Gregory Mario Whitfield for the immense interview with Adrian from 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/i192.photobucket.com\/albums\/z149\/pengy1966\/pengy1966073\/shot_1387058960935_zpsa9ccee7a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Going into the legendary On-U studios is like a lesson in musical history for those that love UK and Jamaican roots reggae. I was welcomed at the door by Adrian, and ushered into a completely chaotic, yet calm and friendly atmosphere, with a lot of people getting on with their work in the studio. A large portrait of King Tubby in crisp white shirt, perfectly pressed suit trousers with a typically serious, dignified expression takes pride of place on the wall as an obvious sign of respect. Shrine like, it is placed high up on the studio wall and dominates the vibe of the room. Inspiration from the source. Dub science.<\/p>\n
I notice more casual, smiling pictures of Bim Sherman and other On-U luminaries on the walls. The next thing I noticed were the piles of boxed master tapes everywhere. Little Roy, Junior Delgado, Dub Syndicate, Ghetto Priest. (I was sorely tempted to make a closer inspection!) The vibe was good, and I was looking forward to a good interview with this man whose work I had admired for many years, (since those early UK roots classics, the early Creation Rebel albums) and who had worked with so many of the JA and UK roots legends.<\/p>\n
Adrian Sherwood. The man hardly needs an introduction here: To anyone who has followed roots and culture music closely, it is generally acknowledged that he has produced truly innovative, ground breaking UK roots music of the highest order since the late 70\u2019s. He had uncompromisingly worked on with roots and dub, even when roots music was at its lowest ebb in the early 80\u2019s and many people had moved on to early digital dancehall and slackness. A lot of people considered roots music a spent force, but Adrian had persevered with the form, working with artists he respected, and artists who still had a lot of originality to offer the reggae world, even though they were no longer considered \u201cfashionable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Albums like \u2018War Of Words\u2019, \u2018Revenge Of The Underdog\u2019 and \u2018Pounding System\u2019 showcased UK roots and Jamaican roots artists still at the peak of their creativity. \u2018Fit To Survive\u2019 and \u2018Devious Woman\u2019 are considered by many to match the best of Bim\u2019s JA output, and are unquestionably deep and atmospheric pieces of music.<\/p>\n
I was invited into the kitchen, and was met by the sight of guitarist Skip McDonald, sitting quietly at the table, wearing a West African style hat, cup of tea in hand, looking particularly calm and thoughtful amongst the activity. An artist comfortable with himself.<\/p>\n
A man with a gentle and peaceable presence, he greeted me and we started talking, mostly about his recent album, a dub deconstruction of blues music: Eerie Robert Johnson blues style echoey cut ups, with one drop drum rhythms and backward tape loops. Some tracks also feature beautiful vocals from Bim Sherman and Ghetto Priest, an atmospheric new vocalist I was to meet later.<\/p>\n
Skip McDonald \u2018Seek The Truth\u2019 is the aptly named track which features Bim\u2019s haunting vocals, backed by eerie slide guitar, unpredictably soaring around in the mix, the righteous vibes urged forward by a Bunny Lee \u201cflying cymbals\u201d style. Bim chants, stating his creed with righteous emotion, a relentless, simple and direct message: \u201cOh friend of mine, a lie is a whisper, the truth is a shout\u2026 seek the truth\u2026\u201d The message is replete with a shuddering echo, and what sounds like African chants, cut up and spliced into a weird refrain in the background, swooping in and out of the mix. The brittle percussion is so strangely engineered as to be at times, of unidentifiable origin. Harsh, moody, aggressive and melancholy by turns, it\u2019s a fine, original piece of music.<\/p>\n
The album \u2018Hard Grind\u2019 is obviously a work of love and dedication, a tribute to Skip\u2019s respect for, and love of the blues. It has an overwhelming sense of the genuine, a work of integrity. \u2018Hard Grind\u2019 is an unusual record, a distinctly weird listening experience, and one I\u2019d strongly recommend. A cut up dub funk blues experience, and definitely one for those of you that loved ground breaking records like Eno\u2019s \u2018My Life in a Bush of Ghosts\u2019.
