RhoDeo 1242 Roots

Hello, somewhat later today as my ISP had the jitters, couldn't upload duh !  The spirit of the exciting late-'70s/early-'80s crossbreeding that took place between punk and reggae rules tonight. . New Age Steppers   Njoy !

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The eponymous album debut of the New Age Steppers (ON-U LP 1) also provided On-U Sound s first long player release in January of 1981. In the January of the previous year the band had versioned the Junior Byle s classic "Fade Away" for the label s first 7" single. Featured on the flip were London Underground with "Learn a Language". As a result NAS have always played a special part in the history of On-U Sound, not only for contributing its debuts in single and album formats, but also for the bringing together of a disparate collection of individuals for the sole purpose of making music - a rationale that On-U was to follow for the following two decades.

Reputedly, the driving force behind the formation of NAS was Arianna Foster a.k.a. Ari Up - the vocalist from the Slits, one of the original "girls with attitude" bands. The Slits, along with other UK outfits like the Clash and the Ruts, felt a close association with the rebel axis of reggae music. For the Slits this link was most creatively manifested in their work with Dennis "Blackbeard" Bovell, a largely unrecognised genius in the area of UK reggae production. Along with Ari came Neneh Cherry, a few years short of her international stardom, step-daughter of jazz legend Don, and mashing up the leftfield indie-funk scene with Rip Rig and Panic. Also from that band were Bruce Smith and Sean "Hogg" Oliver, although drummer Bruce had earlier been a founder member of the controversial Pop Group, as had guitarist John Waddington and vocalist Mark Stewart who was later to produce some of the most radical and brutal music ever to be committed to vinyl in his first two solo albums for On-U.

Keith Levene from Public Image Limited was in the area - but not on the first album. Style Scott from Jamaica s reigning rhythm machine the Roots Radics and George Oban from the UK s top roots outfit Aswad supplied the drum and bass foundation and credibility for the enterprise. Whereas from the UK, Creation Rebel s Charlie "Eskimo Fox" and "Crucial" Tony Phillips provided the link with Adrian Sherwood s previous studio work. Viv Goldman and Vikki Aspinall were both recruited in from the collective that constituted the all-female Rough Trade band, The Raincoats and Steve Beresford was, well Steve Beresford, but perhaps best known for his Flying Lizards association. Technically able to play, inspire, provoke and create - here he was making one of his many appearances on early On-U Sound recordings.

The set of that first album opens with Ari Up's off-centre vocals on the NAS version of Junior Byles' "Fade Away", a tune which the singer had cut for Channel One's JoJo Hookim some five years earlier but which had already achieved the status of a reggae standard. "Crazy Dreams and High Ideals" is one of those songs, which counted as favourite down at On-U and was versioned over time numerous times by others and its author Mark Stewart.

A version of "Animal Space" was originally released as a UK 7" single by the Slits on the Human label and can also be found on their album "Return Of The Giant Slits" on CBS. Bim Sherman s "Love Forever" is next for the Ari Up treatment with some great spooky on-key screams in the dub towards the track s close. The set is rounded off by a dub version of Viv Goldman s overtly political "Private Armies". Viv was better known as a music journalist, mainly for the New Musical Express (NME) music paper rather than a musician. Her only single was "Laundrette" on a Rough Trade 7", which had the vocal version of "Private Armies" as the flip.

The New Age Steppers' and On-U s debut was also remarkable for another reason, entirely separate from musical context - it boasts art work, by the never-to-be-forgotten Bill Bell, which is clearly the daftest in the whole catalogue of the label. The album cover depicts a mock gyrating Elvis hula-hooping a car tyre round his knees and a jeep in his face, aside a giant footballing baby accomplishing a neat "dribble", all this is set in the context of an ever so tasteful red, white and black minimal Soviet neo-constructivist design!

Released in the summer of 1982 "Action Battlefield" was the NAS's second album for On-U Sound. They were to go on to produce one further set for On-U, 1983 s swansong "Foundation Steppers", by which time Bim Sherman had more fully entered the scene and was taking the lion s share of the album s vocal credits. In reggae terms it could have been presented as a showcase album in the sense that most of the tracks are vocals extended into a dub version - in Jamaica this would have been a thirteen or fourteen track album rather than seven, albeit lengthy, cuts - all a matter of value for money of course!

Ari Up takes the majority of the vocal duties and proceeds to warble and scream in her inimitable fashion through the set s opener with a version of a tune that is now recognised as a classic - Bim Sherman s "My Whole World" originally cut by the singer in the seventies and re-versioned in the nineties for his wonderful "Miracle" album. "Observe Life" is a cover of a song penned by ex-Black Uhuru member Michael Rose whereas "Got to Get Away" returns to the rock steady pen of Sherman.

The strangest track on the album is undoubtedly the bizarrely constructed "My Love" a take on a track written by one time Gaylad B.B. Seaton. The production may very well have been crafted for the young vocalist who takes the lead - Neneh Cherry, but what can only be described as a jolly, off-key doo wop is gratefully relieved by the gentle entry of the dub! "Problems" is a Horace Andy oldie, first recorded for Leonard Chin and re-cut massive style later in his career and probably best known as a version from his legendary "In The Light" dub set. Here, a chugging, insistent treatment allows Sherwood (still with hair on the album cover!) some freedom on the desk as does the following track, the set s only instrumental (except for an unidentified ethnic chant - North London?), "Nuclear Zulu" which provides a template for some of the future experimentation that was to take place under the banner of African Head Charge.

