Susie Davis – keyboards on "Wolf in Sheeps Clothing"
Lisa Fischer – backing vocals
Mick Jagger – harmonica on "Take a Stroll"
Melle Mel – vocals on "See the Fire Burning"
Cindy Mizelle – backing vocals
A heavy stylistic shift for the Tackhead crew, Strange Things sees them almost completely swerve away from their unique blend of Industrial Hip-Hop and Dub/Reggae-stylings to rather straightforward Funk Rock with embellishments. I do mean that as well, aside from some tape-experiments and the occasional sample-work, this is the band going down on some rather normal Funk-grooves, sometimes rocking harder (Super Stupid), sometimes leaning harder on the groove (the title track), but it all just feels weirdly undercooked. Excuse the comparison, but a lot of this material sounds like Living Colour outtakes from their first and second albums, which to me kind of explains why Doug Wimbish would join them only two years later. However, in the last quarter there are some tracks that are closer to the previous Tackhead sound, Change and Positive Suggestion, and unsurprisingly they are the best tracks on the album.
This is the last album Tackhead would produce for a whopping 24 years, and I think I can tell why. There was obviously some tension in the band as to where to go next, as some people obviously wanted their Funk Rock, Adrian still tried to get the sound design and samples in order, some wanted to Rock harder, and others just wanted to write "normal" songs. The Tackhead crew wouldn't go defunct, not remotely, they would go through multiple different names and keep working with each other, just without much full-length projects. That's understandable, sometimes things grow apart like that. Strange Things is a weird end to the original Tackhead-era, but a fun curiosity all the same.
Piece of art, from one of the best dance supergroups, the album remastered in brilliant digital audio quality and all the 12" mixes and B-Sides from the singles and 12"s released alongside it. One of my favourite albums and a must for any fan, especially for the bonus tracks and well worth a listen if you're interested or into On-U-Sound stuff, totally recommended.
Recorded at Unique Recording, NYC, & Matrix and Southern Studios, London. Mixed at Southern Studios.
Genuinely bizarre genre-mixing, and not in the way you expect, Friendly as a Hand Grenade throws more straightforward Funk into Tackheads proto-Industrial Hip-Hop to... weird effects. The thing with genre-mixing like this is usually that you can really point to the certain elements and name where they are from, but with Tackhead, this feels way more directly mixed in together than with different acts. Sure, you got the drum-machines going haywire, the Industrial bleeps and bloops and occasional rattling percussion, the Funk guitar and the soulful singing, but the end-result sounds like nothing in their respective genres. No, it all comes together in these weirdly repetitive but detailed sound-pieces that Doug and Skip are singing on about South Africa, scammy churches, the military and way more, which should sound a bit more forceful, but ultimately goes into this weird pocket where it once again sounds like a call to action, but, like, more 80s.
How you define this album is kinda moot, because this is some of the most "post-genre" (I hate that term) music that came out of the 80s. If you are interested in some genre-mixing that truly goes off the rails in multiple unexpected ways with some thought-provoking lyrics, this is for you. Check out Airborn Ranger and Ticking Time Bomb to test the waters, though. Genuinely not for everyone, but a very, very fascinating listen all the same.
Prior to the release of this first album proper, the members of Tackhead (NJ slang for home-boy) possessed musical CVs (both individually and collectively) which would prick up the ears of any road-sore muso. While guitarist Skip McDonald and bassist Doug Wimbish’s beginnings in the spangled days of New York disco (playing on such cult classics as ‘Push Push in the Bush’… ahem) may not bode too well for a successful career in music, in 1979 they moved to the newly formed Sugarhill Records and were teamed up with a sensational young drummer called Keith LeBlanc. The three became the label’s house-band and provided the funked-out grooves for the three most seminal rap recordings: ‘Rapper’s Delight’; ‘The Message’; and ‘White Lines’.