\nFor someone that had worked with so many musical legends in the roots and culture and funk worlds, I was impressed that he was so modest and unassuming a character.<\/p>\n
Excusing himself, Skip returned to the studio to work on some new rhythms with one of Adrian\u2019s engineers, Nick Coplowe. Later I had a chance to speak with Nick, currently working on his own project, Mutant Hi-Fi. Clearly, there is a strong working relationship and understanding between him and Adrian. I asked how he met Adrian and what clinched it for him in getting the job. He looked at me directly, and put it very simply and succinctly: \u201cMe and Adrian work well together and get on well, because we both have a common interest in noise.\u201d He didn\u2019t need to say any more\u2026<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t easy getting Adrian to focus on the interview process, because he was doing so many things at once. Periodically, Skip would rush back in to the kitchen enthusiastically to ask what Adrian thought of some new sound he was working on, and Adrian would juggle ideas back and forth, striving to flesh out new ideas, adapting and innovating together.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the phone was ringing constantly, people organising sound system sessions (sound system session with Adrian, Junior Delgado and Iration Steppers in Leeds was being put together, and Style Scott was in town, to play with Luciano) enquiring about record release and tour dates and so on. Crucial Tony and Eskimo Fox were due to lay down some tracks for Adrian, and Junglist Rasta Congo Natty had a meeting with Adrian a few days later. I kept on switching on my tape, only to be apologetically interrupted by Adrian, \u201cI\u2019m sorry, bear with me one minute\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
As if this wasn\u2019t a busy enough scenario, Adrian was constantly trying to parry the mischievous playfulness of his daughters. They hurtled around the studio as Adrian prepared snacks for them and good naturedly did his best to organise some kind of afternoon schedule for them. It was a lovely summer\u2019s day, and the garden, as I looked out of the window, looked peaceful and quiet compared with the mayhem in the studio.
\nAdrian comes across as someone who is completely down to earth: direct, sharp, smart, and it is clear that this is a man who is very determined and resolute. He has earned respect from his many years in the reggae world, and his work as an innovator. Ghetto Priest arrives and joins the work in the studio.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
I take advantage of an ensuing period of relative calm to begin the interview, and I ask, what led Adrian to reggae in the first place. What started his journey that led to the On-U Sound experience?
\nWhen I was pretty young, I was heavily into soul music. I loved that, but I was really carried away by early reggae music and ska tunes. Those were pretty eccentric, freaky tunes, stuff like U Roy\u2019s \u2018Wear You To The Ball\u2019\u2026 I was soaking up all that energy, even when I was at school, and when I heard reggae music at the local black clubs I went to, that was when I got really into it.<\/p>\n
What was your next stage after your initial fascination with reggae I asked?<\/p>\n
Well, I was still in my late teens when I started working for the Carib Gems label people\u2026 I was a junior director\u2026 I loved roots music, and the tunes we were putting out on that label, tracks like \u2018Observe Life\u2019 by Michael Rose, and \u2018Babylon Won\u2019t Sleep Tonight \/ Sleepers dub\u2019 by Wayne Jarrett and the Righteous Flames were strong, strong tracks, they really were. Especially I loved the \u2018Sleepers\u2019 track. The Tubby\u2019s version is a heavy dub. It\u2019s sad, I don\u2019t even have copies of those 45\u2019s myself anymore. I wish I\u2019d held on to my copies! You know of course we cut our own On-U version of \u2018Observe Life\u2019 with Creation Rebel on the rhythm, and Ari on the vocal, then there was a dub too.<\/em><\/p>\nSince you\u2019d released so many good tunes on that label I asked, why don\u2019t you collect them to release on a compilation? I think a lot of people would be really glad to hear them on one compilation.