Capitol K
XL Recordings/Beggars Group
Capitol K is the work of Kristian Craig, a self-diagnosed hyperactive dyslexic who has already seen much of the world at the tender age of 26 -- all facts which should come as no surprise to anyone who's heard his music. Craig's peculiar, nearly uncategorizable compositions are filled with the kind of inversions, reversals, substitutions, unexpected combinations you might expect of a nonlinear, unconventional thinking process. The pieces are touched by an unpredictable exoticism that suggests their maker has been inspired by many strange sounds from many strange locales. And they're afflicted with a hopping, squirming, zany manic energy that's rather unlike anything you've ever heard before.
Craig was born in Malta, lived for awhile in Dubai, and then in Borneo, where he attended a Muslim school and spoke Arabic. Later he attended secondary school in England, where he was exposed to the weird guitar aerobics of American indie rock stalwarts like Sonic Youth and Fugazi. Somewhere along the way he acquired a guitar, a sampler, a mixing board, a delay box, a Dictaphone, and an Atari, and with this arsenal he began crafting his idiosyncratic music, mixing his diverse influences into glitchy and twitchy experimental sound collages that often incorporated pleasing pop hooks. While some have drawn comparisons to Mouse on Mars and Autechre, Craig's fusion of offbeat electronic wizardry with organic elements, his mashing together of ethnic idioms, and his imploded pop dynamics all set his work apart from anyone else out there. Capitol K debuted in 1999 with Sounds of the Empire and returned three years later with the stellar featured album, Island Row.
Jesse Ashlock
last updated:
06/19/02
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