A reggae classic "Guiding Star" closes affairs, originally penned by Heptone, Leroy Sibbles. This standard provides one of the most enduring rhythm beds of the genre and is perhaps now best remembered via the late Augustus Pablo s wonderful melodica version. Dub versions to "My Whole World", "Got To Get Away" and "Guiding Star" can all be found on the NAS / Creation Rebel album "Threat To Creation" as "Painstaker", "Final Frontier" and "Eugenic Device" respectively.

After many dormant years, filled only by a "Massive Hits" compilation  and a limited edition single in Japan. Ari Up and Sherwood sporadically remained in contact over the decades, and began recording together again shortly before she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008. By the time of her death in 2010, they had put together enough material for a new album, Love Forever, which was released in early 2012.

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New Age Steppers features contributions from well over a dozen post-punk and reggae scenesters and, like the following Action Battlefield, the record epitomizes the spirit of the exciting late-'70s/early-'80s crossbreeding that took place between punk and reggae. Central to this record, Style Scott of the Roots Radics and George Oban of Aswad provide most of the rhythms, and the originals were penned predominantly by Sherwood and Scott, with the occasional outside contribution factoring into the whole. The Pop Group's Mark Stewart pipes in with "Crazy Dreams and High Ideals," a winding, warping dub composition filled with random surges of snare drums, searing, trebly effects, and crazy vocal tricks -- Stewart seems to be yelping from the bottom of a well one moment, and then suddenly you'll feel as if you need to wipe his spittle off your ear. Ari Up's relaxed vocals highlight some of the album's most song-based material; both "Love Forever" and the aforementioned "Fade Away" feature galloping pianos and thick, rhythmic bases that Up merely sails along with. The remainder of the record is comprised of instrumentals that throw all sorts of manipulations and funhouse oddities into the mix.

New Age Steppers ‎- New Age Steppers (flac  405mb)

01 Fade Away 5:36
02 Radial Drill 4:31
03 State Assembly 6:21
04 Crazy Dreams And High Ideals 5:45
05 Abderhamane's Demise 3:58
06 Animal Space 5:41
07 Love Forever 7:26
08 Private Armies 4:51
09 Izalize 4:39
10 May I 6:12
11 Avante Gardening 4:06
12 Singing Love 5:07

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82's Action Battlefield slightly pares down the lineup found on its predecessor and hones in on vocal-heavy, extended version-like renditions of songs originally written by the likes of Horace Andy ("Problems"), Black Uhuru's Michael Rose ("Observe Life"), B.B. Seaton ("My Love"), and the Heptones' Leroy Sibbles ("Guiding Star"). Most of the music is laid down by Aswad's George Oban, Creation Rebel's Tony Phillips, Eskimo Fox, and the Slits' Ari Up, who also takes on most of the vocal duties. As far as the other contributors are considered, the honey-sweet "My Love" features the vocals of a pre-stardom Neneh Cherry (then of Rip Rig & Panic) and cult legend Bim Sherman. That's as solid as a lineup gets, and one thing this record does have in its favor over its predecessor is a greater sense of cohesion. To wit, this record sounds more like a band than the temporary collaborative effort that it truly is. With a lack of instrumentals and original songs on deck, Sherwood's production doesn't get as wayward or crazed as it did on the first Steppers record, but there's still plenty of mind-bending psych-dub to wrap your head around. "Nuclear Zulu" benefits from reverberant funk guitar treatments that sound like Eddie Hazel as produced by Lee Perry, and, like most of the other tracks, it has a drum/bass/piano lock groove that sticks like a leech.

New Age Steppers ‎- Action Battlefield (flac  365mb)

01 My Whole World 5:21
02 Observe Life 5:15
03 Got To Get Away 4:55
04 My Love 7:02
05 Problems 7:34
06 Nuclear Zulu 6:26
07 Guiding Star 6:30
 Japanese Bonus Tracks
08 Wide World Version 3:56
09 Unclear 5:03


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The third and final New Age Steppers album, Foundation Steppers is dominated by Bim Sherman's magnificent vocals, with the majority of his showcases then segueing into a lengthy dub interlude, to complete one of the finest "traditional" reggae albums in the On-U canon. Assuming, of course, that a traditional album would find space for "Five Dog Race," an earthquake instrumental that Adrian Sherwood would return to on several occasions in the future. Lol Coxhill, Doctor Pablo, and Prince Hammer have all distinguished subsequent versions of this mighty rhythm. Another dub, the sparser "Mandarin," is equally forthright, but the key moments here are the vocal tracks -- the buoyant "Memories," the confidential "Misplaced Love," and the pushy "Vice of My Enemies" all testify to Sherman's mighty presence.

New Age Steppers ‎- Foundation Steppers (flac  320mb)

01 Some Love 5:35
02 Memories 4:06
03 5 Dog Race 3:37
04 Misplaced Love 4:30
05 Dreamers 4:01
06 Stabilizer 4:14
07 Stormy Weather 4:50
08 Vice Of My Enemies 4:00
09 Mandarin 2:47
Japanese Bonus Tracks
10 Aggro Dub Version 5:55
11 Strong Foundation 5:43


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