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to. I was so into those Carib Gems releases, but like a lot of those Hitrun label tunes, it\u2019s a matter of ownership and copyright that prevents me. It\u2019s a shame because there are a whole lot of unreleased tunes which just haven\u2019t seen reissue because of ownership debates. A whole lot of those Creation Rebel Hit Run 12\u2019s were very good, such as \u2018Beware\u2019. They deserve good reissue. I did collect a few of the best tracks from that time on an early On-U compilation with tracks like Carol Kalphat\u2019s \u2018African Land\u2019 and some other Far I and Creation Rebel stuff. I don\u2019t know how available that release is now, but it\u2019s a solid collection. Another person from that time I\u2019d like to work with again is Deadley Headley, who is another Jamaican artist who just hasn\u2019t received the attention he truly deserves. It\u2019s possible that I\u2019d consider putting together a compilation of my tunes I did with him if there\u2019s enough unreleased stuff in the On-U vaults: I\u2019m not sure that I have enough unheard stuff though, but that would be nice, and it\u2019d be good to get some more exposure for such a good artist.<\/em><\/p>\nWhen I had linked up with Don Letts, I \u2018d asked about his experiences with Adrian and the early days of the On-U family. He remembered it this way: \u201cSure, we hung out with Adrian in those times. I still do see Adrian! I\u2019ve known him for about twenty five years. The thing about Adrian was, you knew that the man always ran with a posse in them days! So if you met up with Adrian, they\u2019d all be there too. Yes, man like Jah Whoosh, Prince Hammer would be there, Crucial Tony, Bonjo I, and Don Campbell too. And of course Prince Far I and Bim Sherman if they were in London at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d asked Don which records he\u2019d liked from the early On-U stuff: \u201cOf course the early African Head Charge music, which is pretty far out stuff. Extreme music. Of the later stuff, I think Skip McDonald\u2019s dub blues fusion stuff is pretty interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Don Letts had around that time cut a tune with a vicious, threatening subsonic dub (with Jah Wobble and Keith Levene at the production desk) as the Electric Dread, I\u2019d asked if he\u2019d ever liked to have worked with Adrian in those days: \u201cYeah sure, of course I would, but I\u2019m more a vibes man, a sound man. I\u2019ve always DJ\u2019ed and made films, that has always been my thing you know, I\u2019m not really a musician.\u201d<\/p>\n
So in the light of my discussions with Don Letts on this subject, I was keen to know about Adrian\u2019s experiences with John Lydon, as well as his very early days with Jah Wobble, Keith Levene, Ari Upp, and of course most importantly, Creation Rebel who were the backbone of all those early On-U tracks, and in my opinion haven\u2019t really been given full credit for the outstanding original and innovative UK roots outfit they were at that time.<\/p>\n
Keith Levene circa Creation Rebel. Ok, on the subject of Creation Rebel, who made a great body of roots music, then later let\u2019s talk about those early days when I hung out with John Lydon, Jah Wobble, Ari and Keith Levene. We had an authentic, hard rhythm section in Creation Rebel, with good musicians, such as Crucial Tony, Lizard and Eskimo Fox, with Pablo on the melodica. I still work with Crucial Tony and Eskimo Fox now. They will be here in a few days to lay down some stuff for the new Little Roy music I\u2019m working on, and Crucial did some stuff on the Little Roy Long Time album. Yeah, so in those days, we were always competing with the Jamaican bands of the time, always looking for a way to get the edge on them, it was a challenge for us, a hype thing too, to be different from the JA bands when they came over on tour to the U.K. and the way for us was with the drums\u2026 we really worked on getting a heavy, heavy rockers drumming style, but it had our own thing in there, our own distinctive contribution, our own hard edge to it. It wasn\u2019t just a copy of the Jamaican drum sound, and I think in its own way, it was as good as what was happening in Jamaica at that time. Of course when we got Style enlisted that was it, a great step forward for us, because it united what was going on in the roots scene in UK with what was happening in Jamaica. And of course, linking up with Prince Far I was a great thing for me at that time because it opened up access and pathways to a whole pool of great Jamaican talent too.<\/em><\/p>\nSpeaking of the whole early period of experimentation with Creation Rebel, Dub Syndicate and African Head Charge, including the contributions of Public Image members Jah Wobble and Keith Levene, Adrian remembers it this way:<\/p>\n
