Cratebug
Cratebug's edits are secret weapons for Derrick Carter, Jackmaster, Kenny Dope & more – here, he moulds everything from Maya Angelou and Azymuth through Gary Beck and Todd Terje into his own vision of Chicago.
About this mix
Raised in Chicago (Shout to Pilsen, Logan Square and Humboldt Park); DJing since 1983; Remixing, editing, producing since 2009 where remixes of Yello's "Bostich" and of Francois Kevorkian's remix of Dinosaur L's "Go Bang" were my calling cards. In 2011 I joined forces with Jamie 3:26 (Google this cat. Trust.) to create the "Hit It N Quit It" edit – after 4 years, it's still killing house heads all over the world. Have had vinyls out on Lumberjacks In Hell, Grimy, KAT Records, Tugboat Edits, Derrick Carter's Persnickety Sounds and my own Bug Records. Incidentally, "Sinna Man" and "The Message" are due for vinyl release on Kenny Dope's DOPEWAX label in the latter months of 2015, so stay tuned.
I'm told I have a style. In all honesty, my 'style', in terms of remixing and production, derives and is heavily influenced by a conglomerate of the following:
At the top of the list, I am a Chicago DJ. I had doubles of everything on vinyl for scratching, tricks and live remixing. A big help was getting in the game before house music was House Music (and loving it from the jump when it did drop).
I heard early Chi DJs heard every day of the week on WCYC 90.5FM, 107.5 WGCI plus The Hot Mix 5 on 102.7 FM WBMX. It fostered exposure to the production, arrangement and styles of legendary American, French, Italian, Spanish and German DJs-turned-remixers, producers and artists behind countless classic Disco, Italo, High Energy, Techno and Electro joints
That was crystallised by the local records stores: Importes Etc, Loop Records, Hot Jams, Gramaphone Records. All served as hot beds of DJ activity and interaction and where I went to grab the "other stuff" and obscurities they didn't play on the radio.
Every track in this mix is either an edit or a personal reworked version; new and unreleased – and yes, all my edits are definitely Chicago. If my style screams anything, it screams CHICAGO.
A heartfelt thank you to Gabriel Szatan and Boiler Room for the invite. Enjoy.
Boiler Room says...
I had a lengthy "Cratebug bleeds Chicago" spiel ready to go, but flip back to his own description – the man has done my job for me, really.
'Chicago' as an all-consuming mindset is tricky to explain, but having experienced it as an outsider, it becomes strikingly apparent this isn't some hollow chest-thumping. It is a very specific type of provincial passion and one that people wear with immense pride.
If you look closely, you can see the edit maestro bobbing away at the back of both legs of our Celebration of Chicago; his collaborations with Jamie 3:26 filled the store at Gramaphone, before "Sinna Man" became a centrepiece highlight of Derrick Carter's immense closing bow at Smart Bar the following night.
Those earworms find their way into the fun final stretch of his Upfront, but not before everything from Maya Angelou and Azymuth to Steffi and Louie Vega get sliced 'n diced in Cratebug's own inimitable style. The mix almost runs counter-clockwise, winding backwards from chugging near-techno intensity, through those barnstorming edits and into high-energy disco + house to see us off.
The breadth, the creativity, the passion: like the man says, if it screams anything, it screams Chicago.
Tracklisting
Upfront mixes
Our weekly audio mix series where we call upon the most interesting artists/DJs/record labels and ask them to peer into the near future. How they take it from there is entirely open to interpretation.
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Ant*Zen / Hymen
Long time sensei, Stefan Alt, weds the electronica, ambient and noise brashness of his Ant*Zen and Hymen Records labels in this outstanding 76m brew.
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Mount Liberation Unlimited
A free-spirited live jam of 100% originals – every bit the equal of Magic Mountain High or any Giegling act. Hurl yourself into the unknown & achieve Liberation.