Adrian Sherwood - C/D, S & D?

They were a very hit or miss act.

I was in the right place, at the right time.

I was fortunate enough to crack open a copy of ON-U LP 01 New Age Steppers "Action Battlefield" in 81 @ the record store I worked at. It was slow, the store was empty, and I saw the name "Ari" on the back. I was a huge Slits & Pop Group fan. Then someone gave me a cassette of "Starship Africa"

About a year later I was a buyer @ Rough Trade SF, so I got the gig ordering On-U and talked to Kishi (Adrian's then wife, On-U graphics lady, future collaborator with Annie Anxiety). I went to London in Summer of 82 and made a beeline for On-U and spent a good part of my time there hanging out with them and Pete from London Underground. Somewhere I have cassettes of stuff Adrian copied for me including earlier versions of the "Learning to Cope" album that are way more straight roots + a vocal version of the Prince Hammer album and I don't know what else. I was also @ some London Underground sessions.

I moved to London from 84-85 and got to be at tons of mostly mix sessions @ Southern including the Yu-Gung remix & some of Kishi tracking for Annie's album, and met Style Scott (doing drum overdubs for Dub Syndicate) and heard stories about Creation Rebel from Adrian & Lizard. Plus some other random later stuff like the Skinny Puppy remix, which was @ Trax in Chicago, and a Clail session w/Dave Harrow.

That period in the 80s was a hugely creative time for him with big advances in production both influenced and hampered by the technology of the time, like John Loder realizing they could use the AMS digital delays as primitive samplers, which gave rise to the repetitive sound bites he used @ the time. Most of those samples were triggered by pressing a button on the front of the unit, but they could be triggered by input signals. "Very Big In America" was composed mostly by Adrian in the studio, using samples off tapes, to fulfill his Cherry Red contract. That's why it sounds really stiff. I'm pretty sure the Depeche remixes were done this way 'cause he told he went to Hansa in Berlin with reels of sounds to do those mixes. I think he had reels with him @ Trax as well.

About the whole later Tackhead thing and Bernard Fowler; it helps to remember that these guys are SESSION players, not a section of the populace known for their aesthetic. I mean Doug Wimbish played with the STONES. Their later live stuff is pretty wanky, Also I'm pretty sure that Keith was never in the Sugarhill crew, he was on the Tommy Boy team. I saw 2 awesome T-head gigs, one @ Camden w/Mark Stewart & one @ the Metro w/Stewart & Clail. Powerful stuff.

Search as follows:

Roots/dub:

Creation Rebel, Singers & Players, Deadly Headley, Bim Sherman "Across the Red Sea", earlier Dub Syndicate, Lee Perry "Time Boom", Doctor Pablo (fake Augustus Pablo album). Also check the Hitrun stuff. http://www.discogs.com/label/Hitrun+Records. That's his old label, with some Creation Rebel & Far-I.

The more "progressive" stuff:

African Head Charge "My Life", Mark Stewart "Learning/Jerusalem", Annie "I Think Of You" 12", New Age Steppers, Bim Sherman "Miracle" (astounding acoustic album that cost so much to make, Adrian had to sell it to Martin Mills). Early Tackhead/Clail.

There're loads of other records that are worth grabbing cheap for the odd track, like the Andy Fairly album, Strange Parcels, Little Roy (I might still have a box of promo CDs of this somewhere).

Annie Anxiety's Soul Possession album is one of my favorite Sherwood productions.

Great post, factcheckr! You sure are right about the "right place at the right time" -- wow! That's interesting to know about the Voice of America stuff -- I actually like that record quite a bit, but your point about AMS digital delays makes a lot of sense.

I'm a little shocked at how little has been written about Adrian and the whole On-U scene. Outside of a great entry in the Spin Alternative Record Guide and a mention in Rip It Up and Start Again, and the spare interview here and there, there isn't much on the web on this stuff at all.

"i'll believe it when i have the cd in my hands, as these things have a habit of falling apart for us on-u fans."

Lee "Scratch" Perrys, The Mighty Upsetter, is solid but relatively straightforward production, Samiah Farahs debut, the many moods of .., is not a proper On-U release, but with Adrian on the mix its got a few tracks of value.

However the real deal is the Harry Beckett collaboration.

Jazz trumpeter Harry Beckett riffs over some On-U productions (some new, some known) and sets in stone a cracking album.

fatcheckr - whoa. I always wondered re VOA album .. many thanks for the insight.

One of my biggest regrets (along with the Nasty Rox Inc., CA$H cd) happens to be seeing a box of ON-U cds in a shop in halifax that had a copy of the Little Roy album.

I always intended to pick it up, but i moved jobs and forgot to go back in my last week there.

