behind Skip "Little Axe" McDonald's label of "ambient dub blues" for this debut album.
Little Axe is the brain child of a Briton with a passion for blues and a finger on the pulse of house music and reggae. Hence, the reasoning
behind Skip "Little Axe" McDonald's label of "ambient dub blues" for this debut album.
McDonald himself is largely the driving force behind The Wolf That House Built , as he is responsible for all original guitars, vocals and keyboards, as well as some bass playing and programming.
From the first subtle bass beat and lilting blues riff on the opening track, a mood is set that lies down a path no one has pursued before. McDonald has taken the sounds that lie at the heart of popular music in our age (blues) and fused them with two divergent genres (psychedelic house music and instrumental reggae) to produce a sound that puts the listener in a trance.
This album has been ages in the making, and in a recent NPR interview, the members of Little Axe stated that they owe their inspiration to the wealth of blues knowledge of their friends, not to mention the record collections of said individuals. Little Axe has set out to show that blues cannot and should not be ignored as an art form of unrivalled importance.
The craftsmanship that resulted in this fine disc varies from clinical to ethereal, but is never irreverent or untraditional. There are samples of classic blues riffs and vocals by such artists as Howlin' Wolf, Leadbelly and Jimpson. These borrowed elements are laid upon tracks created by traditional instrumentation (there are acoustic drums here, folks) and MIDI boards. McDonald's original vocals complete the picture with unrivalled soul and quality.
The resultant sounds are enrapturing and hypnotic. The house music elements show how blues functions within modern music without losing its edge, while many of the tracks feature vocals that place blues within the context of the black gospel heritage, in which so many of its progenitors gained their musical training.
The first single from the album is the haunting first track, "Ride On." Leadbelly's 12-string is omnipresent, as are the words Howlin' Wolf in his old age. Those words set the stage for the journey that the album begins "Through Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and, and, err you know …"
Most of the tracks do not rely upon samples at all, but manage to make their own way. "Another Sinful Day" is one of these, and it features soulful voices and fresh, airy bass lines that accentuate the spiritual lyrics.
The House That Wolf Built is a disc without a weak track.
This album is important and will not go unnoticed, nor will it disappoint. There is something being said here about blues, but The Wolf That House Built is more than a tribute to a movement. It is a work of art that no listener with a taste for blues, world music, house or anything exotic will be able to cast aside lightly.
©Copyright 1995, Kernel Press Inc. All rights reserved.