Little Axe - Hard Grind (2025 Reissue)

The 2002 album by Little Axe: the blues-infused alter ego of guitarist, Skip McDonald, member of The Sugarhill Gang, Tackhead, and more, and musical arranger on a large swathe of the On-U Sound back catalogue.

“A dreamy, hazy cipher of an album that settles slowly and lazily over the listener, displacing his or her sense of time and space.Snippets of singers wafting ghostly out of the ether only to re-enter the mist and wind themselves around a slow, sultry, steamy rhythm, a heavily seductive mix that slithers around McDonald's awesome and understated guitar playing. It comes from the swampy underbelly of the Delta blues bible, and Adrian Sherwood's smoky, dubbed-out effects, loops, and echo chambers are everywhere, with sounds that come from out of time yet seem to belong right where they are.” Thom Jurek, All Music