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Tackhead (styled TACK>>HEAD, sometimes known as Fats Comet) is an industrial hip-hop group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
, dub, industrial music and
electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...
intersect. The core members were
Doug Wimbish Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bassist, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang, G ...
(
bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...
), Keith LeBlanc (
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...
) and Skip McDonald (
guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...
) and producer (sometimes credited as "mixologist")
Adrian Sherwood Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive production style based on the application of dub effects and dub mixing techniques to other forms ...
. Despite being short-lived as a band proper, the legacy and output of these groups of musicians has been prodigious.


History

In the late 1970s, Wimbish, LeBlanc and McDonald were members of the house band for the Sugarhill Records
record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...
and the trio of hip-hop artists known as the Sugarhill Gang. They were also the musicians playing behind DJ Grandmaster Flash's 1982 hit " The Message" (the vocal was by
Melle Mel Melvin Glover (born May 15, 1961), better known by his stage name Grandmaster Melle Mel or simply Melle Mel (), is an American rapper who was the lead vocalist and songwriter of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. Career Glover began per ...
) and another hit " White Lines". During a visit to New York City, to help with a remix, London-based producer Sherwood (already noted in the
dub music Dub is a musical style that grew out of reggae in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is commonly considered a subgenre of reggae, though it has developed to extend beyond that style.Dub: soundscapes and shattered songs in Jamaican reggae, p.&nb ...
scene) met LeBlanc, and they began to collaborate. Soon the trio of Wimbish, LeBlanc and McDonald were producing tracks on Sherwood's On-U Sound record label. One of their earlier collaborations was as " Mark Stewart and the Maffia", which featured Stewart, former member of Bristol’s The Pop Group, on vocals. Their first LP produced under that name '' As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade'' was amongst the most industrial, noise-oriented and uncompromising of the group's output, described by John Leland as "a scary mess of random sounds, spoken words, and tiny snippets of music, processed and distorted to a grating electric edge." Later to join forces with Tackhead was Bristol-based
Gary Clail Gary Clail (born 1959) is an English singer and record producer, and the founder of the Gary Clail Sound System. He was part of On-U Sound Records (and also the On-U Sound System) and led Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System. They had a big hit ...
, who as MC for the touring version of the On-U
sound system Sound system may refer to: Technology media * Sound reinforcement system, a system for amplifying audio for an audience * High fidelity, a sound system intended for accurate reproduction of music in the home * Public address system, an institution ...
, would shout and rant over Tackhead's live playing, and both were then mixed live by Sherwood to produce a wall of sound effect that was highly novel for the mid-1980s. They released one LP '' Tackhead Tape Time'' in 1987 as "Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System" and some of the most distinctive and well-known Tackhead tracks (some were released as
12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a "single" or a few related sound tracks on each surface, compa ...
s) date from this period particularly: " What's My Mission Now?", " Mind at the End of the Tether" and "Hard Left". These tracks combined funk basslines, hammerblow percussion and Sherwood's trademark sample-laden dub production and represent the defining Tackhead sound. During this period, LeBlanc also produced two solo LPs: the highly inventive '' Major Malfunction'' (1986) (inspired by the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster) and '' Stranger Than Fiction'' (1989), which although credited to LeBlanc, featured all the rest of members of Tackhead. Around this time the group began to gel as a band, and started adding vocalists to what had been up until then a largely instrumental affair. On the first Tackhead LP proper, '' Friendly as a Hand Grenade'', vocalist Bernard Fowler joined the line-up, and many older instrumental tracks re-appeared with lyrics, in what Trouser Press characterized as "Tackhead at its most coherent." In 1990 Tackhead mounted a world tour which probably marked the zenith of the band's commercial success. The follow-up album, 1990's '' Strange Things'' (the first on a major label,
EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...
), despite some praise for harder-edge singles such as " Dangerous Sex" and " Class Rock" was not as well received by critics. Many followers of the group were disappointed by the more restrained production, less industrial and more mellow R&B elements. Yet the album was still experimental enough that it did not gain as wide an audience as had been hoped, and the band was dropped from their record label shortly after. Despite not recording any new material as Tackhead since, group members continued to record as the backing band or along with various Sherwood-led On-U Sound productions artists such as Gary Clail's solo efforts, African Head Charge, Dub Syndicate, New Age Steppers and others. Subsets of the group have also appeared in various guises such as the Strange Parcels, Barmy Army and the blues-oriented Little Axe. In addition to continuing to collaborate with Sherwood and the On-U Sound record label, each of the other members continues to lead active solo careers. McDonald leads the Little Axe project, and LeBlanc ran a record label and played with two
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
outfits, Noah Ground and Nikki Yeoh's Infinitum. As well as remaining much in demand as a session bass player, Wimbish later became the bass player for
Living Colour Living Colour is an American rock music, rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992. T ...
and has recorded solo material as well as forming the short-lived Jungle Funk (later Head>>Fake), a live
drum and bass Drum and bass (commonly abbreviated as DnB, D&B, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterised by fast Break (music)#Breakbeat (element of music), breakbeats (typically 165–185 Tempo, beats per minute) with heavy Bass (music) ...
outfit also featuring
Living Colour Living Colour is an American rock music, rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. The band consists of guitarist Vernon Reid, lead vocalist Corey Glover, drummer Will Calhoun and bassist Doug Wimbish who replaced Muzz Skillings in 1992. T ...
drummer
Will Calhoun William Calhoun (born July 22, 1964) is an American drummer who is a member of the rock band Living Colour. Career Calhoun was born in the Bronx, New York. He moved to Boston to attend the Berklee College of Music, where he graduated with a mu ...
. In 2004, Tackhead briefly reformed to engage in a limited tour of North America and Europe. In April 2022, the entire group, also featuring Mark Stewart, played a short tour of the UK, comprising performances in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and London. LeBlanc died in April 2024.


Discography

Studio albums * '' Tackhead Tape Time'' (1987) * '' Friendly as a Hand Grenade'' (1989) * '' Strange Things'' (1990) * '' For the Love of Money'' (2014) * '' Powerstation 2.0'' (2023, Emergency Hearts) * '' Powerstation 2.0 (scott crow and David M. Williams Remixes)'' (2024, Emergency Hearts)


References


External links


Official Tackhead website




{{Authority control American funk musical groups American dub musical groups American industrial music groups On-U Sound Records artists Musical groups established in 1987 Musical groups disestablished in 1991