IDM Mailing Archive

_Stranger Than Fiction_ was originally released 1989. It was reissued later, minus the last track which sampled Lenny Bruce heavily. I presume this was for legal reasons. Keith LeBlanc is among the funkier people on the planet, former member of the Sugar Hill house band which provided the grooves for a number of seminal hip hop records. The first Tackhead release, _Major Malfunction_ (based around the shuttle explosion) was credited as a LeBlanc solo project because of his name recognition factor, after work like the Malcolm X / "No Sell Out" single. Tackhead released several singles, collected in superior, remixed/remangled form on _Tackhead Tape Time_, c. 1987. LeBlanc released _Stranger Than Fiction_. Soon the Tackhead story became complicated by major labels, and perhaps a rift between LeBlanc and producer Adrian Sherwood. Look out for the Tackhead retrospective compilations, Power Inc. vol 1 & 2., which catch most of the brightest spots in the Tackhead canon. On Mon, 18 Mar 1996, Todd Roberts wrote:

quoted 5 lines The Autechre guys played Keith LeBlanc's "Stranger Than Fiction" soundtrack

> 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.

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

On Mon, 18 Mar 1996, Jon Drukman wrote:

quoted 3 lines adrian & keith also did a lot of stuff for the early KMFDM albums. in fact,

> 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.

Let's add one more to the list, Sherwood's production efforts on Ministry's second album, Twitch. Excellent album. Ross Volition Inc

quoted 3 lines also keep a sharp eye for an excellent live bootleg of tackhead called "en

>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".

Well, it's not really a cover per se since they have Melle Mel rapping for that song, not to mention the fact that LeBlanc, Wimbish, and McDonald were the band on the original single...

quoted 3 lines other appearances of note: keith did all the beatbox programming for abc's

>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)

Orbital sampled it, it must be good!

quoted 3 lines adrian & keith also did a lot of stuff for the early KMFDM albums. in fact,

>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.

Keith didn't have anything to do with that, though...I've read an interview (from when he and Adrian were not on speaking terms) in which he's told about that track and says it's typical of how much Adrian rips him off. C. -- cspot@hyperreal.com (Chris.Hilker)

quoted 5 lines The Autechre guys played Keith LeBlanc's "Stranger Than Fiction" soundtrack

> 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.

quoted 1 line Todd Roberts

> Todd Roberts

Well, those guys do have taste, don't they :-) Your post prompted me to pull it out and give it a whirl--hadn't done so in at least a couple of years--and you're right, it's incredible (as is practically all of Leblanc's stuff.) It was released on Nettwerk and was also licensed in the States by Enigma, which went under a few years ago, I believe. You'll probably be able to find used copies floating around in your local grimy industrial- oriented store. Nettwerk may still be alive, but I stopped buying their stuff ages ago--can't remember the last worthwhile thing they released. Ashok

On Mon, 18 Mar 1996, Ashok Divakaran wrote:

quoted 5 lines It was released on Nettwerk and was also licensed in the States by

> It was released on Nettwerk and was also licensed in the States by > Enigma, which went under a few years ago, I believe. You'll probably be > able to find used copies floating around in your local grimy industrial- > oriented store. Nettwerk may still be alive, but I stopped buying their stuff > ages ago--can't remember the last worthwhile thing they released.

You might want to pick up Brainbox, formerly known as Brothers & Systems, both on Nettwerk. The Brainbox album was release about a year ago, basically "eletronic listening music", very polyrhythmic with major jazz influence. Ross Volition Inc

simon chambers wrote:

quoted 4 lines Tackhead started

> Tackhead started > to drift away from the edge when they brought in a singer and released > a couple of duff albums. What's happening now Jon, I can't believe > such talent just gave up the ghost?

they didn't. tackhead mutated into Strange Parcels, who have an excellent album called "disconnection". it's not really idm in any sense of the word, although maybe you could call some of it trip hop if you really wanted to stretch boundaries. skip mcdonald has his little axe project which they call "ambient dub blues". it's very cool. doug wimbish was the bass player for living color for a while. keith leblanc keeps up a slow but steady stream of stuff on blanc records. all three of them are on bomb the bass "Clear" LP. there are still excellent lp releases on On-U... little annie, african head charge, dub syndicate, andy fairly... great stuff but again very little idm content. the electric hard edged drum machine funk of the late 80's tackhead is pretty much gone. bummer! -jon

quoted 3 lines _Stranger Than Fiction_ was originally released 1989. It was reissued

> _Stranger Than Fiction_ was originally released 1989. It was reissued > later, minus the last track which sampled Lenny Bruce heavily. I presume > this was for legal reasons.

Engima was releasing some old Lenny Bruce material on CD around this time, which is likely the only reason LeBlanc was able to sample it on STF in the first place. It would have been harder to take with him to another label. Where do the "Got To Move" CDs fit in? -- ::: Lazlo (lazlo@swcp.com; http://www.swcp.com/lazlo)