Mo' Wax (1998)

When it comes to the record game I try to live with few regrets. It could easily get way depressing mourning all those joints passed over at the thrift store only to realize what they were later, getting to crates at shows a second too late and seeing dudes pull heavyweight shit, and the countless eBay auctions lost at the last minute. Right now I can only think of three moments that still bug me: almost hooking up the Sun Ra Batman novelty record at a flea market, spending way too much for a Solaris OST that turned out to be an '80s reissue (awesome cover though), and not buying OG pressings of the major DJ Krush Mo'Wax releases in one fell swoop during my froshmen year of college.

In terms of hip-hop shit, 1998 was still a real good year for me, Doomsday, Aquemini, Book of Human Language, countless promo singles from Slip N Slide. But Mo' Wax records were still where it was at as "trip-hop" hadn't quite become a dirty word yet. I will never forget pawing over still sealed import copies of Meiso, Milight and Holonic 'The Self Megamix' at my local record store. The prices of course were way too much for my non-job-having student self. I think I bought the OG Doomsday instead, which in the long run wasn't a bad move. After I got home I decided I was going to save up some loot to get the Krush LPs, but like an idiot didn't think to call and have them held for me. Two weeks later and a couple chicken sandwiches and required books lighter I returned to no avail -- they were long gone.

Twelve years later, I found myself in another record store in the same town. Lo and behold there was a copy of Holonic, and, even better than scoring the other Krushes, copies of both the Headz 2A and 2B boxsets. I can understand the argument that the music and the whole vibe that came with it hasn't aged very well, but I guess I'm still like fuck that this was my shit. Krush beats are still my music for long drives at night and Ben Drury's layouts of the Futura 2000 installation are still unbeatable. Mo' Wax please.