VOLT 2023: A Volition Archive

I was saddened to hear of the passing on 4 April 2024 of the amazing creative soul Keith LeBlanc.

An accomplished drummer and rhythm creator, innovator with electronic drums and drum machines, and pioneer of sampling and the industrial genre, Keith worked on releases by Nine Inch Nails and Ministry. An On-U Sound label stalwart, former member of the Sugar Hill Records in house band, and member of Tackhead and Little Axe, Keith’s legacy will live on in the music he created and in those he inspired.

So, to the Volition connection… In June 1989 the industrial funk / hip hop group Tackhead – in which Keith was drummer, rhythm programmer, and sample maestro – played a number of dates in Australia and New Zealand.

Ahead of the tour, Andrew Penhallow acquired local licensing and distribution rights to the album “Tackhead Tape Time” by Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System (Volition catalogue number ATACKLP 1), and Tackhead’s single “The Game”, released as a vinyl 12″ (Volition catalogue number ATACK 121) featuring five mixes of the track. Both records were issued under the banner Volition Acquisitions on the Volition label.

I was living in Sydney during Tackhead’s tour, and I got to see their gig on one of the two nights they played. I didn’t own any Tackhead records at the time, but fell in love with their music when ABC TV’s overnight music video program Rage (Fun fact: my friend and housemate in Sydney was a tape operator for Rage) began playing videos by Tackhead and Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System. Radio station Triple J – still broadcasting only within Sydney at that time – was also giving the records fairly regular airtime.

The video below of Tackhead performing “The Game” on 09/03/89 at the Town & Country Club, London, is the closest I’ve seen to their performance in Sydney.

The Sydney gigs were held at BASE (located at 11 – 19 Jamison Street Wynyard), an inner city nightclub and live venue with a stunning industrial interior, and equally stunning PA and lighting. BASE had formerly been known simply as Jamison Street.

The night began with The Lab, the trio of Yolanda Podolski (vocals), Paul Mac (keyboards) and Warwick Factor (bass and vocals), whose performance from memory was quite spellbinding, dark electro pop accompanied by visual projections. The Lab was an early project for Paul Mac prior to Itch-E & Scratch-E, and coexisted during Itch-E & Scratch-E’s Volition years, releasing between 1992 and 1997 a couple of EP’s, a full length album, and several singles.

Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System was next, and it was basically the man himself behind a 32 track (I hope my memory is correct here) mixing desk, performing what amounted to a kind of DJ set utilising multiple tracks of grooves and rhythms, cut up sections of Tackhead tracks and samples, applying a variety of dub effects – reverb, delay, decay, etc – as he faded and cut tracks in and out of the mix.

The result was a lengthy, brutally bass-heavy and utterly entrancing performance based around his Tackhead Tape Time album. For part of Gary’s set I stood on the mezzanine above, watching eagerly, astounded at his mastery of the mixing desk and the sonic alchemy he demonstrated.

Tackhead’s set followed, with On-U Sound’s head Adrian Sherwood at the mixing desk. The band played a funky, rocking set of tracks from their back catalogue along with their big single, “The Game”, which had a hugely enthusiastic response from the audience.

Tackhead were in fine form and I’m really glad to have had the opportunity at 21 to attend what was one of the most memorable gigs of life!

Vale Keith LeBlanc 1954 – 2024