Little Axe - Stone Cold Ohio (Real World)

Little Axe is Skip McDonald (aka Bernard Alexander) with longtime cohorts Doug Wimbish and Keith LeBlanc, whose working relationship dates back to the early days of the Sugar Hill label. Coated in the decidedly dub-by feel that immediately marks this as an Adrian Sherwood production, Stone Cold Ohio is situated in profoundly swampy territory (is Ohio swampy?) between country blues, gospel and… something else. Rockin’ Shoes is both my favourite track and wholly typical of what Little Axe is all about. It lopes along, with a call and response between Skip and his choir that’s suggestive of both a Sunday sermon and a chain gang. Meanwhile, an eerily familiar organ line plays under the vocals, threatening at any moment to break out into Superstition. The whole thing is wrapped up in Sherwood’s characteristically reverb rich On-U sound. Only one thing nags… Moby credits Little Axe as an influence on his massively successful 1999 CD Play, and the debt is HUGE. As a listener coming to Little Axe post-Play, I really wish I could wind back the clock and hear this wonderful hybrid fresh, untainted by the sonic legacy of Moby’s multitudinous TV licensing deals.