REVIEW: Little Axe, The Wolf That House Built (OKeh/Epic)
- Jon Steltenpohl
Ask someone to describe a song that features some blues samples and a few funky beats, and their answer will certainly be the song "Loser" by Beck. It seems that while samplers have plundered the precious ores of funk, jazz and rock, they seem to have forgotten about blues music. And, unfortunately, Beck's use of a blues riff was more novelty than substance. Luckily, justice has been served. Little Axe chops a niche for blues music in the world of beat driven music.
Little Axe's first album, The Wolf That House Built, takes the passion and power of the blues and weaves them into an incredible fabric of funky, ambient rhythms. A listen to The Wolf That House Built is a dream journey through the soul of a blues singer. When you lay back and open your ears to Little Axe, you find yourself guided on a spiritual trip from Robert Johnson's crossroads to the animal behind Howlin' Wolf. Each new song slips into your consciousness and reveals the struggle between right and wrong, sinner and saved.
The Wolf That House Built is a mind-expanding collection of tracks that is powerful enough to define a new genre: ambient blues music. It comes as no surprise that such an incredible work has been created by musicians and producers who have already defined some of today's most popular music. Little Axe is the creation of Skip MacDonald and Adrian Sherwood along with Doug Wimbish (bass) and Keith Le Blanc (drums).
MacDonald, Wimbish, and Le Blanc were the core of the house band for the Sugarhill Records label. They added the groove to the early records of such classic rap acts as The Sugarhill Gang and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five. After leaving Sugarhill, the three teamed up with English producer Adrian Sherwood. Sherwood's name is found as the production or re-mix credit on an amazing number of industrial and techno albums. Together, these four have been behind the sound of groups on Sherwood's On- U label such as Tackhead and Dub Syndicate.
Skip MacDonald and Adrian Sherwood started Little Axe as a side project after listening to the blues collection of Tackhead vocalist Bernard Fowler. They decided that they would add the best of MacDonald's blues to the best of Sherwood's dub. And, the result is The Wolf That House Built.
MacDonald's brand of blues focuses on the singer. The lyrics are the pleas of a bluesman who has been turned away from the gates of heaven but is given a second chance. The lyrics to "Hear My Cry" are simply 'I love the Lord, he heard my cry. Lord Lord Lord' repeated over and over again. The influence of gospel music is strong in MacDonald's work, but his true inspiration is clearly from the early blues artists.
Sherwood contributes the perfect setting for MacDonald's pleading lyrics and pure blues. The rhythms and sounds he creates swirl and sooth much like the patterns of a kaleidoscope. And once he lulls you into a trance, the howl of a bluesman or the wail of a gospel singer is all Sherwood needs to bring you back to reality. Sherwood samples old blues and gospel tracks with uncanny skill.
The mix is so cohesive that each element sounds as if it had never been sampled. In fact, it's hard to tell what music has been added by MacDonald, Wimbish, and Le Blanc. But no matter who did what, the result is still the same. The Wolf That House Built redefines blues music for the nineties. With the guitars and voices dubbed into a funky groove, the raw emotion of the blues is stronger than ever. Little Axe will please both blues fans and dub fans, and the collections of both groups of fans would be incomplete without a copy of The Wolf That House Built.
