The
Tackhead gang -- sans producer
Adrian Sherwood -- tone things down some as the stripped-down
Strange Parcels. Gone are Sherwood's ubiquitous samples and most of
Tackhead's dogmatic funk grooves, and in their place is the synthetically international sound of Sherwood's
African Head Charge and
Dub Syndicate collectives. Guest percussionist
Talvin Singh helps out greatly in this department, adding tabla and varied drum accents to a mix of African, Indian, and Caribbean-styled cuts. The whole things comes off as a cross between
David Byrne and
Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts and some of Singh's later solo outings, with the occasional funk-rock beat being wholly a
Tackhead leftover. Augmented by
Bernie Worrell collaborator
Jesse Rae and vocalist
Basil Clarke,
Strange Parcels delivers an enjoyable yet unexceptional mix on
Disconnection.