Keith LeBlanc, known as drummer with bands like Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, and TackHead, has died. On-U Sound, his record label, announced the sad news.

Adrian Sherwood reflects on LeBlanc’s legacy: “Keith was a major, major talent…incredible drummer, producer, and musician… Along with Doug, Skip and also dearly missed Mark Stewart we enjoyed some of the most creative times together that shaped my musical life. Thank you Brother Keith…Love Forever. Heart and Soul.”

Starting as a session drummer at Sugarhill Records in the early 1980s, LeBlanc was a key figure in forming the Sugarhill House Band alongside Americans Doug Wimbish (bass) and Skip “Little Axe” McDonald (guitar). They collaborated with top rap artists, including the Sugarhill Gang on “Rapper’s Delight” and Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel on tracks like “The Message” and “Freedom”.

Adrian Sherwood first encountered LeBlanc and his bandmates at the 1983 CMU conference in New York. Their innovative work, especially the “No Sell Out” single featuring Malcolm X speeches, led Sherwood to invite them to London. In the UK, they pushed boundaries in sample-based music, with Sherwood joining as a de facto fourth member. As Fats Comet and Tackhead, they produced a range of music from dancefloor tracks to politically charged songs, also backing Mark Stewart as The Maffia.

In addition to his role with the On-U Sound group, Keith LeBlanc launched several innovative sound projects through his own label, Blanc Records. He worked on song writing and production with artists such as Living Colour, Peter Gabriel, The Cure, Ministry, and Nine Inch Nails. As a versatile drummer and programmer, LeBlanc collaborated with an array of music legends, including James Brown, Trevor Horn, Seal, R.E.M., The Rolling Stones, Jalal of Last Poets, The Stone Roses, Robert Palmer, Bomb The Bass, Annie Lennox, Tina Turner, Bryan Ferry, Depeche Mode, and Sinead O’Connor.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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“Of Everything… and Nothing” is scott crow’s first collection as a solo artist outside of his other musical projects – Lesson Seven (darkwave, industrial), Audio Assault (industrial hiphop) and corporatE unclE (noise and experimental) – and some of his first music recordings since 1992. This album holds crow’s recent collaborations, and guest appearances, with other artists and producers spanning 2016 through to the present.

The collaborators on this album are Sole and DJ Pain 1, Chris Hanna (Propagandhi), Thor Harris (Swans, Thor & Friends), Dead Voices On Air, Televangel (formerly of the production team Blue Sky Black Death), Mark Pistel (Consolidated, Hercules and Love Affair), R34L, Time, David May (KBD, Liquid 25), birthCenter and Energy Fools. The music itself spans genres from techno to hip hop to ambient/experimental and spoken word.

“Of Everything…and Nothing” is being released as a digital download, to streaming platforms and on CD on January 20th on scott’s Austin-based label eMERGENCY heARTS and via Bandcamp.

This collection will be followed in April by “Of Everything… and Nothing: ReMixed” featuring remixes from Adrian Sherwood, Meat Beat Manifesto, Keith LeBlanc (Tackhead), Televangel, Dead Voices On Air, David May, Wanz Dover and David M. Williams.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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