In Issue 32 XLR8R spoke with two of Detroit techno's second generation players, Carl Craig and Richie Hawtin. This exclusive transcript from the original article takes a look at what these guys were working on way back when.
Beyond Techno
Two self-styled purists with lofty high-art goals and ever-larger profiles, Richie Hawtin and Carl Craig aren't afraid of deserting the dancefloor in their quest for commercial and aesthetic success, leaving 'techno' for ever more abstract forms and dragging 'Detroit' from the stereotypes of the past. This is a look at the techno revolution the two leaders of 'Second Wave Detroit' inherited, subverted, and refined with the future still in mind.
By Beverly May
In the beginning...there was Jeff Mills and Derrick May, battling sounds and mixing styles in Detroit throughout the early to mid '80s with radio and competing DJ crews Direct Drive and Deepspace. Both Carl and Rich were first introduced to techno through Jeff, aka 'The Wizard': Carl through the clubs, Rich through radio. Carl used to help his cousin with his lighting company at all the Direct Drive parties, including at old Detroit club Chic's, where Jeff spun regularly. Rich remembers tuning in every night, "just listening and listening and listening" to the Wizard's massively popular show. Jeff introduced the genre, but Derrick was the model the two would follow later in the mid-late '80s; from Derrick's production as Rhythim is Rhythim to his DJing at the legendary Music Institute, Carl and Rich were hooked.
Describing himself as 'Mr. Derrick May' in terms of his musical influences at the time, Rich recounts hanging out with Kenny Larkin, "driving around Detroit, and all we used to do was listen to Derrick May mix tapes that Kenny had got off the radio, which we thought were just the bomb... I remember when I listened to Derrick's stuff...[it] was just beautiful but stripped down, with no vocals... Derrick was just the fucking future, that's what he was... and I remember hearing [his production] and everything seeming to make sense: everything I'd been through; everything I'd listened to; it all led to that point... [techno] was just this music that kept pushing forward, it was always reinventing itself and twisting itself, and that was what [inspired] +8 as well; we just wanted to push forward with new ideas."
Carl's first independent release, Psyche's "Crackdown" (1989) was actually on Derrick's label Transmat. "I knew techno was a revolution when I first heard it... techno was so far beyond. It was a revolution when Kraftwerk did it; it was a revolution when Juan [Atkins] did 'Night Drive'; [but] when Derrick did 'Strings of Life' that was an extreme revolution; it was so different."
If techno was a revolution, the Music Institute served as Headquarters, boot camp for both Carl and Rich with its stripped sweatbox style: just music, strobes, and membership. The sounds of revolution could be heard all around Detroit in techno's heyday; 20,000 copies of early classic records being bought in the city alone by "young, black, open-minded kids" eager for new sounds; massive radio airplay; a multitude of clubs pushing the scene forward-- it's easy for veteran Detroiters to become nostalgic. "That was a time when people in Detroit really came out. They didn't care that it was a Wednesday night, or a Monday night; they would come out because they just wanted to party. And that's when clubs dominated radio; now radio dominates clubs. We were trying to break out of that mode," reflects Carl.
Enter 1989-1990: the 'First Wave' of artists (Derrick, Kevin and Juan) are off in Europe, and their followers are feeling increasingly disenfranchised with the Holy Trinity hierarchy in the city. It was time to move on. "That's what the second generation was: [we] figured we had to help each other to get ahead, because the first generation wasn't going to help anyone," states Rich. Rich founds +8 with partner John Acquaviva, and Carl decides to found his own first label, RetroActive, with partner Damon Booker: "I wanted to be able to prove that I could run a label that was maybe as good as Transmat, or better, and be able to run it better."
Thus the 'Second Wave' of producers is born, a moniker referring to upstart labels RetroActive, +8, 430 West, and UR and so named after the second Virgin ‘Future Sound of Detroit’ techno compilation, 'Techno 2' (1989). But the 'Second Wave' inherited a very different Detroit and a different era for techno: Rich recalls that "by the time we got our shit out... there was no radio support; there wasn't even as much club support. There was only European support; that's what kept us all going... 430 West, UR, ourselves, we were all getting fucking shipped out of the country." Detroit didn't care anymore. Enter Second Wave ethics; trying to build back the city, to stay dedicated, to nurture the local economy for the long-term -perhaps trying to regain the thriving revolution of their youth. And if there are two people currently perceived to be leading 'Detroit' (aside from folk hero 'Mad' Mike Banks) further into the future and out from the underground, it's Rich and Carl -through business, through art, through hype. Both take on this role rather unconsciously; Rich frequently refers to himself in the role of teacher, talking about "his job" as artist of "opening people's minds" and "giving people something different" with everything he does. Carl talks about the city itself, recalling how "at one time, I would have loved to become Mayor of Detroit" because "there are a lot of people that need to be led, and that need to be instructed, and that need to be developed in some way or another that can help where the city's going to go later...the people here...are like sheep... and with our influences, with traveling the world...[we could] take these influences from around the world and bring [them] here."