At the same time LeBlanc was also recording solo work - his album ‘No Sell Out’ is credited as one of the first albums to employ extensive sampling (featuring numerous cut-ups of speeches from Malcolm X) – and it was this which drew the attention of London-based dub-afficiando, and On-U label owner, Adrian Sherwood. He invited the three musicians over to work on a new experimental project, eventually named Fats Comet. Once united in London, it quickly became evident that their studio forays were developing into two distinct strands; the less commercial of these strands they decided to release on an album called ‘Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System: Tackhead Tape Time’ – and the unique mix of dub, funk, rock and rap proved to be an instant cult success. Fats Comet was laid to rest, and Tackhead proper was born.
Meanwhile, the gang of four somehow also found time to provide backing for Mark Stewart (former Pop Group front man) as the Maffia. This resulted in what still remains some of the most freaky trashed hip-hop metal music ever envisaged – best evidenced on ‘The Game’ 12”.
‘Friendly As A Hand Grenade’ is where I discovered them. Not for the first time, it was the title which intrigued me (that and a lot of my crusty agit fanzine-writing pals recommended it). When I heard the first track, ‘Ska Trek’ (yes, the clue is in the title), my first thought was ‘somebody’s been widing me up’. My second thought, moments later, was ‘this is fuckin’ tops!’. When ‘Tell Me The Hurt’ kicks in the funk is fully resolved – trimmed and hung with the glittering soulful voice of sometime vocalist Bernard Fowler. ‘Mind and Movement’ and ‘Stealing’ plough similar funky sampled furrows to LeBlanc’s solo work. While ‘Airborn Ranger’ (definitely the album’s centre-piece) rocks a huge fat smoking one, taking the old US Marine chant and going to work on it. Every time Skip’s soaring “the animals went in two-by-two, hurrah! hurrah!” guitar line flies in toward the end, my feet leave the ground.
The album funks and rocks on through the dub mantra of ‘Body To Burn’, the kicking ‘Demolition House’, the spot-on political doublet ‘Free South Africa’ and ‘Ticking Time Bomb’, and is resolved with perfection by a reprise of ‘Ska Trek’. It’s really pointless to try and pick apart each track individually, not because I’m being lazy, but because I listen to this album so often that these songs have become friends. They all work so well, have so many strengths and so few flaws, that I just can’t subject them to the critical microscope. This album reflects every era of funk from the early 70’s, through disco, early rap, up to the touch-bass and sampling techniques of the modern-day. It is performed by musicians at the pinnacle of their creed. But does it rock?
Oh, it rocks. Tackhead achieve what Living Colour strived to achieve – but they do it without even trying, and then push on to further uncharted territory; and all this before breakfast.
They attained critical acclaim and a little commercial success with the slightly tame follow-up album ‘Strange Things’, but following this they have concentrated on side-projects such as Strange Parcels, Interference, and Little Axe (the world’s first dub-blues band). As well as providing session backup and remixes for the likes of George Clinton, James Brown, Miles Davis, BB King, Bomb The Bass, Depeche Mode, Jello Biafra, Seal, Brooklyn Funk Essentials, and ABC.
Live, they are unbelievable. The hard-to-find 1990 album ‘En Concert’ (released on Plus Au Sud), recorded live at the Ritz NY in 1988, testifies to this. With covers of ‘The Message’ and ‘Crosstown Traffic’ so fierce that they could cause cerebral damage with the right headphones. I saw them live back in 1990, at Leeds Coliseum, and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone rock so hard. I danced my little booties off all night!
I also remember going home, grinning about the video montage accompanying one of the tracks (‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing’) which featured clips from ‘An American Werewolf in London’ cut with stock footage of that Thatcher creature.
Starting off with a Prince Buster cover and progressing through ten tracks of surprisingly slick funk-rock, Friendly as a Hand Grenade is a bit of a surprise after the harder studio effects of Tackhead-related projects like Major Malfunction and Tackhead Tape Time. The addition of vocalist Bernard Fowler (formerly of the Peech Boys) provides much of the soul.
Keith Le Blanc loves percussion. More specifically, Keith Le Blanc loves the drums. And drumming. And sampling, sequencing, cutting, and pasting. And he’s the man behind some of the earliest, most primitive, and most innovative drum machine-programming known to man. Keith Le Blanc’s obsession at times borders on the genius. All of those passions, and more, are evident on what I believe to be his most consistent piece of work to date; the 1989 album Stranger Than Fiction. (Although in saying that, his 1986 release Major Malfunction is more often cited by critics as his landmark work).
