David Axelrod ‎– The Edge Of Music: An Exploration Of 50 Years In Music (2006)

David Axelrod: The Edge of Music: An Exploration of 50 Years in Music (Stateside/EMI import)

He is 73 this year, he is ultra cool and how he has impacted the hip hop genre and also been celebrated by everyone from James Lavelle, Portishead, David Holmes to Stereolab, Radiohead and DJ Krush. His name is David Axelrod, also known as the “the Axe”, and coming across his LPs in recent years would have taken some effort.

With albums either long deleted or fetching exorbitant prices on the Internet, this 1960s Los Angeles-raised composer/arranger has emerged a true cult figure among rare groove archivists. Now the word is that Axelrod’s crucial albums under Capitol have been tapped for a reissue project. The rehabilitation of his catalogue has been timely, starting with last year’s The Edge: David Axelrod at Capitol Records 1966-70, a single-disc collection that was a primer to whet the appetite.

Some of you may be familiar with the Axe’s early work, while others have heard his beats sampled in Dr Dre or DJ Shadow albums, the remixes with UNKLE or his diverse influence skipping across several genres. Drawn from all stages of the man’s career, including broader selections from his two cool-whip William Blake-inspired records – Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience in the late 1960s, this The Edge of Music anthology (two-discs, 27-tracks) expands the Axelrod legend further.

The combination of slinky basslines, smoky horns, jazzy twists, filmic oscillations, funky break-beats and baroque orchestrations were pioneering in their day, and to Axelrod’s credit, they still hit a stride by contemporary standards. The often-sampled Holy Thursday remains astonishingly compelling as with the funk rock excursions on London and The Mental Traveler and the mystique of A Little Lost Girl and Human Abstract that tell the story of Axelrod in sexy and contemplative turns.

Incorporating an extra helping of his catalogue with obscure 1970s output represented, this anthology works out as a connoisseurs’ dream with blues-laden cuts The Auction and The Leading Citizen (from 1972) right through the psychedelic nuances on the Heavy Axe album and the funk jazz across 1000 Rad and Tony’s Poem reflecting Axelrod’s lesser known but no less vital moments.

Added with David McCallum’s The Edge (sampled by Dr Dre on The Next Episode), the Mo’ Wax-era nugget Loved Boy (with the late Lou Rawls on vocals) and a brace of Cannonball Adderley tracks (check out the sprawling Tensity), this compilation, breaking the two-hour mark, reinforces the enormity of the Axe’s reputation as beat-master supreme. Your education starts here.