KOOL KEITH + HOWLIN' WOLF + Q BERT = JAPAN!?!?

The last installation of (Diggin' Chicago) Windy City Crates featured a post on Howlin' Wolf's classic 'Spoonful'. Well sometimes the digging goes on right in our own house, and in our minds. The internet is great for random connections between seemingly unconnected artists. The Wolf post got me listening to a bunch of blues rock and made me remember a record I bought a long time ago by a group called Natural Calamity. They were a 'Trip Hop' group from Japan formed in the early 90s composed of Shunji Mori and Kuni Sugimoto, plus American singer Stephanie Heasley. 'On The Peach' features remixes from their 1997 album 'Peach Head' and has an ultra rare collaboration between the group and Kool Keith (?!) along with DJ Q Bert! Keith was fresh off the Dr. Octagon record and drops some of his most bizarre, blunted (and funny!), stream of consciousness lyrics. The song lifts Howlin' Wolf's signature "ooh wee" vocal as it lazily bumps over a blues-ed out beat complete with Q Bert scratches.

LISTEN: NATURAL CALAMITY (FEAT. KOOL KEITH) IN THE WEE WEE TIME

(DIGGIN' CHICAGO) WINDY CITY CRATES - HOWLIN WOLF - SPOONFUL (THE OG AND ONE 4 THA BEAT HEADZ)

"I wanna' hear some Howlin' Wolf' says the man. I oblige. No argument there. "Nobody makes this kinda music any more". I know... Damn the man got a voice like a buzz saw. "How does he sing like that"? Wolf was six feet six inches tall, three hundred pounds, probably more. Sounds twice as big. Hell, bigger. Seriously. From The Wolf's 'Howlin Wolf' comes the gigantic 'Spoonful'. So much insanely good music recorded in Chicago, at Chess Records! Even if blues isn't necessarily your thing, this album is essential. Imagine South Michigan avenue when he dropped this gutbucket bomb in 1962! Classic. Chicago. Yes, sir.



Wolf was gettin' hip with the long haired kidz in 1969 and actually ended up bringing the the noise to yet another generation with his fuzzed out re-vamp from his 1969 album 'The Howlin' Wolf Album'. Like Muddy Waters, Wolf recorded his own 'psychedelic' record in 1968, riding the wave of Jimi Hendrix. Purists hated it, so did Wolf. Don't know 'bout the kidz, but the album has a ton of beats that producers and DJs have pilfered over the years. The opening break pretty much gives you the idea. They make Hip Hop with these kind of records, son. Fifty years later, Wolf's 'Spoonful' still weighs a ton.