Well-travelled producer extraordinaire Le Blanc first made a name for himself as part of the original Sugarhill scene back in the early Eighties. He and the likes of Doug Wimbish and Skip ’Little Axe’ McDonald - both of whom also feature on here - worked closely with Grandmaster Flash and various other early iconic Rap artists. If I’m not mistaken, it was Le Blanc who provided the beats behind ‘The Message’ and he himself released one of the true Electro classics from that era - ‘Malcolm X:No Sell Out’ - on the then-fledgling Tommy Boy label. From there Le Blanc, Wimbish, and McDonald all went on to form the backbone behind the acclaimed hard Dub/Funk-orientated Tackhead, their output through the late Eighties and early Nineties being quite prolific - some of their best stuff coming out on Adrian Sherwood’s On-U Sound label. Le Blanc & co. have also released work under a variety of other aliases (see: Fats Comet, Strange Parcels, among others) and Le Blanc himself has been quietly working his way around the fringes of a whole spectrum of different electronic genres during two decades of huge technological expansion. Quite simply, the man’s a legend. Or at least he should be.
Although Stranger Than Fiction might be considered slightly flawed due to some of the sudden, almost cut-throat changes of pace it inflicts upon the listener, it is - rather perversely - an album perhaps best listened to in one sitting; that every track is well worth listening to means that you’d only end up missing some of the best bits if you attempted to pick and mix to any great extent. Le Blanc samples and namechecks a vast array of historic and iconic figures, everybody from Einstein (on ‘Einstein’ - oddly enough) to Count Basie (on ‘Count This’) to Lenny Bruce (on the superb and very funny closing track ‘Comedy Of Errors’). Vocalists - sampled or otherwise - include Gary Clail and the late Andy Fairley, while Le Blanc again surrounds himself with a first-class posse of top session musos who provide the multiple layers atop of his eclectic beats.
What we end up with is an album that almost defies description; moments of what can only be described as pounding industrial Hip-Hop followed by interludes of ambient spaced-out synth - such as on the track ‘Men In Capsules’. There’s even a Jazzy vibe to it in parts. A little bit of everything in fact. It’s also an album that (lyrically) doesn’t shy away from the various political and social issues of the day - thanks to plenty of clever sampling - but mostly it’s an album that contains a helluva lot of exceptional soundscaping work from the master himself. The fact remains - for all of his talent, for all that his work has had an enormous amount of influence across several of the more obscure genres in existence, and for all that he has worked with some of the very best names in the business, Keith Le Blanc is still relatively unknown (in a commercial sense). Now that really is stranger than fiction. Or perhaps not. I love this CD, a personal favourite, it sits permanently on the very brink of my all-time Top 25 albums, but that doesn’t mean everyone will appreciate it.
Another record with LeBlanc taking top billing, this is yet another exercise in Sherwood's wildly original Tackhead "empire." Unlike Major Malfunction, this is a little more restrained, but with people like Gary Clail and Sherwood involved, easy listening this ain't. LeBlanc gets all the writing credits, and he's done a great job of coming up with a challenging assortment of material. At times fiery and polemical, at others unhinged and dadaesque, Stranger than Fiction is another interesting, at times compelling work from this unique musical collective.
Keith LeBlanc – drums, percussion, keyboards, editing, engineering
Skip McDonald – guitar, keyboards, engineering
Nick Plytas – keyboards
Adrian Sherwood – sampler, programming, engineering, mixing
Doug Wimbish – bass guitar, keyboards, guitar
Dog – keyboards ("Move")
It is more than a little disingenuous to refer to this as a Keith LeBlanc album. While his considerable drumming skills and compositional abilities are major parts of why this record is good, there are many other similarly important contributions made by Adrian Sherwood's Tackhead gang (including Sherwood himself). That said, Major Malfunction is a wild, multifaceted piece of contemporary music that welds hard rock onto reggae onto musique concrete. With vocal sampling including everything from Apollo control to Margaret Thatcher, this is a complex, but extremely satisfying work. Avoid if your taste in music (or in Tackhead recordings) doesn't run to the extreme end of experimental.
