K-Stone: Flesh 2 Flesh
From 12″ (Spontaneous, 1994)
Frank Hatchett: Clap Clap
From Taking Off (Statler, 198?)
I am, by nature, a packrat, especially when it comes to records. I tend to have an over-sentamentalized relationship with records, enough so that I’m loath to get rid of pieces out of my collection. But the truth is: I don’t need much (if not most) of what I have and increasingly, I’ve been trying to get rid of what I really don’t want/need.
Case in point, both songs today came off records that I owned for a minute and then decided, nah, these can go back. The first is from a 12″ by Detroit’s K-Stone, nowadays better known as Dogmatic from Eminem’s D12 offshoot group. What initially drew my attention was how this is a vaguely “conscious” song, meditating on K-Stone’s dead peers, armed with a beat that sounds like something Da Beatminerz might have left on an early demo tape. In the end, I thought, “eh, this is ok but will I ever 1) play it out or 2) put it on a tape?” Answer: no.
As for the Frank Hatchett – he’s like a Gus Giordano or Johnny Frigo-type who cut his own dance instruction albums, mostly on the Statler imprint. This is probably from the late ’70s or early ’80s based on the sound of it. The album had a few interesting tracks – “Clap Clap” being the best in the bunch. Reminds me a little of Blondie doin’ rap. The rest of the LP just wasn’t strong enough for me to ever pull it out again. So back it went.
The upside to all this: at least it gives me an excuse to digitize a few tracks.
By the way… one of my blog readers (Donger in the house) pointed me to this page: The Shadow Percussion Project. Basically, this guy in Minneosta, Brian Udeholfen, decided to notate some of the songs from Endtroducing into a form that a small ensemble could play. In the end, he worked with the Minnetonka High School Percussion and they staged a concert in May, performing “Building Steam With a Grain of Salt” and “Changeling.” Given that Shadow likes to compile high school band music together, it seems quite appropriate that a high school band should cover his music.
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