Going back to the influence of punk days now, yeah, I knew John Lydon well, and it was through John that I got to know Keith Levene and Jah Wobble. I got to know John better after Sid had died. Ari Upp, Neneh Cherry, Junior and I, we all lived in a squat down Battersea way, and John Lydon was living with Nora [his future wife and Ari Upp\u2019s mum] round the corner. John Lydon used to visit us, and we all hung out together. John was just so hip you know, a lot of people really looked up to him at that time. John really knew his reggae, he loved his reggae. I can tell you that John Lydon really helped the progress of roots and culture in Britain at that time. It was around that time, not long after he\u2019d been beaten up here in London that he went on to radio and played Dr Alimantado\u2019s \u2018Born for A Purpose\u2019. Alimantado was immediately shot to cult status as a result! The lyric of that tune was relevant you know? \u201cIf you feel like you have no reason for living, don\u2019t determine my life!\u201d That was John\u2019s reply to the idiots that had beaten him up. You should realise that it was John Lydon who suggested that I work with Keith Levene who I was really impressed by, and then through him I linked up with Jah Wobble, which was great for me at the time. I was so happy to work with Keith, because Keith just had such an original sound, and I knew I could translate that originality he had into a dub context, and it worked totally if you listen to those Creation Rebel and Singers and Players records. He also played guitar on some of those New Age Steppers sessions, and laid down bass as well on some tracks, which I don\u2019t think he was ever credited for\u2026 So it was John Lydon who had the idea for me to work with his band, and I loved their sound and what they were doing.<\/em><\/p>\nLevene\u2019s sparse guitar sound on Creation Rebel\u2019s \u2018Threat To Creation\u2019 and the \u2018War of Words\u2019 albums, jagged and lonely, punctuated the melancholy and ethereal purity of Bim\u2019s angelic voice\u2026 Without a \u2018Love Like Yours\/Devious Woman\u2019 and its dubwise excursion is a work as powerful and compelling as Bim Sherman\u2019s earlier Kingston releases.<\/p>\n
On his tracks cut for Adrian and Creation Rebel, Keith Levene\u2019s style is eerily reminiscent of Earl Chinna\u2019s style on the \u2018East of The River Nile\u2019 album\u2026 (Check out the emptiness of the \u2018East of the River Nile album, and specifically Chinna\u2019s spiraling chord structures on Pablo\u2019s Nature\u2019s Dub, loosely held together by almost bleak echoing piano notes, falling like rain in a deserted space).<\/p>\n
Then there is Bim\u2019s meditative version of \u2018Satta\u2019, here going under the title of Ethos Design, and it is a design, the instruments acting as sculptural forms, existing in structures in which the silences are as vital as the drum-bass movements. It is an extraordinary work of linear sound deconstruction, the rhythm section building up, only to literally fall away, as the engineer gets deeper and deeper into separate drum tones, reducing the vibe to a heartbeat pulse\u2026 snares fall away, cymbals and high hat oscillate in bright spirals, only to be further reduced to a skeletal form, with Bim\u2019s voice effortlessly present, floating over the surface as the song fades in to reflective silence\u2026<\/p>\n
Deadley Headley, (who contributed to Augustus Pablo\u2019s Rockers label, notably the \u2018Rockers meets King Tubby inna Firehouse\u2019 album) cut his own melancholy horns version on the same Creation Rebel version of this rhythm, and the drum track was used to fine effect on a version of Bim Sherman\u2019s \u2018Revolution\/ Resolution\u2019: In the latter case, the drum track received brutal disassembly at the hands of Adrian, spinning the snare sounds backwards, then forwards in a spiral of noise, only to drop into the familiar Revolution bass vibration\u2026 uncompromising and aggressive. Also featured on \u2018Threat To Creation\u2019 are the severely underrated drum skills of Eskimo \u201cMus\u2019come\u201d Fox, and Bruce Smith, who went on to work as Lydon\u2019s PIL drummer for four years: Listen to the version of Horace Andy\u2019s Problems on the \u2018Playgroup album\u2019, (titled \u2018Deep And Mintyful\u2019) for some militant drum and percussion interplay, and you\u2019ll see how underrated these drummers truly are.<\/p>\n
