Dont Expect A ‘typical Club Experience At Techno Fixture Carl Craigs New MOCA Exhibit
Sharing a dance floor is a bonding experience, whether it's 30 people in a ballroom or thousands in a club. But as strong as that bond is, two sweaty ravers don't have the same experience.
Music producer and DJ Carl Craig, one of the pioneers of the Detroit techno scene, knows this better than anyone. Craig, 53, has been traveling the world for more than 30 years and is considered one of the leading figures of the genre's second wave. A slow weekend consisted of two performances for him. Often there are four, each in a different country.
In Carl Craig: Party/After-Party, which opens this weekend at the Geffen Contemporary Warehouse at MOCA, Craig transforms a warehouse party into a museum installation that transcends for those who love and think techno. Go to the party from his point of view. "The party/after party is a play on words, a play on ideas," says Craig. The Personality area is literally a dark warehouse with flashing colored lights. After-Party examines the difference in how Craig and his audience spend their evening after the club has closed.
"I want people to understand that it's not just about fun and games," Craig said. "For me it means going back to the hotel after the party and living with my tinnitus, trying to sleep and dealing with the anxiety and the madness that's going through my head. When you experience tinnitus, ask yourself, 'Will it ever go away? away Will I hear more of this fight in my ears?
Although the term is used by the general public as an umbrella term for electronic music, techno has a distinctive sound defined by a single four-digit rhythmic rhythm pattern. Based on the work of the German electronic band Kraftwerk, a group of black musicians from Detroit, the genre that emerged in the late 1970s and early 80s named Craig used his background as a musician to create "Party/After-Party". Commissioned by the Dia Art Foundation, it is Craig's first visual artwork and premiered at the Dia Beacon in New York.
"Party/After-Party" was born out of a soundscape that takes the audience on a party-after-party journey. Craig composes sounds ranging from techno beats to white noise to frequencies only audible to older listeners. The 30-minute composition works with software that makes random changes to sound elements such as drums or bass lines. This makes each iteration a little different, like experiencing a live DJ set.
Although the track is set in a warehouse and is not timed, the transition from the "party" segment to the "after-party" is evident in tone and attitude. The barn is dotted with colour-changing LED lights designed by Craig in collaboration with artist John Torres. Inside the venue, a transparent rolling wall blends in with the surroundings, dividing the crowd in two and encouraging revelers to bring their own choreography. Speakers hang from the ceiling and cluster around the room to use sound design to transport the audience to what co-curator Alex Sloane calls the "sweet spot."
When in the sweet spot, the sound is loud enough to cause body vibrations. A growing variety of voices can be heard around the edge, sharing secrets between those who choose to take over the party from the edge of the dance floor. The transition from "party" to "post-party" is marked by a final burst of natural light streaming through the barn's skylights, programmed to unfold to the rhythm of the soundscape.
Los Angeles isn't the most obvious place for "party/after-party." Craig has no roots here, and the town isn't widely considered a style mecca. But most cities don't have museums with so-called warehouses — museums with industrial roots that were later used as police camps, just waiting to be reclaimed as a radical space for experimentation and art. This made the MOCA the perfect venue.
"Fabric isn't for every room," says Sloane. “It's a very special place. This place represents Detroit's warehouse party, the industrial space where techno was born.”
Although the soundscape is similar to Dia Beacon's installation, the warehouse's architecture explains how the piece evolved to reside in MOCA. Diana has skylights instead of windows. These skylights had to be installed to open to the rhythm of the sounds. Changes in light and climate affect how the work is experienced and create each iteration of the novel.
Los Angeles is not Detroit or Chicago with its 2 curfews and sprawling facilities that often attract the club. Many Los Angeles clubs and venues are owned by ticketing conglomerates Goldenvoice and Live Nation, and serve as bases for future festival bookings, often leaving little room for artists or the underground scene to get involved in the club ecosystem.
Instead of bringing the "party/after-party" to a city with decades-old techno clubs, Craig wanted to keep it in a less obvious place. "LA isn't known for a lot of underground clubs. That makes it more interesting," he says.
MOCA's Little Tokyo is a stone's throw from Exchange LA, an EDM-oriented club with the occasional techno talk, and 1720, a warehouse-style, multi-genre venue. It's eight miles from Sound, a popular club that books techno DJs. But local fans of the genre know the city's offerings don't stop there. The underground scene mostly plays out in savory warehouses, much like Craig's "party/after-party" vibe.
“Techno is booming in Los Angeles. Los Angeles resident Michael Frazier, who DJs as Money Frazier, says we've definitely turned the negative into a positive by closing clubs so quickly. . "
For Bahar Khadem, the San Fernando Valley resident behind the Direct Drive Warehouse Party, the techno parties pushing into the city's outskirts are a plus. "The great thing about LA's geographic makeup is that despite the long distances between most destinations, LA's nightlife is concentrated in the DTLA warehouse district, making partying easily accessible," he said.
The installation will be a series of "Party/Re-Party Sessions" events taking place at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary with Los Angeles-based festival organizers Insomniac and Secret Project. Artists featured include DJ Holographic, Moritz von Oswald, King Britt and Craig.
Those miles on the dance floor will notice Easter eggs sarcastically tossed by DJs at eager listeners (horns, anyone?). But whether the customers are at the warehouse party or not, Craig wants people to let go of their expectations of him as a DJ and still experience the "party/after-party." "People want to throw their hands up," he says.
"My career has always been about thinking outside the box," he adds. “If one risk doesn't work, I try another until it works. It's really helped me expand my legacy, not just as a musician but as an artist.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
