevorkian. And though his name is no more than vaguely familiar to many dance fans, Kevorkian's influence is immense. Beginning with his production work for the crucial disco label Prelude during the late '70s and extending through an immense quantity of remixes and productions for legions of pop bands during the following decade, few producers did more to mechanize and refine the disco template into music clearly recognizable as house. After moving from his native France to New York City in the mid-'70s, Kevorkian learned the art of mixing from the era's most influential DJs (Walter Gibbons, Jellybean, Larry Levan). He began producing early reel-to-reel cut-ups, patterned on dub techniques, which pushed bouts of much-needed experimentalism into disco. He then brought the dance treatment to scores of alternative bands and pop stars who needed it during the 1980s and '90s. Unfortunately, Kevorkian never spent as much time on his own productions, releasing very few singles though he helmed his own imprint, Wave Records.

Born in Rodez, France in the mid-'50s, Kevorkian grew up in the suburbs of Paris, playing drums in several bands while studying biochemical engineering and pharmacy in college. After deciding to chuck in his studies, he moved to New York and began playing with any pick-up bands he could find. His first important work in the club-scene came when Kevorkian took a part-time gig at the club Galaxy 21 providing live fill-in drums for the DJ, Walter Gibbons. Though the club later closed, Kevorkian moved on to another named Experiment Four and became friends with its resident, Jellybean Benitez.

Kevorkian soon began producing his own tracks after he learned that Benitez owned a four-track reel-to-reel machine. Hoping to warp tracks for maximum dancefloor consumption, Kevorkian recorded dub-inspired cut-and-paste megamixes with splice and edit techniques, even adding special effects gained from movies and other sources. (One of his first productions, a version of "Happy Song and Dance" by Rare Earth, was a New York club staple for years afterward.) In mid-1977, he started DJing at a club known as New York, New York -- the premiere disco spot after Studio 54. While working there, Kevorkian met DJ legend Larry Levan and the two became fast friends. After Kevorkian was tapped for an A&R position at the disco label Prelude, he began working at the label's studios with Levan, creating mixes for the West End and Salsoul imprints as well as Prelude. Kevorkian's mix for Musique's 1978 single "Push Push (In the Bush)" went gold -- despite an obvious lack of chart action -- and his productions for another Prelude act, D-Train, resulted in additional club hits like "You're the One for Me," "Music" and "Keep On."

A talent for studio mixing and his requisite dancefloor credentials made François Kevorkian one of the most in-demand producers during the 1980s. An increased momentum during the decade for general dance music pushed labels to request special nightclub versions of pop songs for the dance crowd, and Kevorkian obliged hundreds of times, for such groups as Yaz, the Smiths, Depeche Mode, Diana Ross, Adam Ant, U2, Kraftwerk, Matthew Sweet, the Pet Shop Boys, Thomas Dolby, Ashford & Simpson and Erasure, among many others. In 1987, he founded Axis Studios as well, which provided a home for recording by Madonna, C+C Music Factory, Mariah Carey and Deee-Lite.

Given his busy studio schedule, it's no wonder Kevorkian neglected his DJing during most of the '80s. He returned to form in 1990, and travelled to Japan with Larry Levan for several high-profile gigs. Kevorkian became a label-owner as well in the '90s; his Wave imprint provided a home for several of his own productions, including 1997's pioneering FK-EP. The best document of his DJing skills, Essential Mix, appeared in 2000. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Opening with a looped Star Trek sample, Orbital's second album progresses through eight tracks of warm, unrepetitive techno in what sounds more like a DJ mix album than an LP, with no bows to mainstream sensibilities. Here, the duo's acknowledged inspiration from Kraftwerk, present before but always in the background, came to the fore. The... [+] Read More

Opening with a looped Star Trek sample, Orbital's second album progresses through eight tracks of warm, unrepetitive techno in what sounds more like a DJ mix album than an LP, with no bows to mainstream sensibilities. Here, the duo's acknowledged inspiration from Kraftwerk, present before but always in the background, came to the fore. The brilliant manner in which the Hartnolls weave several synth lines, samples, sung vocals, and percussion -- mathematically precise but still beautifully orchestrated -- updated Kraftwerk's mastery of minimalist electronic music. One of the highlights of the '90s techno movement, the "brown" album is still Orbital's most exciting work. [In 1998 Australian label Mushroom re-released Orbital 2 with the addition of a bonus disc containing a four-track Peel Session. The session was recorded sometime after Orbital 2's release and features a new version of "Lush," a version of Snivilisation's "Attached," and two more songs: "Walk About" and "Semi Detached."] ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

Who else but the techno godfather could sum up the music's history efficiently in less than an hour? Beginning with two Detroit classics (his own "No UFOs" and Derrick May's "Nude Photo"), Atkins plays connect-the-dots through garage and early house (Blaze, Martin Circus), minimalist techno (Rob Hood, Walt J) and the music's growing... [+] Read More

Who else but the techno godfather could sum up the music's history efficiently in less than an hour? Beginning with two Detroit classics (his own "No UFOs" and Derrick May's "Nude Photo"), Atkins plays connect-the-dots through garage and early house (Blaze, Martin Circus), minimalist techno (Rob Hood, Walt J) and the music's growing experimentalism during the mid-'90s (courtesy of Maurizio and his own Infiniti project). The mixing is much more raw than on a live Atkins date, perhaps a reaction to the dozens of seamless (read: overdubbed) mix albums already on the market. In any case, Wax Trax! Mastermix is an excellent trip through the annals of Detroit techno. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide [-] Hide

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Autechre creates a fascinating sonic world on their fifth album release, where electronic pulses and blips are used to create fantastic textural waves. Members Sean Booth and Rob Brown prove they've become masters of programming throughout, issuing a more than suitable follow-up to their critically praised 1995 release, Tri Repetae++ (1997's... [+] Read More

Autechre creates a fascinating sonic world on their fifth album release, where electronic pulses and blips are used to create fantastic textural waves. Members Sean Booth and Rob Brown prove they've become masters of programming throughout, issuing a more than suitable follow-up to their critically praised 1995 release, Tri Repetae++ (1997's Chiastic Slide wasn't considered a true follow-up by the band). Although it may be hard to take for those uninitiated into Autechre's unique style (it's hard to detect melodies upon first listen), you'll discover something new with each repeated listen. Since all the songs are cut from the same sonic cloth, the album is best when listened to in its entirety, but the tracks "Acroyear2," "Rae," and "Fold4, Wrap5" are definite highlights. Although not for everyone, LP5 should be admired, since it's not comparable to anything past or present. Uncompromisingly cutting-edge. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide [-] Hide