Major Malfunction was drummer Keith LeBlanc's first full-length album, and it still sounds great today! I had it on vinyl shortly after it came out back in '86, along with several other albums by Tackhead and related projects, but I didn't pick it up on CD until recently.
Tackhead was Keith LeBlanc on drums, Doug Wimbish on bass, Skip McDonald on guitar, and Adrian Sherwood as producer. That's the line-up for MAJOR MALFUNCTION, which many therefore treat as the first Tackhead album in all but name. However, there is no full-length album attributed to Tackhead that is nearly as good as this one!
LeBlanc's first record with the distinctive combination of funk drumming and sampled vocals was "Malcolm X - No Sell Out" (1983), and along with Wimbish and McDonald as the Sugar Hill Records house band he had played on the smash hit by Grandmaster Flash, "The Message" (1982), with the unforgettable chorus: "It's like a jungle sometimes it makes me wonder how I keep from goin' under..."
The title track features the infamous sampled vocal of NASA ground control when the Challenger exploded, calling it a "major malfunction." Another cheerful, enthusiastic voice proclaims "technology works, technology delivers!"
My favorite track, the dark heart of the album and one of the greatest LeBlanc/Tackhead creations, is "Object-Subject," with heavy, ominous chords forming a minor-key repeating pattern heralding the apocalypse. The title and sampled vocal indicates a subterranean Hegelian/Marxist dialectic -- is the working class an object of capital, or does it become a subject and create its own future, its own world?
This 2003 Select Cuts reissue adds four tracks and 23 minutes to the original album's 33 minutes -- what you want is B00009LW3C, which is very well hidden on the site. The added material is all high-quality, and with it you have nearly an hour of some of the best funk ever. The Cleopatra release only includes one shorter added track so go for the Select Cuts, which is available on the Amazon.co.uk site.
Major Malfunction is by now a classic, and it still sounds fantastic 26 years later. And check out another great Keith LeBlanc album, STRANGER THAN FICTION , from 1989.
Adrian Sherwood meets the Sugarhill (and On-U) house drummer for this album of dubby heavy beats. Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald fill out the group on this set of heavy 80s beats with more than a touch of Sherwoods signature spacey effects and heavy synth work from Leblanc too. An obscure and great sidebar to the whole mid 80s crossover scene, and an album that presaged the whole "Headz" phenomenon that would hodl sway a decade later.
Tracks 9, 10, 11 are CD only bonus tracks not available on the original LP and Cassette versions. All three tracks are from the 1987 12" single: Mark Stewart + Maffia 'This Is Stranger Than Love'.
Although Mark Stewart's left-wing leanings tend to be discussed only in the context of his sloganeering lyrics, the ex-Pop Group vocalist has emphasized that music itself can also be politically radical. When critics grumbled that this album lacked the political edge of Stewart's previous recordings, they were perhaps focusing on the more introspective dimensions of its lyrical content and glossing over tracks that were as sonically confrontational and subversive as material on Learning to Cope with Cowardice and As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade. Stewart challenges listeners' expectations through open-ended experimentation, rejecting simple song-oriented formats. With producer Adrian Sherwood and Maffia members Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald, and Doug Wimbish, he continues to play havoc with conventional notions of structure on several tracks, assembling dark, fragmented collages cut up with scratches, heavy metal guitar flourishes, voices culled from the media, and blasts of electronic noise. A prime example is the nine-minute assault of "Anger Is Holy," which finds Stewart pasting together big go-go beats, a recurring sample from Billy Idol's "Flesh for Fantasy," and his signature distorted vocals -- as well as interrupting the proceedings with a random moment of complete silence. But there is a less difficult, more melodic side to this album. Considered by some to be the blueprint for trip-hop, "Stranger" grafts together a version of Satie's "Gymnopedie No. 1," West Side Story's "Somewhere," and Stewart's pained/painful crooning. More than this track, however, the most genuinely beautiful and affecting cut on the album is the bass-heavy reworking of Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Sylvian's "Forbidden Colours" (titled "Forbidden Colour"), which Stewart then deconstructs on the dub version that follows. "Fatal Attraction" moves in a more dance-oriented direction; with its snaking, Moroder-esque disco beat, this track points toward the heavyweight 'funk grooves Stewart would explore on 1990s Metatron.
hen you listen to the first two tracks on Mark Stewart, you might be tempted, and apprehensively at that, to think it is still business as usual for Stewart. I trust that if you're reading this, you know what Stewart's business as usual is, and that I don't even have to bring up The Pop Group. But, you'd be wrong; Stewart's sound has evolved. And why shouldn't it? It is 1987, after all; the situation wouldn't be pretty if Stewart were still sticking to his sturm und drang politi-shout fest within in the same few months as Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System.