Carl has an elaborate game plan for luring the next generation of Detroit back to techno: he talks about distributing hundreds of free mix tapes to local high schools, starting young to counteract the negative aspects of current Detroit radio. "Our minds were developed because of radio and a lot of these kids' minds are being developed because of radio... now in Detroit...it's even harder to sell records...because your record doesn't get played on the radio. People are regressing..."
But why Detroit-- a pining for the past, a fierce sense of loyalty? Don't be fooled, because the Second Wave is nothing if not pragmatic. Carl states, "it's better to be a big fish in a small pond than be a small fish in a big pond; by going to another city, any one of us would have to be different; our styles would have to change...I feel as though Detroit is the only place in the world that someone can come in and become part of something... I don't love Detroit over the fact that it's affordable, but I'm here and I've got to make shit happen."
Making shit happen means Rich opening a bar in Windsor and mandating that Minus, his new label, only sign local artists -so far it's just himself and Detroiter Dale Lawrence (Theorem). Carl talks of opening a club next year in conjunction with Kenny Larkin and Derrick, and dreams of the time when "Planet E might be able to build a skyscraper or some type of multi-faceted, multi-million dollar kind of development." He's also pushing locals through his label: Moodymann exposure beyond Kenny's (Dixon Jr) former limited-pressing Soul City 12 inch EPs, Detroit studio geek Rec's first release as Recloose, 'So this is the Dining Room', and relaunching Kevin Saunderson's career with first 'Faces and Phases' and the current first-ever E-Dancer album.
But just as hard as Carl is trying to build the city up, he's also tearing it down, running away from the confines of the past and trying to start something new. He makes it clear that Planet E is NOT just about Detroit: "People [in Detroit] only see what's in front of their faces, and my whole idealism is imagining what's outside of Detroit; experiencing what's happened in Europe and Asia and NY." 'I don't care who makes records as long as [the music] is right for Planet E... music is universal, music is about the world, not the city."
Carl isn't anti-Detroit; he's anti-techno, and anti-labeling and restrictive attitudes. It's a rebellion against the past and against parochial thinking -Carl is global in every sense of the term. "I want to be beyond [techno]....I'm from Detroit, but I try not to use that motif as a selling point because it's all down to the music, not where it's from. People have always looked at me that way: Carl Craig, Derrick May's protégé from Detroit." That's why Carl began recording as 69: "69 wasn't seen as 'by Derrick's protégé'; nobody knew who the fuck 69 was; it was space-age; it was...just completely out there...I just want people to think of my music as being music rather than [Detroit techno]."
And so while the second generation was fueled on the raw grit of techno's birth, increasingly second-wave leaders have grown bored of even the very concept of dance music: Carl immersing ever deeper into jazz instrumentation, Rich ever more minimal. And it is definitely partly a rebellion. It's getting beyond the past, beyond techno, beyond Detroit, beyond labeling, beyond beyond beyond, well into the future -that's where Carl and Rich intersect. "Musically we are...on the same level in what direction we're going because both of us... look at the experimentation of the style as being what's necessary to keep [techno] alive in the 21st century," mentions Carl. "Making the music better...every time it comes out; I think that's [our] goal." Rich agrees: "maybe we hope there's more meaning to this than just the kick. Maybe we both just don't want to be defined by that [anymore]; that's what we weaned ourselves off of, and it's time to take that part out and see what's left."
So Techno is now officially a 'mental revolution' of the Inner Zone, not a raw physical beat. "I wasn't making raw music" anyway, says Carl of his early focus. "Revolution in art is...mental, because you have to use your mind... [and] concepts to be able to express yourself; you have to use your soul and heart as well... but it is the mind" that drives the music forward. Hence Carl's chosen recording names: Innerzone Orchestra ("Innerzone is your mind"), his LP 'More Songs About Food and Revolutionary Art' ("the food is the mind"), Planet E ("the communication between earth and space"). Rich, for his part, is subtracting beats with M-nus, not adding them: "I don't like the way that the beat justifies how far things can go [in techno]...and how it puts a perimeter on what we can experience...it's really hard when everything comes down to always continually surrounding this fucking kick drum."
Beyond the beat, but based in Detroit. Enough hype has been written about the raw Detroit urban environment and how it inspired this sublime, refined techno, a simplistic urban happy-ending story. Yet, Detroit remains a source of inspiration for both artists, the same source sounding the 'Leaders of the Second Wave' from the classics of the past into the art of the future.
Posted by Jennifer Marston on August 2, 2006 07:16 PM