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\nWhat about working with Jah Wobble, I asked Adrian? Jah Wobble had in his early days, had a serious reputation as a hard man: an instinctive, natural bass player, but cantankerous into the bargain. In Jon Savage\u2019s book England\u2019s Dreaming, journalist Nick Kent describes the by now notorious time he was attacked with a bike chain by Sid Vicious at an early Pistols gig : \u201cSid immediately pulled this chain out. He made some remark he thought was insulting like: \u2018I don\u2019t like your trousers.\u2019 The guy next to me immediately makes a motion towards Vicious and then pulls his knife out and he really wants to cut my face. Years later I find out his name is Wobble. This was a real speed freak, and this is when it got very unhealthy. I remember putting my hands up and not moving a muscle, and then Vicious tapped him on the shoulder and he disappeared immediately. It was all a set up: Vicious then had a clear aim, and got me with the bike chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wobble saw it somewhat differently though, as he told Jon Savage: \u201cI used to get violent on a few occasions\u2026 The one with Nick Kent was not one of those. Kent was with some geezer who demanded that we step aside, they couldn\u2019t see the band. I said \u2018fuck off\u2019 which was pretty standard. Sid wasn\u2019t a rucker but he lashed him with a chain and then I had a go, but we were just mucking about. What I didn\u2019t know then was if you set yourself up as a hardman, someone will come looking for you who\u2019s harder than you are\u2026\u201d Again to Jon Savage, Wobble spoke of his friendship with John Lydon and Sid Vicious: \u201cJohn and Sid were exactly what I was looking for when I was sixteen\u2026 all I knew then was that I desperately didn\u2019t want to work. I was already an angry young man. I had images of being enclosed by council flats, feeling very claustrophobic.\u201d Jon Savage comments on Wobble: \u201cOnly [Jah Wobble\u2019s] icy blue stare now betrays his past. During Punk, Wobble, Like Sid, resembled a random destruction machine, wound up and placed in the middle of an event to see what would occur. Today he speaks of his past as if of another life.\u201d<\/p>\n
I recounted these stories to Adrian, and I perceived a certain mischievous, conspiratorial expression cross his face, (memories perhaps?) but when he speaks, his love and respect for Wobble are only too obvious. He speaks of Wobble\u2019s achievements with pride:<\/p>\n
Wobble & Lydon, Me and Wobble go back a long way, and I love him. We\u2019ve always been very close. It\u2019s true, Wobble did have a problem with alcohol, but that\u2019s all in the past now, and he\u2019s long left that behind. I respect what he has become as a person and a musician, because he is an example of someone who has really achieved and built everything from his own efforts. You always hear people say, \u201cOh Wobble couldn\u2019t play bass when Public Image started, and he just had a good, instinctive way with playing a heavy dub bass-line\u201d well, that may have been true back then, but let me tell you, Wobble really can play now! He really understands his instrument; he is the original MR FAT BASS SOUND. That is Wobble for you. The last time I saw Wobble was at his wedding and he looked so happy. I\u2019m proud of the stuff Wobble has done with me on those African Head Charge and Dub Syndicate records, and I love a lot of his solo stuff too. Some of his early tunes on the Betrayal album are really good.<\/em><\/p>\nI was very keen to know more about the African Head Charge albums as well. They were so prolific, eccentric and uncategorisable, yet no one had really spoken about them at any great length, so I was very eager to get Adrian\u2019s insight in to these strange records. He spoke about them with obvious a sense of sincerity, but with a definite high spiritedness, representative of the obviously bizarre and downright eccentric sounds that Bonjo I et al had created all those years ago.<\/p>\n
African Head ChargeI\u2019ll be straight with you, a lot of those sounds we created on those records came out the consumption in large amounts of two very different drugs, speed and marijuana! You know, those African Head Charge records were a labour of love to me, and we didn\u2019t really expect too many financial rewards. When you listen to a record like \u2018Environmental Studies\u2019, it\u2019s clear that a sound like that might be intimidating to some people. Woven into the mix, you can hear car crashes, water flowing, bottles breaking. We used a lot of \u201cfound sounds\u201d and many \u201cenvironment sounds\u201d from the studio down at Berry Street where it was recorded. It\u2019s a long time since I\u2019ve listened to that record, but who knows what sounds we put into that record, I think we even might have used water sounds from the toilets and humming vibrations from the boiler room! I haven\u2019t listened to that record in a long time, for the simple reason that when I was working on the record, I listened to it repeatedly, day in, day out, so in my mind, its very much a part of that time\u2026 I\u2019ll have to go back to it and listen to it again some time\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nI mentioned that the Deadley Headley contributions are especially good on that album, to which Adrian wholeheartedly agreed. I also asked him about my favourite track from the \u2018My Life In A Hole In The Ground\u2019 album, the eerie and haunting \u2018Far Away Chant\u2019. It is such a strange piece of music, and I was inquisitive to know, where it had come from, deep in the On-U Sound psyche!