As I said, the first two tracks are outliers; and poor ones at that. "Survival" and "Survivalist" are two slabs of thick 1980s Industrial funk, with Stewart shouting -things- about how horrible Capitalism is; yawn. But, before moving on to the more subtle pieces in the rest of the record, Stewart launches into the satisfying, no holds barred, production-quality-of-a-root-canal track called "Anger." And for good reason.
The rest of the album is the (main) attraction, as Stewart introduces melodic and moody synths to accompany solemn, spacious and stretching songs such as "Hell is Empty" and "Stranger." "Stranger" is the highlight of the record for me, with its distant and mournful synth riff; but coupled with a cheeky synth pop drum machine and vague lyrics such as "There must be a place for us / Somewhere over the borderline," you begin to question what is really going on here. Is Stewart showing his tender side and writing tender pop now? Or is at an illusion, a jab at the "borders" that we've built? Similarly to the contemporary Jack the Tab: Acid Tablets Volume One, the history and prior work of the artist keeps you guessing. And I love that.
"Forbidden Colour" and "Forbidden Dub" keep up this trend with added flair; and on this side of the LP, the dub isn't a bore fest. Finally there's "Fatal Attraction," which is a piece that is at turns a proto-House groover.
Other than aforementioned complaints, it's also worth noting the production, which is occasionally dated sounding (okay not occasionally, most of the time). 80's synth-drum production: I don't have to say anything more to set the dread rolling in your heart.
For the uninitiated, the variety and subtlety on this record would be a good entryway into the solo work of Mark Stewart. It's thus a shame how underheard this album seems to be. For Pop Group and Mark Stewart fans, this is highly recommended. And if you're wanting to get into Stewart, I say give this a shot.
Mark Stewart’s eponymous third album was recorded with the same band as 1985’s As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade, and also produced by Adrian Sherwood. It’s a less hostile record that abounds in musical references, to the Furious Five, Jacques Brel or Giorgio Moroder among others, and “Stranger”, as weird as it might seem, is an electro pop amalgamation of Erik Satie’s famous “Gymnopédie” and Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere”. Mark Stewart is still based in industrial hip-hop, but dub and electro also play a substantive part in it, which could have made it the best entry point in Mark Stewart’s solo output if it didn’t also contain too many failed experiments.
05. As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade 5:37
06. Pay It All Back 4:29
07. Hypnotised 5:51
08. Slave Of Love 4:46
09. The Waiting Room 4:18
Includes
10. Hypnotised 7:25
11. Dreamers 6:30
Mark Stewart – vocals, production
Keith LeBlanc – drums
Skip McDonald – guitar
Adrian Sherwood – keyboards, production
Doug Wimbish – bass
Track 4 (named "Call To Mecca" on digital releases) is not listed on the release; therefore, tracks 5 through 11 are numbered on the sleeve as 4 through 10.
