IDM Mailing Archive

quoted 11 lines From: Random Junk <jsd@gamespot.com>

>From: Random Junk <jsd@gamespot.com> >Subject: Re: (idm) BD bytes, D'nB, bjork & rambling > >Irene McC writes: >> I've just borrowed something wonderful : African Head Charge's "In >> Pursuit of Shashamane Land" (prod. by Adrian Sherwood) 1993, on On-U >> Sound. Amaaaaaaazing doesn't come close to summing it up. > >yep, i LOVE this album. really beautiful. also the previous AHC >"songs of praise" is well worth your time. i'm not as keen on their >earlier stuff tho.

Just in case anyone's thinking I've abandoned my tradition of disagreeing with Jon at every opportunity, I'll have to mention that I've got no use at all for any AHC after and including _Songs of Praises_. It all sounds shamelessly lightweight & worldbeat to me, especially in the towering shadow of the genuinely twisted and brilliant Afro-chant psychedelic dub of their early work.

quoted 4 lines also, despite the fact that AHC features adrian sherwood and skip

>also, despite the fact that AHC features adrian sherwood and skip >mcdonald, it's still about a zillion miles away from the industrial >funk hardness of mark stewart/tackhead/fats comet. amazing how the >same people can be so brilliant at two entirely different styles.

I haven't heard enough Stewart to comment, but, as far as I'm concerned, Adrian Sherwood is the great satan of muso-dub perversion. Nobody matches his talent for stripping such an insanely creative and unpredictable music of all humor and character and replacing it with bland anglo studio sheen. A few spins of prime Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, or King Tubby will cure the discerning listener. AHC had a brilliant sense of the implications of the original dub innovations, but lost the thread after about four essential albums. Miles on: Frank Heiss - 370 Degrees ( Wagon Christ meets fusion Miles Davis, perhaps a bit too repetitive tho )

On Tue, 14 Oct 1997 19:41:58 -0700 Miles Egan <cullen@sirius.com> writes:

quoted 17 lines I haven't heard enough Stewart to comment, but, as far as I'm

> >I haven't heard enough Stewart to comment, but, as far as I'm >concerned, >Adrian Sherwood is the great satan of muso-dub perversion. Nobody >matches >his talent for stripping such an insanely creative and unpredictable >music >of all humor and character and replacing it with bland anglo studio >sheen. >A few spins of prime Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, or King Tubby will >cure the >discerning listener. AHC had a brilliant sense of the implications of >the >original dub innovations, but lost the thread after about four >essential >albums. >

ill by-pass the assessment of ahc, but im curious what u consider "prime" perry? ill grant u the wacked out stuff from black ark studios is definately "prime" but so are the two sherwood produced albums "from the secret laboratory" and "time boom X"...if those two dont have "humor" and "character", i really dont know what does.... tom w np: kraftwerk - live switzerland 1991

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Date: Tue, 14 Oct 1997 19:41:58 -0700 From: Miles Egan <cullen@sirius.com> Subject: (idm) Re: D'nB vs. African Head Charge I haven't heard enough Stewart to comment, but, as far as I'm concerned, Adrian Sherwood is the great satan of muso-dub perversion. Nobody matches his talent for stripping such an insanely creative and unpredictable music of all humor and character and replacing it with bland anglo studio sheen. A few spins of prime Lee Perry, Augustus Pablo, or King Tubby will cure the discerning listener. AHC had a brilliant sense of the implications of the original dub innovations, but lost the thread after about four essential albums. <<<< whoa miles, got to take exception on this one. sherwood's reggae/dub comes from a later period than any of the above's (perry, pablo, tubby) golden era's at a time when the technology being used on dub records fundamentally made them sound less warm/human more mechanical. i don't think you can single sherwood out for this criticism, nearly all dub produced from the late 70's on sounds this way. the early sherwood productions for dub syndicate, creation rebel, new age steppers... , including those first 4 wonderful AHC records that you like so much, are total sheen free zones. what really made sherwood special was the boundary crossing dub productions he executed on other genres. sugarhill funk, jazz, punk, world, noise and soul were were blended echo'd and scuzzed into new forms. if you haven't heard any mark stewart try "as the veneer of democracy starts to fade" i'd be interested to hear how you reconcile the sound on that disc with the phrase "bland anglo studio sheen". i'll admit that most of the of the on-u output from about '92/3 onwards has gotten overtly glossy, but the man's legacy output is worth far more. a total dismissal is like judging lee perry on "technomajikal" or something. for my final 2 pennies about the only decent post - black ark perry output has been w/ sherwood/dub syndicate rex, particularly "time boom x de devil dead" which just exudes both humour and character, and just about gives you a final glimpse of that magical swampy miasma of sound that perry used to regularly throw out of the black ark by the bucketload. martin np - big loada, squarepusher nl - levitate, the fall (still, "aaaaahhhh - i'm the mummy")

quoted 12 lines Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:01:50 -0400

>Date: Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:01:50 -0400 >From: Martin_Burbridge@3com.com >Subject: (idm) Re: D'nB vs. African Head Charge > >whoa miles, got to take exception on this one. sherwood's reggae/dub comes >from a later period than any of the above's (perry, pablo, tubby) golden >era's at a time when the technology being used on dub records fundamentally >made them sound less warm/human more mechanical. i don't think you can >single sherwood out for this criticism, nearly all dub produced from the >late 70's on sounds this way. the early sherwood productions for dub >syndicate, creation rebel, new age steppers... , including those first 4 >wonderful AHC records that you like so much, are total sheen free zones.

I'm not contesting Sherwood's production abilities; he obviously knows his way around a recording studio. He reminds me in many ways of Bill Laswell, an intelligent, talented musician capable of bringing great groups together but completely devoid any real inspiration of his own. As for the early On-U stuff, I'll agree that it lacks the glossy polish of the label's later releases, but I also insist that it's every bit as boringly paint-by-the-numbers and soulless. The fact that _Time Boom..._ is marginally less disappointing than most of Perry's later work is certainly of only very small credit to Sherwood. I'm not an expert on dub by any means, but I know that what I love about _Blackboard Jungle Dub_, or _King Tubby Meets Rockers Uptown_ isn't happening on On-U. If you're questioning the relevance of discussions of dub to this list, just throw on the newest Coldcut or si-{cut}.db records and listen to the ghost of Perry rattling around in the beats. Miles np: Multiphonic Ensemble - King of May ( Sub Rosa ) - Not the envelope pusher Bisk is, in the same sphere as the Reflection album on Clear