Gary Clail "Half Cut For Confidence"

Annie Anxiety's Soul Possession album is one of my favorite Sherwood productions.

been listening to the first african headcharge album alot recently, it's incredible, easily the best post-punk approximation of dub i've heard, and it sounds incredibly fresh.

also really like learning to cope with cowardice by mark stewart, although i made the mistake of listening to it loudly with headphones and almost deafened myself, there is some ridiculous levels of high-range noise on that record.

can we do a s/d of adrian sherwood remixes? somebody already mentioned his mix of "master & servant", his mix of "people are people" (re-titled "are people people?") is also jaw-droppingly amazing and weird. his remix of einsturzende neubauten "yu gung" is cool. tell me more!

and yeah, twitch is a great album

great sherwood remixes -

"masimbabele" - unknown cases
"addiction" - skinny puppy
"here to go" - cabaret voltaire
"don't argue" - cabaret voltaire
"radio morocco' - pulse 8
"enjoy the silence" - depeche mode
"stop this crazy thing" - coldcut
"television" - the beatnigs
"art and madness" - pankow
"gimme more" - pankow
"rip the system" - kmfdm
"girls and boys" - pankow

is his "enjoy the silence" remix the 15 minute quad mix, made alongside tim simenon and holger hiller? i really need to hear that.

it is. the orchestral "strings" mix is also fantastic.

can we do a s/d of adrian sherwood remixes?

echodek.

as you'd expect, i listen to this a lot more than the source material.

i just seen he did a remix of "let's all make a bomb" by heaven 17, love the og, but the remix is from 1998, is it worth tracking down?

he did Shriekback's "Mistah Linn He Dead" and I think another remix of "Hand On My Heart". love 'em!

So has he been doing anything lately?

So has he been doing anything lately?

ummm. yeah. i refer the honourable fastnbulbous to the answer i gave earlier.

ie. production on lee scratch perrys new album (on-u), the new harry beckett album(on-u), and mixing of the samiah farah album.

clearly from these new releases it feels like the man is mellowing, as none of these have the trademark use of noise/distortion, but all have their moments of brilliance.

ok i need more stuff by this guy that sounds like twitch and the depeche mode remixes and less straight up dub/post-punk. please help!

Keith LeBlanc/Tackhead - Major Malfuction

St. Che - "(Be My) Powerstation"

If you don't care as much for actual notes or a constant beat, and just want something really noisy and amazing

Mark Stewart - As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade

(i think Sherwood co-produced Pretty Hate Machine by NIN?! Or was that just the "Down In It" single?)

Just the single. Flood did most of it.

I went to London in Summer of 82 and made a beeline for On-U and spent a good part of my time there hanging out with them and Pete from London Underground. Somewhere I have cassettes of stuff Adrian copied for me including earlier versions of the "Learning to Cope" album that are way more straight roots + a vocal version of the Prince Hammer album and I don't know what else. I was also @ some London Underground sessions.

wow! especially the roots version of the mark stewart album, would love to hear that for the contrast

I'm a little shocked at how little has been written about Adrian and the whole On-U scene. Outside of a great entry in the Spin Alternative Record Guide and a mention in Rip It Up and Start Again, and the spare interview here and there, there isn't much on the web on this stuff at all.

― Naive Teen Idol, Saturday, August 9, 2008 1

I think I recall reading interesting stuff way back in Op and Option that I guess is not online. I still have some of those issues, I think.

This was written about all the time in 80s and 90s zines, but yeah, as curm says, much of it never made it to the web. Honestly, not much of what was written really good or accurate either. It always came from the "Twitch was groovy!" angle. That's a perfectly valid angle, but there were far more.

I admit though that On-U was my bridge to Jamaican/Kingston based music (aside from The Specials, which really doesn't count as much.)

The one question I've always wanted to ask but was never answered was why all the gazillion aliases? Just because? Is it just the same analogous situation where certain dance artists/producers use several aliases as a tradition of sorts?

Didn't realize Sherwood used that many aliases?

Tack>>Head [insert new suffix here]
Fats Comet
Barmy Army
Gary Clail & Soundsystem
(St.) Che
The Maffia
Missing Brazilians
Akabu
The Forehead Brothers

A few of these side projects/aliases each involve someone specific to it (Clail being the obvious example.) But for the most part, all of these have been part of the same family involving Sherwood, LeBlanc, Style Scott, and all of their 1-2 degree frends/musicians. Actual recordings of songs have often been transferred to different aliases for overdubs. (e.g. Mark Stewart's "Dreamers" is basically a Missing Brazilians track distorted and fucked with, add Stewart on top, etc.)

