“This isn’t just a live performance of my new album, this is my new business card. I’m no longer Carl Cox the DJ, I’m Carl Cox the artist.”
That’s what legendary decksmith Carl Cox told me ahead of his first live performance of his new Electronic Generations album — his first in 10 years — at a sold-out Wembley Arena in November.
I had the pleasure of DJing with Coxy in Dublin at the Ormond Centre, SFX and the Point Depot in the 90s when he was known as the three-deck wizard.
Fast forward three decades and it’s not three Technics turntables he’s performing with, it’s banks of synthesisers, loop stations, samplers, effects units, drum machines and gadgets galore. Wembley Arena was the first page in a new chapter of the relentlessly successful Carl Cox story.
That seismic Wembley show was cutting-edge — Carl is still innovating at the age of 60 and he insisted that all of the support acts were live electronic music performers too and not DJs.
This spectacular triumph of the electronic music arts — at a 12,500-capacity arena steeped in musical heritage — was meant to take place in October, the day after Electronic Generations was first pencilled in for release.
“The music is the same as a Carl Cox DJ set in the sense that it’s just straight-up house and techno, beats and basslines designed to move the mind, body, and soul. Except the difference is that it’s all music I have been making with all these machines and I’m playing it live.”
The queen’s death saw Carl’s show postponed out of respect until November, while the pummelling no-compromise long player — arguably the best work of his lengthy career — only dropped this month on the BMG stamp where he released his first single, I Want You Forever, back in the early 90s.
“This music is the most true to me that I’ve ever made. I was making music without even thinking about making music. It’s raw and natural and from the heart. The album is about my musical journey past, present, and future.
“I sent BMG my tracks and they loved them and said ‘We want to sign you for three albums. This is the Carl Cox sound we want.’”
New direction
He’s the first to admit that this new direction all came about because of the enforced lockdown, when he started playing around with the music gear, vintage instruments and modular synthesisers in his studio.
“I had all this free time and so I started doing my vinyl live streams and I started jamming with all of this gear I’d built up. I began making loops and samples, jamming with synths and drum machines. I started recording my jamming sessions and it evolved from that.”
Now back to his globe-trotting ways after two years in his home studio, Carl has already got the follow-up set of remixes in the bag and lined up for a 2023 release.
And his passion for discovering new music and fresh talent is as strong as ever. He heaped praise on Irish techno warrior Rebuke, describing him as a producer "with his own sound, he's someone with a big future ahead of him."
Those who missed the Wembley Arena show will get to see Carl’s Hybrid Live show in Ireland next May when he headlines the country’s most esteemed electronic music event, Life Festival.
“I love playing Ireland. For years I did a lot of work with John Reynolds (who tragically passed away in 2018 - Ed) whom I loved to work with. I was really sad to hear of his passing, I was shocked. He was a special guy. Ireland has lost a great promoter.
“Irish clubbers have always been very good to me. I’ve had so many great nights in Belfast at Shine, down in Cork and at the old Point Depot, what a sweatbox that was. I can’t wait to get back to Ireland again.”
Carl Cox Electronic Generations is out now on BMG.
Carl Cox plays Life Festival, Belvedere House, Mulling, May 28-28, 2023.
Carl plays Emerge Music Festival August 26 and 27, 2023, at Boucher Playing Fields, Belfast.
Tickets for both festivals are on sale from Ticketmaster.
All photos courtesy of Dan Reid.
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