Adrian Sherwood - C/D, S & D?

It was indeed amazing. And he was so relaxed it was like he was making a cup of tea.

To digress a bit, on the record shop theme, if you ever find yourself on this side of the channel, 'music mania records' in Ghent is a bit special. And you could do worse than a weekend record-shop trip to Cologne - you can barely move for vinyl there, and it isn't expensive.

missing brazilians is amazing

i, too, downloaded 'warzone' because of this revive- only had the chance to listen once but holy shit is it a cool album. so, yknow, thanks. very much looking forward to hearing 'learning to cope with cowardice' as well.

xpost
Flashback have a U-Sound section!

very much looking forward to hearing 'learning to cope with cowardice' as well.

i actually think the best track is one of the extras that was added to the recent reissue of that album : wrong name and wrong number

pure white noise overload with a rallying cry for the masses 'y'all bastards, bastards'

i have actively seen/heard the track blow out a very nice hi fi system. be careful.

haha yeah I destroyed a pair of speakers once cranking "Anger Is Holy".

hrm. i just looked through the skysaw website that someone linked to up there (it's an sherwood/on-u loveathon) and found i was missing a bunch of stuff. does anyone know if the "wild party sounds" and "disco plates" v/a collections are just samplers, or are they unique in any way? also, i'm completely missing african head charge, london underground, playgroup and deadly headly. any thoughts on any of those? i'm only up through the first 40 or so releases and realize i'm missing 10 or 15 of those albums. what about 12" singles? were those different? this is a fucking can of worms i don't need right now...

african head charge and playgroup are both really great. AHC puts "world" music vocal chants (sampled? i forget) on top of dub rhythms & nyabinghi drumming. obvious influence is the eno/byrne album. "my life in a hole in the ground" vs "my life in the bush of ghosts" etc. playgroup is more a post punk album with sherwoods effects and tribal drumming.

"this is a fucking can of worms i don't need right now..."

its just insane to even try and keep up with it all.
thankfully i never bothered with the vinyl side of the label (bar a couple back in the 80s) as it was just too much.
but picked up most of the cd albums at some point as and when.
missed out on a lot of the reissues on EFA due to the fucking up of the artwork on everything (the superimposed coloured 'M' really pissed me off).
now of course, i feel really fucking stupid, as the reissues are ££££ on amazon, and rarely seen in shops.
so hanging on for AMS to sort out another reissue package ..
ie. just in time for my retirement.

re : disco plates.

these were a series of 10" singles that they released back in the late 80s, and so were all collated for 2 cds at some point.

predom reggae tracks with their associated dub versions.

volume 1 :

1. African Blood - Congo Ashanti Roy
2. Blood Shed - Congo Ashanti Roy
3. Hands And Hearts - Congo Ashanti Roy
4. Revolution - Sherman, Bim
5. Too Much Workload - Sherman, Bim
6. Independent Man - Creation Rebel
7. Creation Rebel - Creation Rebel
8. Murder - Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah
9. Murderation - Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah
10. Stand Firm - Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah
11. Virgin - Prince Far-I
12. Danger - Sherman, Bim

volume 2 :

1. England Cold Pt. I - Undivided Roots
2. England Cold Pt. II - Undivided Roots
3. Move Up - Undivided Roots
4. Breaking Down The Pressure - Ashanti Roy
5. Autobiography - Mikey Dread & Singers & Players
6. What Happened - Dub Syndicate (1)
7. 2001 Love Pt. I - Dub Syndicate (1)
8. 2001 Love Pt. II - Dub Syndicate (1)
9. 93 Struggle - Dub Syndicate (1)
10. Can't Take It Easy - Dub Syndicate (1)
11. Keep You Dancing - Sherman, Bim & Dub Syndicate
12. Can't Stop Jumping - Sherman, Bim & Dub Syndicate

and brilliant of course - if you like the straight up reggae side of the label.

alright, disco plates. so they aren't just collections of already-released stuff then. late 80s though? i see them listed as some of the earliest stuff, as in disco plates vol 1 being the 12th vinyl release. which would place it back in 83 or so at the latest. i love the reggae stuff, but a lot of these titles i know. just want to know if they're different from album versions. i've actually tried to look these up before, but there was no info that would help me out. are you saying (when you say "straight up reggae") that these aren't dubbed? is "dubbed" a verb?

shit, i might have just made an ass of myself. look, between all the different rhythms and titles the man used, i'm getting confused. (nice rhyme) anyway. i guess those two albums are worth getting. at least for half of them.

i'm no collector, but sherwood drive me crazy.

