Delivering a powerful mix of taut funk, hip-hop-style grooves, and dub-wise electro-industrial menace,
Tackhead was an inspired collaboration between the rhythm section of
Keith LeBlanc,
Skip McDonald, and
Doug Wimbish and maverick producer
Adrian Sherwood.
LeBlanc,
McDonald, and
Wimbish first gained a reputation as the studio musicians behind a handful of early rap classics. When
Sherwood hired them to work on one of his On-U Sound production projects, it initiated a series of collaborations that culminated in the first proper
Tackhead album, 1989's
Friendly as a Hand Grenade. The trio's original run ended in 1991, but various permutations of the band continued to work together, and they reunited for the 2014 album For the Love of Money.
Guitarist
Skip McDonald, bassist
Doug Wimbish, and drummer
Keith LeBlanc began working together in the late '70s, serving as the backing band for many of Sugar Hill Records' early rap releases, generating the grooves behind such classics as
the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight" and
Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" and "White Lines." In October 1983,
LeBlanc scored a minor hit and international press attention with "No Sell Out," a single in which he layered samples from a speech by
Malcolm X over a powerful hip-hop backing track.
Adrian Sherwood, an innovative British producer and dub remixer who founded the On-U Sound label, crossed paths with
LeBlanc during a visit to New York, and the producer invited
LeBlanc to work with him.
LeBlanc,
McDonald, and
Wimbish relocated to England, and soon became
Sherwood's backing group of choice for his On-U projects, including albums by
Mark Stewart & Maffia and Gary Clail. In 1985,
LeBlanc,
McDonald, and
Wimbish cut the first of a handful of singles under the rubric Fats Comet, and they began using the name
Tackhead with the single "What's My Mission Now," with
Sherwood adding found voices and electronics to the rhythm section's hard-edged performances. The trio and
Sherwood worked together on
LeBlanc's 1986 solo album Major Malfunction, and sessions backing Gary Clail emerged on the 1987 album Tackhead Tape Time, credited to Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System.
In 1989, the same year
LeBlanc dropped his second solo set, Stranger Than Fiction,
Tackhead finally released their first proper album,
Friendly as a Hand Grenade, issued by TVT Records. The LP debuted a fifth member,
Bernard Fowler, who contributed vocals, rather than relying on the vocal samples
Sherwood often added to the tracks. In 1990,
Tackhead moved to the
EMI-distributed SBK label and delivered
Strange Things, a more rock-oriented effort that included guest appearances from rapper
Melle Mel and
Mick Jagger on harmonica. The album didn't live up to commercial expectations, and while
LeBlanc,
McDonald, and
Wimbish continued to play on various On-U Sound System projects, it represented the last new
Tackhead material for many years. Between 1994 and 1997,
Tackhead brought out three volumes of rarities, outtakes, and live material under the title Power, Inc. In 2004, they reunited for a tour of the United States and Europe, and in 2006,
Sherwood assembled a collection of highlights from the group's recording career,
Tackhead Sound Crash: Slash & Mix Adrian Sherwood.
Tackhead staged another reunion in 2013, recording a collection of covers titled For the Love of Money for the German label Dude Records. 2016 brought
The Message, a limited-edition collection of
Tackhead and Fats Comet material remixed by
Robo Bass Hifi (aka German producer Markus Kammann). Another collection of rare
Tackhead material, The Lost Tapes 1 & Remixes, appeared on the Echo Beach label in 2018.
Outside of
Tackhead,
McDonald has recorded under the name
Little Axe,
Wimbish remains a busy studio musician and performs with
Living Colour,
LeBlanc has continued to release solo material, and
Fowler has recorded two solo albums as well as regularly singing backup with
the Rolling Stones, both on-stage and in the studio. ~ Mark Deming