Bonus tracks 10 and 11 from 12 MUTE 37
Mark Stewart – Hypnotized
A1. Hypnotized (Remix)
B1. As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade
B2. Dreamers
For this album, Mark Stewart and producer Adrian Sherwood assembled the definitive Maffia lineup with the imported talents of drummer Keith LeBlanc, bassist Doug Wimbish, and guitarist Skip McDonald -- best known at that point for their work with the Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash. Opening with a robotic voice informing listeners they are about to be programmed to take their place in society, this is no rapper's delight but another glimpse into Stewart's shadowy world of political and sonic dissidence. LeBlanc, McDonald, and Wimbish contribute to a fearsome collision of industrial noise, abrasive electronics, and heavyweight funk that serves as a soundtrack to Stewart's lyrical obsessions: surveillance, the military-industrial complex, oppression, and economic inequity. Thanks to the hefty rhythm section, this album has a more overpowering, assaultive feel than its predecessor, as numbers like the ominous title track and "Passivecation Program" are built on punishing beats and mammoth basslines that batter the listener into submission. On top of that solid foundation, Stewart pastes together an unsettling collage of found sounds ranging from the call of a muezzin and media voices to barking dogs and simply barking mad noise. The air of confrontation is intensified as Stewart harasses listeners with distorted spoken and half-sung pronouncements and warnings. On the chaotic, disjointed "Bastards" -- harrowing enough with Stewart repeatedly shouting the title -- the menacing, sampled rasp of William Burroughs (who also appears fleetingly amid the manic hip-hop beats of "Pay It All Back") makes the proceedings all the more sinister. The album's standout is the dub-inflected "Hypnotised," which is infused with scratches, ocean-trawling bass, and shimmering melodic fragments. Uncompromising, challenging, and yet totally compelling, this album stands alongside Learning to Cope with Cowardice as one of Stewart's most innovative and important projects.
Those who lamented the passing of The Pop Group in 1980 (myself included) really had no reason to feel so low because their leading light, singer Mark Stewart after a stint with The New Age Steppers would go on to form his own group Mafia, who would go on to equal and sometimes surpass the best of The Pop Group's recordings. Sadly though outside of a few dedicated Stewart freaks his incredible work with Mafia has gone unheard, this is a crying shame because Stewart is one of the true giants of contemporary music. Stewart along with Adrian Sherwood have virtually re-invented Dub music, and both of these men are as important to 80's Dub and beyond as King Tubby was to 70's Dub.
I would recommend any recording with Mark Stewart's name on it but "As The Veneer of Democracy Starts To Fade" is a 5 star classic. Side one opens with an eerie android vocal that shifts into the mighty "Passcivecation Program" this track is absolutely mind shattering! there are sounds on this song that I can't even begin to describe but early in the song are some pummeling riffs played on instruments that I can't identify. Keith LeBlanc's drumming is pulverizing while Doug Wimbish lays down wicked bass grooves, Skip McDonald provides guitar muscle and tasteful keyboard flashes that sound like Augustus Pablo, Stewart as is his custom sings like Damo Suzuki with a hellhound on his trail. One must not forget Adrian Sherwood who ties this sound together like the true genius he is.
The second song ( if you can call it a song ) is called "Bastards" this is really a nightmare future shock soundscape that features wicked beats sound effects and Stewart screaming "bastards" in the background, this is music for the last day of earth. The final track on side one is incredible it's called "The Resistance Of The Cell" and it begins with one of the filthiest bass riffs ever committed to wax, kind of like The Clash's "This Is Radio Clash" but with balls, at times it sounds like there is fluff on the needle and the sound blurs into white noise ( I'm sure My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields has listened to this record once or twice ) yet "Resistance Of The Cell" is a very catchy tune that brings to mind an early Killing Joke 45 called "Change". Side one actually closes with an unlisted track that's only a minute or so long it sounds like background noise from a street somewhere in Egypt.
Side two begins with the title track that fades in and out with a song called "Hypnotized" which is an extended piece of experimental Dub with traces of a melody, this is perhaps the most commercial piece on the record. Next is "Slave To Love" a Pop Group type number that burns with intensity it features a mind-numbing bassline by Wimbish, this one could have been lifted as a single. The Mafia save the best for last as the record closes with one of Stewart's best ever songs "The Waiting Room" which is a haunting number with superb icy keyboards Gregorian chant vocals ala The Yardbirds "Still I'm Sad", Stewart keeps singing "too young to be so cynical" all through this moving piece, If I remember correctly USA group Fugazi did a cover of "The Waiting Room". Sometimes I think I'm the only person in the world who digs Mark Stewart and The Mafia but I'm sure there are others I just haven't met any other fans yet, so that's why I'm screaming about them here, hoping other folks will check them out.
"As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade" is one of the greatest records ever made and stands proudly next to The Pop Group's "Y" as one of the most innovative records of the last 25 years. Hear it as soon as you can, you'll never be the same.