<\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s a heavy track. If I remember rightly, it came out of the same sessions we had been working on with Prince Far I and the Dub Syndicate for the Cry Tuff album. There was a slow and hard track, \u2018Plant Up\u2019, with a classic, growling Far I chant about the herb\u2026 anyway, I wanted something even slower, more threatening, heavier, so I took similar sounding rhythm track, and slowed it right down, right down, making it ridiculously slow and heavy, and laid Far I\u2019s anti nuclear chant over the top. You know, the film director David Lynch took that track, and slowed it down even further, which made it even more threatening, and used it in the film \u2018Wild at Heart\u2019 as part of his soundtrack which really pleased me. The mood of the scene he chose it for was pretty dark\u2026 I believe it was a ritual ceremony or sacrifice with Harry Dean Stanton.<\/em><\/p>\nI asked him specifically about a point in the middle of the aforementioned song, when it just simply stops, cuts off randomly for a few seconds, halfway through a vocal line, midway into a word, seemingly for no reason\u2026 before crashing back midway through the tune\u2026 It creates a pretty surreal effect! Adrian laughs at the memory\u2026<\/p>\n
As I said, they were pretty strange times when we recorded those albums, and random too sometimes! I can\u2019t tell you about that part of the track! Who knows? Maybe I accidentally hit the pause button halfway through the track and we left it in the mix?<\/em><\/p>\nHe isn\u2019t joking either\u2026<\/p>\n
I went on to ask him if a he had received criticism from the reggae cognoscenti mafia in London at that time for his bizarre experimentation with roots music, and unconventional attitude to an often over orthodox form. (I remembered back in the late 70\u2019s and early 80\u2019s some roots purists turning their noses up and not buying certain tunes if they knew they had been recorded in Wood Green or Peckham, even if the dubs were as heavy and creative as what was coming out of Jamaica).<\/p>\n
Yes, I did experience some of that, but I didn\u2019t care. We always believed in those early On-U releases, and I felt some of them would have sounded incredible as futuristic film soundtracks. It\u2019s true that some purists on the London scene dissed me for those records I was producing at the time. Perhaps it was the sheer unconventionality of the sound, the inability to be able to categorise such a threatening sound. I didn\u2019t give a fuck about the luddite purists with their little reserves. Really, they didn\u2019t matter to me. I just went on to expand my experiments, putting out hard dub records by Creation Rebel, featuring entire tracks made up of backward tape loops, industrial drills roaring, that kind of style. Anyway, what did the elitists matter to me? I remember going round to people\u2019s houses to listen to tunes, and these guys would be covering up the label with their hands so you couldn\u2019t see who it was by, or blanking out the title. What is that behaviour, you know? I was always very open about this music \u2018cos I love it. I used to give away good rare tunes, help people get into the music and hear good tunes. I enjoyed promoting good roots artists, artists who deserved the exposure. I even knew some people who would be too intimidated to visit roots stores because they worried the vibe might be intimidating, but of course it isn\u2019t like that at all.<\/em><\/p>\nFinally on the subject of African Head Charge: what about \u2018Drastic Season\u2019, I asked?<\/p>\n
\u2018Drastic Season\u2019. That was extreme. The stand out track for me is \u2018Depth Charge\u2019, with that slow, driving syndrum intro.<\/em>
