Likes Of You presents Carl Craig & Aeroplane

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The Likes Of You is set for a big return this December with the arrival of musical genius Carl Craig. Carl, founder and creator of Planet E recordings has been delivering world class sounds for over two decades cultivating his own unique sounds along the way.

Joining Carl is Belgium producer Aeroplane who has established himself as a party-starting DJ & remixer. Well known for his latest album "We Can't Fly" that provided touches of his nu-disco, soulful house trademark sound with respect to the sounds of his early 80's electronica influences.

This will be a landmark show for The Likes Of You and the perfect platform leading into the festival season. The Likes Of You returns again this year touring nationally with the Future Music Festival in March headlined by Aphex Twin and the one and only Sven Vath.

With so many great names already on the line up and more to be announced we have a lot to look forward to this summer.

Carl Craig is described as a creative visionary, an electronic music icon, an esteemed Grammy-nominated composer, a world-class DJ and an ambassador for his native Detroit. Yet the common thread that runs through Craig’s broad musical canon and creative projects is a resounding fascination with futurism. The 41-year old producer has cultivated a unique path as an artist, entrepreneur and civic leader, guided by his tendency toward forward thinking. Craig released his first track in 1989 on a Virgin UK compilation album, with two singles following on labels run by his first collaborator Derrick May. After a series of ambitious releases for his co-owned Retroactive imprint, in 1991 Craig launched his second record label Planet E with the groundbreaking EP “4 Jazz Funk Classics.” Still running strong, Planet E will turn 20 in October 2011. When Craig explains his philosophy, his wry sense of humor seeps into his explanations of far-reaching concepts that merge worlds together. “I have a very special career. When I feel that I’m tired of going on the road I can go in the studio. When I’m tired of concentrating on the studio I can go on the road. I can work with concert pianists, jazz musicians or rock guys. Very few people have that range of interests. Very few people juggle a career that they choose specifically.” No one else can pull it all together quite like Carl Craig.

Aeroplane is a one-man operation. Flying solo has given Vito the chance to flex his classically trained musical muscles: “Aeroplane has been put in the dance music category but I’m a songwriter, that’s what I know how to do. I wanted to go back to proper pop music, not being forced to do nine-minute tracks so the DJ can mix in before and after.” Aeroplane has never been at the mercy of traditional bpms, and being free of “the dancefloor pressure” has given Vito additional license to slow things down and look around. “I’m at my best at 105bpm,” he says. “That’s the speed where I make the best music. You can do more, there’s more groove, more feeling.” He’s not kidding. Take We Can’t Fly, the languid, show stopping anthem-to-be with which Aeroplane kicked off their landmark 500th Radio 1 Essential Mix at Circus in Liverpool earlier this year. Laying gospel harmonies over Compass Point-era Grace Jones reggae, blissed-out Rimini keyboards and kiddie vocal samples, its handsome proof that dancability and musicality don’t have to be mutually exclusive. It’s going to sound rapturous live, when Vito and an expanded on-stage line-up play Aeroplane’s first dates later this year. Being let loose in a proper, bells-and-whistles studio for the first time has been something of an eye-opener. “I’ve been recording in my bedroom for my entire life so it sounds a million times better,” says Vito. “I was totally like a kid in a sweetshop.” The results are spectacular - and at times intensely cinematic. The widescreen, string-splashed Mountains of Moscow is the soundtrack to the best Eighties blockbuster you’ve never seen, while London Bridge and Point of No Return are mini-epics of spiraling Floydian guitar riffs and plaintive Tangerine Dream synths. “That's my dream actually, writing scores for movies,” says Vito. “For me the Rocky soundtrack is at the same level as Dark Side of the Moon, it’s the same kind of perfection.”