Sunday, June 22, 2008

Konk


I first heard the track Konk Party on a DJ Thomas mix tape that was probably made around 1990ish. Never knew who the band was but years later I was out in NYC with my friend Manny and we spent a day or two with Thomas. I asked him about this track. He told me he had just seen a Konk album the day before at a street market and he'd see if it was there the next time he went by. Well, sure enough, he comes back with the album Jams.

Fast forward a year or two. I'm in Brussels cruising around and come across one of those antique-type shops that has comic books and records in a little upstairs room. Digging through a box I come across the Konk album Yo!. Then a few minutes later come across the original Konk Party 12". Both were a couple dollars. I held on to those things with my life for the next week until I came back home. Yo! is an amazing album. Released about five years before Jams, it's not quite as electronic and much more of a complete album. I wanted to play tracks from this album all the time at the bars and clubs, but tried to exercise some discretion, knowing what a needle can do to a record. The track "Baby Dee" turned up on some compilations, but the two I've included here are my favorites.

So I have to thank Thomas for, once again, turning me on to some great music. And for teaching me some invaluable DJ lessons. The most important: once you learn to beat-match and mix, the party really starts when you don't feel the need to do it all the time. Many DJs become stuck in that black vinyl prison of beat-matching and mixing every single track every single time. And boring us all to death. It's fine to get into a groove for a while, but it seems more fun to get out of a groove and get into another one, often and at the right time.

Download Suave y Caliente
Download Cool Out Gar

2 comments:

willywoollove said...

Thanks! I totally forgot about KONK. I'm gonna have o get their shit again.

KONK said...

Looking to get your groove on? Check out all the KONK at the OFFICIAL KONK home on the web. www.konknyc.com