Strange Parcels was an

industrial hip-hop Industrial hip hop is a fusion genre of industrial music and Hip hop music, hip hop. History 1980s The origins of industrial hip hop are in the work of Mark Stewart (English musician), Mark Stewart, Bill Laswell, and Adrian Sherwood. In 1985, f ...

group, formed in 1991. The nucleus was guitarist

Skip McDonald Skip McDonald (born Bernard Alexander, September 1949) Allmusic biography/ref> is an American musician who also performs under the stage name Little Axe. Career Early career Grounded in blues music learned from his father, a steel worker who ...

, drummer

Keith LeBlanc Keith LeBlanc is an American drummer and record producer, and is a member of the bands Little Axe and Tackhead. His record " No Sell Out" was one of the first sample-based releases. The song was a success, charting at No. 60 on the UK Singles ...

and bassist

Doug Wimbish Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bass player, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang, ...

. The group also enlisted the aid of numerous guest musicians, including Mark Stewart,

Bim Sherman , children = Chantelle Vincent, Rasiah Vincent Jarret Lloyd Vincent (12 February 1950 – 17 November 2000), better known by one of his stage aliases Bim Sherman (others include Jarrett Tomlinson, Jarrett Vincent, Lloyd Vincent, J. L. ...

Jesse Rae Jesse Rae (born 1951) is a Scottish singer and composer from St Boswells in Scotland. Career In the 1970s Rae moved to the US securing work as a runner in the New York Stock Exchange to fund his stay. Through work in Cleveland and Los Angeles ...

Talvin Singh Talvin Singh OBE (born 1970) is an English musician, producer, and composer. A tabla player, he is known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass. Singh is generally considered involved with an electronica ...

and Basil Clarke.

History

After Tackhead's dissolution in 1990, producer

Adrian Sherwood Adrian Maxwell Sherwood (born 20 January 1958, London, England) is an English record producer specialising in the genre of dub music. He has created a distinctive production style based on the application of dub effects and dub mixing technique ...

, bassist

and multi instrumentalist

David Harrow David Harrow (born 29 June London) is a record producer, DJ, and multimedia artist living and working in Los Angeles. Early life In the early 80’s, David Harrow could be found as a fledging performer in art school, various squats in London a ...

wished to return to territory akin to that of their former musical project

Fats Comet Fats Comet was a British/American industrial hip hop group formed by Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, Skip McDonald and Doug Wimbish. The band was known for producing dance tracks that were densely layered in samples and ahead of their time. In ...

, which had been abandoned in 1987. Radio presenter Steve Barker of On the Wire described their musical approach as "

Temptations The Temptations are an American vocal group from Detroit, Michigan, who released a series of successful singles and albums with Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. The group's work with producer Norman Whitfield, beginning with the Top 1 ...

on acid", in that the group would use pop oriented material as a foundation on which to experiment. In 1991, they recorded several tracks which appeared on ''Pay It All Back'' compilations issued through

On-U Sound Records On-U Sound Records is an English record label known for releasing its own unique flavour of dub music since the 1980s. The label was founded by Adrian Sherwood in 1979/1980 and is home to acts such as Tackhead, Dub Syndicate, African Head Char ...

. Recorded with

tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

player

and reduced input from Sherwood, Strange Parcels' full-length debut '' Disconnection'' was released in 1994. Critic Stephen Cook described it as "a cross between

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

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 Tackhead (styled TACK>>HEAD, sometimes known as Fats Comet) is an industrial hip-hop group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, indus ...

leftover." After the release of ''Disconnection'', Strange Parcels was abandoned with its members continuing to pursue other musical endeavors.

Discography

;Albums *'' Disconnection'' ( On-U Sound, 1994) ;Singles *"More Is Insane" (w/

) (On-U Sound, 1993) *"Body Blastin'" (w/

) (On-U Sound, 1993) *"Disconnection" (On-U Sound, 1994)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strange Parcels Tackhead Alternative hip hop groups American electronic music groups American funk musical groups American industrial music groups Musical groups established in 1991 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 On-U Sound Records artists 1991 establishments in the United States