\nSeen. 20,000 leagues under the sea style! I always thought that was such a harsh record, and I loved that aspect of it, its uncompromising sound, its complete lack of concession to anything even remotely commercial. When listened to repeatedly there were some extraordinary rhythms at play here. A look at the track titles gives some indication of the bizarre listening experience lying in wait for the (believe me here) unprepared listener: African Hedgehog, \u2018Snake in the Hole\u2019, \u2018I want Water\u2019\u2026<\/em><\/p>\nOn some tracks, it sounded as if an array of animals had somehow been sucked into the wildness and primal coldness of the mix\u2026 croaking frogs, shrieking birds, massively distorted so as to be rendered unrecognisable, snakes hiss, and an assortment of other bizarre creatures make their presence felt\u2026 The overall result is disorienting, disturbing, but as a sonic assault, deeply pleasurable\u2026 It is the strangest collection of rhythms I\u2019ve ever encountered, yet one of the most rewarding\u2026<\/p>\n
When discussing these African Head Charge works, Adrian\u2019s expression is bright, concentrated, inspired. It is clear he loves talking about these old releases, taking pleasure in how disorienting and ground-breaking they were and still undoubtedly are, the mixture of menace and sheer euphoric spirit present in the records. Apparently not many press releases ever came out of the On-U Studios, but in the case of \u2018Drastic Season\u2019 one did emerge, and reading it back now is as extraordinary and baffling as the sounds on the disc proved to be:<\/p>\n
\u201cA mix of human, animal and machine sounds\u2026 check it if you are a dancer, a listener, a film maker, a computer programmer, a human or an animal. Special treats in store for steam locomotive enthusiasts and biologists. You\u2019ve never heard such sounds in your life.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nChanging subject now, I asked Adrian what he felt had changed in people\u2019s attitudes to buying reggae, or indeed any good music, since the late 70\u2019s. He reflected a while then answered:<\/p>\n
Is music too corporate and controlled now? \u2026 Well, in the past it was a whole ritual\u2026 the vinyl, the sleeve, the record label\u2026 you know, down the record shop on a Friday night, it pure ritual\u2026 was pure ritual\u2026 black guys, young white guys, sound men\u2026 all enjoying the thrill and pleasure of the ritual, buying the hardest 12\u2033 disco, or spiritual 7\u2033 with a heavy dub on the version\u2026 Now, it\u2019s largely a different matter, more of a commodity, a lot of people with a disposable income, and besides, music isn\u2019t viewed in the same precious kind of way, because so much is available now. This just wasn\u2019t the case before. You really had to hunt around to find the kind of tunes you wanted, it was a whole different process. The mystique is taken out of record buying now in a way. Besides the commercial side, there is a whole cross pollination and interchange of ideas and influences going on, which just wasn\u2019t in existence in the late 70\u2019s or eighties, and that in a sense demystifies the uniqueness of what was once a specific \u201creggae sound\u201d too. Many noises, vibrations, frequencies that were exclusive to reggae are now being used in Hip Hop and other styles too, so that has to be taken into account. Plus the influence isn\u2019t only one-way: reggae too, is soaking up sounds and influences from other forms as well.<\/em><\/p>\nI went on to ask Adrian his view of the UK roots scene past and present, and UK so called \u201cNu Roots\u201d:<\/p>\n
UK has always had good roots music. I love what Neil Fraser has done over the years. I especially liked the tunes he put out by Aisha, Macka B and the good stuff he does these days with Mafia and Fluxy. Those are really good tunes. As for the UK Nu roots? Yeah, I like it too, it\u2019s all good works, but I would say this, I feel they need to get away from concentrating exclusively on steppers rhythms, perhaps use vocalists more. They need to get out of limiting themselves to steppers. Having said that, it isn\u2019t a criticism. I like what they do. So England has always had a good roots tradition, and besides that, it\u2019s always had openness to a kind of avant garde thread in the dub world. I had a taste of that myself when I worked with Suns Of Arqa back in the late 70\u2019s and early eighties with their weird cut ups and Islamic, Celtic and Persian influences which were way ahead of their time. They came to me and said \u201cgive us some rhythms!\u201d I duly did so, and was impressed with what they did with them. So this openness has always been there in UK, love of hard music and willingness to experiment.<\/em><\/p>\nIn a discussion of UK roots artists, it was inevitable that I ask him about Shaka. He answered with a sense of awe, respect and reverence.<\/p>\n
