* En anglais uniquement
Doug Wimbish was one of the most versatile bassists of the '80s, able to move from pop and mainstream rock session work to heavy metal, funk, and experimental music over the course of the decade; he continued in this vein through the 1990s before finally releasing his first solo album,
Trippy Notes for Bass, in 1999.
Wimbish is perhaps best known as the bassist in the house band of the legendary rap label
Sugar Hill, backing
Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five on their epochal
Message album, among many others. As the '80s wore on, though,
Sugar Hill found itself overtaken by hip-hop innovations outside its stable of artists, and its house band had already formed a productive relationship with British dub reggae experimentalist
Adrian Sherwood.
Wimbish, guitarist
Skip McDonald, and drummer
Keith LeBlanc began working on a variety of projects with
Sherwood, including backing ex-
Pop Group member
Mark Stewart on his solo recordings and issuing their own 12" singles under the name Fats Comet. Major Malfunction was released in 1986 under
Keith LeBlanc's name, although it was essentially a group collaboration; that group dynamic became official when the trio members christened themselves
Tackhead and began recording full-length works with
Sherwood. However, their two albums -- 1989's
Friendly as a Hand Grenade and 1990's
Strange Things -- didn't quite capture the avant-garde
Funkadelic-meets-
Lee Perry experiments of their earlier work or of
LeBlanc's "solo" albums.
When
Living Colour bassist
Muzz Skillings departed his band in 1992,
Wimbish was tapped as his replacement. However, after 1993's
Stain, the group disbanded, and
Wimbish returned to session work, playing on albums by
Madonna,
Annie Lennox,
Mick Jagger,
the Rolling Stones,
Ron Wood,
Seal,
Joe Satriani, and many others, plus the occasional
Sherwood project.
Wimbish also reunited with
Living Colour drummer
Will Calhoun in the experimental funk/electronica trio
Jungle Funk. In 1999,
Sherwood's On-U Sound label issued
Wimbish's first solo album,
Trippy Notes for Bass. ~ Steve Huey