Ok, I promise to quit kvetching about SoundCloud soon enough, but the material just keeps piling up. So permit me one more for now, a little ludic repair, if you will, courtesy of Carl Craig, rightly revered innovator of Detroit techno’s so-called “second wave.” (Here’s a recent interview if you’ve got some catching up to do.)

Like fellow Detroiter and techno trailblazer Kevin Saunderson (as recounted here), Craig has taken to SoundCloud to stage a playful response to his discovery that a classic production of his, an early 90s release under the pseudonym Paperclip People, had been “bootlegged” — i.e., edited and supposedly “mashed up” with another track, then released as an anonymous 12-inch (“Track 3” by “Unknown Artist”) with no attribution of the original.

For the record (ahem), here’s a vinyl rip of a recent reissue of “Climax” on Craig’s label, Planet E.

Rather than simply giving the infringing track away as Saunderson did, Craig has gone one better: he’s remixed the bootleg, no doubt improving it (though it’s hard to say without any comparison), and he has invited others to do the same. (To be clear: though I’m getting to it late here on the blog, Craig’s actions precede Saunderson’s by a few weeks and, for all I know, may have inspired them.)

Now shared globally as “The Climax Bootleg” Craig describes what he’s done as a “re-appropriated re-edit of the appropriated version” —

The Climax Bootleg by carlcraignet

He explains the situation in a comment on the SoundCloud page, which gets a little confusing/amusing (links & emphasis added):

Quinto did a re-edit of my re-edit of the mash up of my paperclip people version of my original version that was released on Retroactive (my 1st label) back in 1990 and re-issued on my current label, planet e communications (20yrs this year!!!), that also included a fantastic ‘reshape’ by basic channel…anyway, Quinto’s version continues this language that i wanted to start. this is why i am giving away this download to you for “freeeeeeeeeeeeee”. so, i want to hear your ‘new’ versions or reedits (theres some work involved) and i will post them here on my soundcloud page which will link to my carlcraig.net site. global forum here folks. much love from detroit…c2

You’ll note that Craig’s edit contains a wonky piano line (if not in the strict sense), which is apparently sampled from the unauthorized “mash up” (whether the use of mash up in Craig’s discussion is “strict” is also unclear to me since I haven’t heard the “original” “bootleg”; he does seem to enjoy playing loose with all “this language,” as he puts it). Commenters are torn on whether they like the “re-appropriated re-edit” at all: some express that it fails to improve on the original and hence extends and glorifies an insult; others appear to dig the new version, even the piano part.

Some remixers / re-editors have run with the new elements while injecting their own, others have hearkened back a bit more to the spirit of the original. Here are several, the titles of which, in some cases, get more and more recursive as they go (the sounds too):

TheclimaxbootlegreditremixC2 “The Climax Bootleg (re-appropriated re-edit)” Quinto Remix by carlcraignet

“The Climax Bootleg (re-appropriated re-edit)” Quinto Remix” GuyHom Remix by carlcraignet

The Climax Aronika Re-Bootleg by carlcraignet

C2-TheClimax-GuyHom-REdestruction by carlcraignet

Perhaps you’d care to join in the fun and try your hand at one? Gotta love a little collective, creative clowning.

Of course, there’s an interesting, though somewhat vague, distinction being drawn here between remixes, reedits, and bootlegs, generally turning on questions of commerce and attribution. At least for Craig, you get the sense that it’s one thing to edit/remix/mashup something and post it on the web; it’s another to press it up (or compress it up, into an MP3) and sell it without sharing the proceeds or the credit.

One key footnote here, as Craig himself points out, is that there have been many authorized remixes of “Climax,” including a “reshape” by Basic Channel. Here are a couple:

And you might be familiar with this Avalanches track, employing a subtle sample of “Climax” at the 4 minute mark —

— which Craig, in turn, himself (in the guise of Paperclip People) appears to have remixed (?!?!!):

& on & on we go, cloudy as ever…