Shaka? I\u2019ve known Shaka for over 25 years. We are close. I\u2019ve got his number, he\u2019s got mine you know? I have ultimate respect for the man Jah Shaka. Shaka just loves his music! He\u2019s a soul head and he knows his jazz too, deeply. Did you know that? Shaka just has his own thing altogether. Playing music for ten, twelve hours without a break, until he enters a trance like state, then he\u2019s on God\u2019s plane, following God\u2019s plan.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat was his opinion about the current roots music coming out of Jamaica?<\/p>\n
There is a lot of hard, tough music coming out of Jamaica right now. Astounding tunes. I especially like the Xterminator studio works, and the album MLK in Dub was a real groundbreaker. Then of course there\u2019s people like Daweh Congo. Good music. There is a lot of good music out there to check out and follow. I think they are increasingly aware of an interest in dubwise styles over here in Europe, as well as an awareness of Europe\u2019s interest in the noise factor.<\/em><\/p>\n(This interest in keeping up with the cutting edge of Jamaican innovation was certainly in evidence from the (literally) piles and piles of modern Jamaican roots and dancehall 45\u2019s, neatly stacked in the studio, cupboards and corridors: Productions by new and hungry contenders, innovators out of Kingston such as Steven Stanley, Soljie, Bulby, Penthouse label, African Star and Xterminator music\u2026 Bass Research and development\u2026)<\/p>\n
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Where did Adrian think was the main market in Europe right now for roots music?<\/p>\n
France, without a doubt. People like Burning Spear and Israel Vibration are stars there in their own right, and why on earth shouldn\u2019t they be? They do consistently good work and France rewards them accordingly, they get appreciated. This kind of thing just doesn\u2019t happen in UK for roots artists.<\/em><\/p>\nWhat is Adrian\u2019s opinion of the Junglist and drum and bass vibes, I wondered, especially since some of the drum \u2018n\u2019 bass artists I had recently interviewed had name checked On-U Sound as an influence?<\/p>\n
When I hear Jungle and drum \u2018n\u2019 bass artists saying that On-U Sound influenced them, well I feel that\u2019s very kind, because as Rasta philosophy tells it, \u201ceach one teach one\u201d, and I was influenced by so many people too, so I\u2019m glad this vibe is continuing.<\/em><\/p>\nFinally, I felt I had to ask him about the death of Bim Sherman. We had listened to his music for 25 years or so, but not many of us had any insight into the man himself. All we knew of him was his voice, with that uplifting, lonely and angelic character. Adrian looked somewhat dark and serious at the mention of Bim and it is obviously still a delicate point, since they had worked together for a long time.<\/p>\n
Bim Sherman RIP. Did you hear \u2018Miracle\u2019? That says a lot about Bim. What can I say? Bim was a darling. I\u2019m sorry for using that term, but I\u2019m not sure which other word to use. He was a lovely human being, just a pleasure to work with, and I had been a huge fan of his, right from the early records. He was such a gentle person. Don\u2019t get me wrong though, he could look after himself, and cuss with the best of them. Bim is not someone you would fuck around with. He could speak up for himself, stand up for himself.<\/em><\/p>\nMuch later, I was to see Adrian\u2019s diary entry for the period covering Bim\u2019s illness and eventual death\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was to be my first proper tour as a live DJ\u2026 A few days prior to departure, Bim had fallen ill and was in hospital. I visited him at 11.30 the night before I left. It was to be the last time I\u2019d see him alive. We got the news that he passed on the 17th while we were in Dijon. I returned home the next day. Skip McDonald and Bim had a very close friendship. Skip\u2026 was devastated\u2026 I was sad for Bim\u2019s family, angry with people and everyone around felt empty\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Gregory Mario Whitfield \u2013 2003<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pounding Systems \/ Hi \u2013 Fi Gets A Pounding Part 1 & 2 \/ African Head Charge Don\u2019t Care About Space Invader Machines Part 1 & 2 \/ Fringe On Top Dub Humourless Journalist Works To Rules \/ 10K At 0VU \u2013 60 HZ \u2013 Mind Boggles \/ Crucial Tony Tries To Rescue The Space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-links-downloads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7640"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8075,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7640\/revisions\/8075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/killyourpetpuppy.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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