quoted 5 lines The Autechre guys played Keith LeBlanc's "Stranger Than> The Autechre guys played Keith LeBlanc's "Stranger Than
> Fiction" soundtrack for me the other day. A lot of intelligence goin'
> on. LeBlanc was way ahead. I gotta have it. Does anyone know how I can
> get a copy? Apparently it was out in 1990 on Nettwerk. Obviously,
> you folks would be the ones to tell me more. Any info is appreciated.
finally someone wakes up to the brilliance of leblanc, adrian sherwood, and
the tackhead crew. these guys were seriously ahead of their time.
"stranger than fiction" is leblanc's 2nd solo album although from a personnel
standpoint there's hardly any difference between it and a tackhead album of
the same vintage. there was a version released on enigma, with an extra
track, "comedy of errors" - heavily sampling lenny bruce. it's not on the
nettwerk edition. both versions are probably way out of print. check the
used bins. i'll never sell my copy!
leblanc's other solo albums "major malfunction" and "time traveler" are both
very good as well, with the former being basically incredibly minimal spiky
complex beats and the latter some of the same but with dips into jazz.
leblanc runs a record label called blanc records. their release schedule
makes Rephlex look like Virgin - so be warned! anyway, the first few releases
"tasteless cuts featuring dj spike" and "raw" were pretty terrible but the
third one "invisible spike" kicked ass. he also reissued a compilation of old
rare tackhead/fats comet jams called "power inc".
of course leblanc's solo stuff is only one facet. he was also the drummer/
beatbox programmer for tackhead, fats comet and many of the other on-u acts.
check out "it's tackhead tape time" (on nettwerk) for a good overview of
tackhead's hard edged industrial hiphopfunk. (may be filed under "gary clail"
since the actual band name on the album is "gary clail's tackhead sound
system")
also keep a sharp eye for an excellent live bootleg of tackhead called "en
concert". it's on CD and the sound quality is very good. features a great
cover of grandmaster flash's "the message".
other appearances of note: keith did all the beatbox programming for abc's
"how to be a zillionaire" album (a sadly neglected mini-masterpiece of rather
creative dance-pop), and sherwood & leblanc get a lot of credit for the sound
of the first nine inch nails album. in fact, when the 12" for "down in it"
came out i coulda swore that NIN was just another sherwood/leblanc alias.
adrian & keith also did a lot of stuff for the early KMFDM albums. in fact,
one of the tracks on UAIOE is pretty much a direct rip of Tackhead's "What's
My Mission Now?" with some KMFDM vocals thrown hastily on top.
further questions? ask away...
-jon