In brief: Tackhead/Sherwood were the most "green" band ever as far as over-recycling recordings while keeping their fans happy

Oh I don't think of those as aliases though. I mean I think of most of those as distinct bands. Just cuz they included some of the same personnel doesn't mean that they sounded necessarily sounded the same.

that's a good point. what's an alias on one forum is seen as a distinct group in another forum. that's certainly true in the world of Kingston-based music, where cross pollination of musicians is far more common.

My perspective comes from getting into On-U via the difficult dark-rock/dance back door (Wax Trax!, Mute, etc.) so, for me, having a dozen bands sharing the same personnel were "aliases" to me. On-U releases are also notoriously shy on liner note info... which is what attracted me to the label in the first place i.e these mostly dark, stark album/12" covers with cruddy typewriter type face and nothing much else.

However, I can definitely site direct backing track reissue between On-U aliases though. Then again, that's kinda the definition of a dub version, right? And that happened all the time in Kingston as well as far as sound systems went, so ur same difference. Sherwood has just applied that dub concept but added a whole skullfuckery of spacey noisy "rock" effects as well, hence On-U.

back track "reuse", sorry

hence On-U

indeed.

i got the annie anxiety's first single and album based on this thread's suggestion. that is some truly messed up, wonderful stuff. i can't believe i never heard it before.

weird to see this thread being revived.

after months of denial i caved in, and for the last few days i have listened to nothing but on-u sound.

not only that, but i had completely put to one side the whole little axe stuff.
what a mistake - headphone listened has revealed the albums, paricularly hard grind, to be absolutely fantastic.
the blending of AMS's dub studio methods, and skips love of swampy blues moods really hits the spot when you're working deep into the night.
yes, its a lot more polished than the core on-u style, but i think its a wonderful progression.

oh, and the demos on his daughters myspace prove to me that their is something in the blood - to think last time i heard her voice was backing up lee scratch on one of the old pay it all back compilations back when she must have been about 8 or 9.

so much has been promised for 2010 by the man himself to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the label, but as any fan knows, these things have a habit of not materialising.

missing brazilians is the most fucked up record i've ever heard

i was about to bump this just yesterday, mainly cause i've been obsessing over creation rebel & new age steppers and need to hear more. wish i could find some annie anxiety.

i got told off by a woman on the bus t'other day because i was listening to learning to cope with cowardice too loudly on my headphones. there's a ridiculous amount of treble on that album

i still have yet to fall in love with missing brazilians.
whenever i get in the mood for on-u i head for other stuff.
but yes, i think it could be necessary to dedicate some time for that album

xpost : i blame on-u for my tinnitus. seriously. that stuff is always needed to be heard too loud on headphones.

downloading missing brazilians now... i've been into sherwood/on-u for years, but this thread is certainly spurring me to find more.

yesterday i had a realisation that AMS is the artist whose material i have the most of in the archives (and lets be clear about this for all the input that the rest of the gang put in, it really is all about AMS's production style that makes it all sound so good)

his work outnumbers my other so called favourites by a huge factor.

re : In brief: Tackhead/Sherwood were the most "green" band ever as far as over-recycling recordings while keeping their fans happy

have you seen the site on which a bunch of the hardcore have annotated each of on-u rhythm/production and cross referenced them with other tracks so you can see the interaction between them all ?

http://www.skysaw.org/onu/resources/rhythmdirectory.html

was looking through it last night - one serious work of love.

missing brazilians is amazing. "savanna prance" is seriously one of the most psychedelic things i've ever heard. i like it when sherwood restrains himself, but when he goes all out, he's pretty damn special.

I finally found a copy of Soul Possession on LP over Xmas, yeah it is so great to hear it in full fidelity.

The 2nd Annie Anxiety album (on One Little Indian) also features a bunch of On-U players.

I have never even heard of Missing Brazilians, will rectify.

Eagerly awaiting the promised new AHC album for the 30th anniversary, but glad to hear mark e's words of caution.

I saw Sherwood at the mixing desk the other day for Lee Scratch Perry + Max Romeo + The Congos. I found myself watching the mixer at work at much as what was happening on stage. not only was his command of millions of knobs and switches impressive (I have trouble with the buttons on my washing machine), he also had some effects that he would band with a drum stick from time to time. Mesmerising.

By the way, I finally bought Action Battlefield by New age Steppers on Saturday, from a shop in Ghent (Belgium) with a huge On-U Sounds section.

watching AMS add his extras to a live show from the mixing desk is indeed special.

dont think i have ever seen a show where the man behind the mixing desk has had such an impact on the music as the various tackhead/mafia gigs that i have been too.

oh to find a shop with a on-u sound section.

those days in the uk are long long gone.

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".

very sick timing—will link out to you on a post ive been working on