sorry - i cant say if they are diff. to the album versions as dont have that deep an archive.
the cds i have basically have the straight reggae version followed by a more AMS styled dub version.
i suspect they are tracked as per the 10" singles themselves with a-sides followed by the b-sides.
my advise : if you see the cds at a decent price, buy.
simple as that.
if you are not happy with them, then i'll take them off your hands.
[my own copies are skippety-hop degrading cd-rs .. ]

xpost : yeah .. buy em.

ps. when you said 'album versions' i originally assumed you meant the various tracks appearing on other albums as opposed to these collections.

which of course they do all over the place as per the previously linked 'rhythms directory' will confirm.

i think i like the first AHC album best, my life in a hole in the ground. has to be the heaviest fusion of dub and post-punk ever

also, i'm certain the berwick st record exchange still has an on-u section, it's just empty most of the time

i'm chuffed to bits that the newly released (but recorded several years ago) AHC album, vision of a psychedelic africa, is very much in line with the classic songs of praise album.

great news!

I've been listening a lot to Jah Wobble's Molam Dub, and I really like it...one track I can't get enough of is the fourth track, "Lam Bane Xoc"...it's really good...

I wz thinking about getting the first New Age Steppers album, along with Annie Anxiety's Jackamo and African Head Charge's Off the Beaten Track? Are those good ones?

hell yes to all three imo

There are no bad African Head Charge albums.

Found the Missing Brazilians record this weekend and its great, but I think I like the Dub Syndicate album I got Strike The Balance just about as much.

according to new Mojo, AMS is working with Kevin 'the Bug' Martin on a dub version of London Zoo.

could go either way i guess, but i'm hoping for all out sonic immenseness.

of course i wont get my hopes up until the disc is actually in my hands, as the list of on-u related albums i have got excited about only for them to never appear continues to grow (audio active slash-n-mix , mutant hi-fi to name but 2)

Classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTgp8UtwmSc

^^^ my all time fave on-u track !!

The most hilarious thread ever.

New African Head Charge album streaming http://www.onu-sound.com/african-head-charge/index.html

will be getting that asap.
hopefully this new release is the beginning of a proper 30th anniversary celebration.
a boxset has been promised, but as always for on-u follwers, i suspect that patience will be tested.

They seem to be taking it quite seriously:
To mark the label’s 30th anniversary in 2011, we will be reissuing a number of classic On-U Sound albums, a selection of new releases, renewed live activity and the release of an extensive box-set.

The year of celebration begins in early March with the release of a new African Head Charge album and 3 classic reissues – New Age Steppers debut, Creation Rebel’s highly influential Starship Africa and African Head Charge’s hard-to-find Off The Beaten Track.

The plan will then be to release further new albums and classic reissues throughout 2011.

The new releases planned include a collection of contemporary remixes of Lee Perry’s On-U Sound output, the long-awaited On-U produced Little Axe album and a New Age Steppers long-player – their first since Foundation Steppers in 1983 – featuring vocal contributions from the late Ari Up and Mark Stewart amongst others. Details of further new releases will be announced shortly.

Amongst the classic reissues are albums from some of the label’s most acclaimed artists including Lee Perry, Dub Syndicate, Bim Sherman, Tackhead, Little Annie and Singers & Players.

There are also plans for a deluxe box-set which will include extensive sleeve-notes from Adrian Sherwood, rare and un-released tracks from the archive, a collection of classic tracks and a selection of some of Adrian’s finest remixes.

They seem to be taking it quite seriously

That's been up for quite a while - we're now in the second half of March, and there's no listings of any forthcoming reissues of the three titles mentioned for release in early March. We've been through this before. What's sad is the huge amount of crucial early material in the archives still unheard - post-Slits Ari Up, various Mark Stewart goodies, a Prince Hammer record, etc. Will these ever see the light of day?

Ah I see. I'll keep checking back then...

We've been through this before

i think its safe to say AMS struggles with the industry.

he has been burnt several times over the years (EFA going bust being the big one, the deal with EMI not going too well etc), so, i guess these things have gone back to being a cottage industry set up (literally ! on-u studio is now in the living room/kitchen of his house, according to various online videos), so, big projects like this will indeed take some sorting out.

