Don't Forget The Motor City

Carl Craig is a techno mastermind, the key man in the second generation of Detroit house djs and producers. He embodies all those quotes about house/techno being Kraftwerk and Funkadelic stuck in a lift while The B52s are playing, and he makes genuinely emotive machine music with a huge sweep and range. I remember when Paperclip People's album came out being awestruck by it. A group of us saw him play at Sankey's Soap at some point in the 90s, and a friend (who would notice this type of thing) claimed that Carl was mixing on the basslines not the beat, which seemed really clever. I hadn't noticed, being too busy dancing. His first solo album was Landcruising, which had a motorcar theme, appropriately enough for Detroit. This is the opener- Mind Of A Machine.

Mind_of_a_Machine.mp3

Let Me Take You To A Place I Know You Want To Go

Detroit garage rock band The Dirtbombs have done an album of covers of Detroit techno. It's much better than it could have been, although their version of Bug In The Bassbin goes on for about seventeen minutes too long and Strings Of Life doesn't entirely work to these ears. Techno legend Carl Craig was so intrigued he got involved in it, not quite able to believe a guitar, bass and drums band would have a go at this, never mind do it well. This track is ace- a garage rock cover of Inner City's Good Life. The sun's out here and it almost feels like the end of winter so 'Let me take you to a place I know you want to go...'

Dirtbombs_-_Good_Life.mp3