Planet E releases the Carl Craig documentary soundtrack

Carl Craig's Planet E Communications has released the soundtrack to "Desire: The Carl Craig Story," the documentary that traces the Detroit producer's life and career. The collection arrived digitally on June 20, 2025, with 2x12-inch vinyl and CD editions following on July 18, according to the label's release notes on Craig's Bandcamp page.

The set runs 17 tracks and works as a tour through Craig's catalog rather than a straight greatest-hits. It gathers material recorded under several of the names he has used over the years, including 69, Psyche/BFC, Designer Music, and Innerzone Orchestra, alongside the work issued under his own name. Familiar entries like "At Les" and "Bug in the Bassbin" sit next to deeper cuts.

The pull for longtime listeners is the rarities. Several tracks reach digital platforms here for the first time. "No More Words," originally released in 1991, has been remastered for 2025 and made available digitally to mark the film. "The Truth," recorded under the Designer Music alias, gets its first digital release on the compilation. The label is framing the set as a historic gathering of music that had never been available this way before.

The documentary behind it was directed by Jean-Cosme Delaloye and produced by Sovereign Films. It premiered at the Tribeca Festival in 2024 and opened in UK and Ireland cinemas in May 2025. The Detroit premiere ran at Michigan Central's Newlab on May 22, Craig's birthday, during the weekend of the Movement Music Festival, the Detroit electronic event Craig co-founded in 2000. The film follows his path from a middle-class Detroit upbringing to an international career, set against the city's own decline and recovery, and features interviews with figures including Gilles Peterson, Laurent Garnier, DJ Minx, and Kenny Larkin.

For anyone coming to Craig's work after seeing the film, the soundtrack is a usable entry point that the producer and his label assembled themselves. It is out now on Planet E.