AMS has said before how in the 80s his albums sold tens of thousands of copies, whereas now, a high profile release isn't going to sell anywhere near as much, meaning that a high cost project like a boxset is going to need funds, and i suspect he has become somewhat risk adverse, and so tests the waters for responses to such promises, in order to figure out demand.

i mean the last dub syndicate compilation was virtually a bootleg. no barcode, no label detail etc.

like i said, patience will be tested.

tis the on-u way.

more into the re-issues than the boxset tbh

http://www.djhistory.com/interviews/adrian-sherwood

Nice mix of old Adrian Sherwood/On-U Sound tunes:

http://testpressing.org/2010/02/02/producers-series-1-adrian-sherwood/

And here's a Part 2:

http://testpressing.org/2011/02/21/producers-series-11-adrian-sherwood-part-2/

was just thinking on the way into work it could be time to delve back into on-u (i go for months without listening to on-u, and then once i start, its very hard to move away from it .. ), so these mixes could be just the job.
also, seen the new reissues yesterday (african headcharge, and creation rebel).
very nicely packaging - a bit like the old mo'wax cd albums in carboard covers.
still, no word on the boxset though ..

30th anniversary on-u sound tour, anyone checking it out?

i'll be at the sherwood gig on wednesday in boston (five bucks!)

The year of celebration begins in early March with the release of a new African Head Charge album and 3 classic reissues – New Age Steppers debut, Creation Rebel’s highly influential Starship Africa and African Head Charge’s hard-to-find Off The Beaten Track

has anyone picked up these new editions ?

are they straightforward reissues (albeit but in nice packaging), or is the music remastered ?

still no sign of the boxset ..

Saw Dub Syndicate live once and was bored to tears. It didn't help that the group was preceded by two hours of dub over the PA. So it was like dub dub dub dub dub dub dub dub dub .... 15 minute break ... dub dub dub dub dub dub.

i wouldn't be bored by two hours of dub, if it was a good PA!

went to see Sherwood last night. amazing to see that guy work a mixing board, and all those live effects he was using

"It didn't help that the group was preceded by two hours of dub over the PA. So it was like dub dub dub dub dub dub dub dub dub .... 15 minute break ... dub dub dub dub dub dub."

What the heck did you think it was going to be?

"are they straightforward reissues (albeit but in nice packaging), or is the music remastered ?"

I think it's just nice packaging. The albums were reissued/remastered in the late 90s. Has remastering really improved that much since then?

alex otm

no idea.
just the latest dub syndicate compilation was specifically promoted as remastered, and sounds amazing.
so was hoping AMS had gone back and spruced up these latest reissues, but i guess you're right.
to be honest, i care not, if the reissues happen to still be there tomorrow, i'm grabbing them.
and yes, 2 hours of dub = heaven
would love to have seen dub syndicate live ..

xpost I expected a little more diversity over the PA before the headliner went on, to break things up a bit. Just as you wouldn't play, I dunno, Bob Seger for two hours before Bob Seger goes on - or for that matter "Music for Airports" before Bang on a Can does "Music for Airports" - so I expected some contrast for effect. I also felt it lessened the presence of the live band.

Wasn't terrible music, mind, but I had a raging headache by the end.

"Just as you wouldn't play, I dunno, Bob Seger for two hours before Bob Seger goes on"

Uh sure, but I'd probably expect two hours of rock before Bob Seger. Or similarly minimal music pre-BOAC does "Music For Airports". Were they playing only Dub Syndicate tracks for two hours prior? Or is this one of those all dub sounds alike things?

"I was shocked that when I went to this rave and all they played was techno and it all sounded the same."

"I was pleased when I saw Diplo that he didn't confine himself to playing a bunch of dancehall. He also played a Celine Dion dubstep remix!"

Just as you wouldn't play, I dunno, Bob Seger for two hours before Bob Seger goes on - or for that matter "Music for Airports" before Bang on a Can does "Music for Airports"

dub is not one person: it's a genre, a culture, a feeling, etc. it's not one sound but a panorama of sounds--it encompasses so much

would write more but typing is hard for me, mostly confined to one-liners

This set of dub did not comprise a panorama of sounds, encompassing much. I blame the DJ and/or soundsystem.

At the same time, it was something like a decade ago, so maybe it was awesome and I was not.

i succumbed and picked up the new little axe and new african headcharge albums today.

love the artwork - much better than the last round of "new" releases, basically the mighty stepper/dubstepper releases - both of which had truly dreadful artwork.
the new style fits in well, and goes with the redesigned website.
as for the music : well, neither album stretches the boundaries of on-u sound, but are very solid albums.
especially the new little axe, which as a project has become more and more real world/radio 2 friendly over the years, so good to have the sound go back to on-u both in record label, and sound.

not bothering with the new remix album of the mighty stepper as its by various dubstep producers and i doubt i'd enjoy it.

so all that remains now, is the much promised boxset ..

oh, and new age steppers album i believe thats on its way ..

I'm a HUGE Adrian fan, and I stumbled on the New Age Steppers shortly after it came out (thank you Ray Farrell). The new album is dreadful IMHO.