El-P - Collecting the Kid

As soon as I heard El-P's I'll Sleep When You're Dead on Hugh's kitchen hi-fi in Swansea I knew I wanted to hear more of his music. The next opportunity I got was from this copy of Collecting the Kid which I found in Bart's CD Cellar in Boulder, Colorado (worth noting that the LPs at the time were on the first floor; I'm not sure there even was a cellar. Or a Bart). I had no idea what was on the album, but the words "Limited Edition" helped convince me further that it was worth buying.

Collecting the Kid is, as the name implies, a collection of odds and ends from around the time of Fantastic Damage. The songs are mostly instrumentals, but some are beats El-P made for other rappers, so we get their vocals too - Jukie Skate Rock and Oxycontin are great examples of the latter, featuring my introduction to Central Services. The instrumentals vary from quite good to absolutely amazing. Intrigue in the House of India from High Water is quite possibly the highlight of the album and is one of the finest instrumental hip-hop tracks I know. One of my favourite raps on Run the Jewels is when Killer Mike drops "Producer gave me a beat / Said it's the beat of the / I said El-P didn't do it / get the fuck out of here". This album is further testament to Mike's words. Slow Sex, Constellation and The Dance are all great too.

Whilst Collecting the Kid wasn't the best album to hear after becoming a fan on I'll Sleep When You're Dead, it's a great listen. It also showed me a hugely different side to his work that I might not have discovered so quickly otherwise. A short while later I found a copy of Company Flow's Funcrusher Plus, which might have been a more obvious sequel for me. Over the years I've listened to El's work in various form and all of it has been mind-blowing in some way - it's impressive that one man can excel in so many areas of music.

Format: Double 12"

Tracks: 11

Cost: £9.21 new

Bought: Bart's CD Cellar, Boulder

When: 18/04/08

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead

Before April 2007 I'd never heard of El-P. I was in Cardiff visiting a friend and we spent the Saturday morning visiting the record shops in town. In Fopp he picked up a copy of El-P's new-at-the-time album I'll Sleep When You're Dead which got him into a conversation with the fairly attractive woman at the till. As first impressions of musicians go, "El-P makes woman impressed by your music taste" is a pretty good one. She was noticeably underwhelmed by my choices, which really reinforced that idea in my mind.

Anyway, later in the day we got back to my friends house and he played me a couple of songs from the album whilst he cooked and I thought it was great. He started with The Overly Dramatic Truth and Flyentology, knowing that the Glassjaw and Nine Inch Nails cameos would appeal to me. It certainly worked and a few months later I stumbled across this vinyl copy in the HMV in Basingstoke (which shouldn't be ignored as something that happens easily - I'd rarely even seen the cd about, let alone the LP. That HMV didn't have a particularly great selection of vinyl but did have this. I've never seen the vinyl in a shop since. Sadly I was served by a dude who barely even looked at what I was buying). As if finding this album on vinyl (for a mere £11.50) wasn't enough, when I got home I discovered it also contained a bonus red 7" with alternate mixes of Smithereens and The Overly Dramatic Truth on; a very pleasant surprise indeed.

In the seven years since I bought this album, it's been consistently on very regular rotation. The beats are brilliantly dark in places and compliment the rapping perfectly. Most of the songs subtlety build up, gradually adding instruments and beats, until there's so much going on it's hard to concentrate on anything else (the drums-and-vocals-only mix of The Overly Dramatic Truth on the 7" is perfect example - the drums start off quite peacefully but but end up riotous before dropping away completely just leaving El's rap). There are highlights throughout the album, but Tasmanian Pain Coaster, Up All Night, Poisenville Kids No Wins and the entirety of side C are all worth calling out.

There's not a great deal of hip-hop in my record collection, but the albums I do have generally have some relation to El-P. Not only is I'll Sleep When You're Dead a great record, it introduced me to a wealth of other great music too. What more can you ask for?

Format: Double 12", 7", insert
Tracks: 15
Cost: £11.50 new
Bought: HMV, Basingstoke
When: 01/07/07
Colour: Black, Red 7"
Etching: none
mp3s: no