Sherwoods Forest

In support of Are Friends Electric effort to bring to you the work of Adrian Sherwood as mixer/producer besides his work for his On U sound label i post here some of his work, so excellently gathered @ Skysaw.org , take it.


An interview with Adrian Sherwood


"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?

When 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's Wear you to the Ball… 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.

What was your next stage after your initial fascination with reggae I asked?

Well, I was still in my late teens when I started working for the Carib Gems label people… I was a junior director… I loved roots music, and the tunes we were putting out on that label, tracks like Observe Life by Michael Rose, and Babylon Won't Sleep Tonight/Sleepers by Wayne Jarrett and the Righteous Flames were strong, strong tracks, they really were. Especially I loved the Sleepers track. The Tubby's version is a heavy dub. It's sad, I don't even have copies of those 45's myself anymore. I wish I'd held on to my copies! You know of course we cut our own On-U version of Observe Life with Creation Rebel on the rhythm, and Ari on the vocal, then there was a dub too."
Read the whole interview at uncarved.org here !

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Some trees, and branches from Sherwoods Forest

Medium Medium - 'The Glitterhouse & Plus'

Best known for the 1981 single that is this compilation's namesake, Medium Medium cobbled together the decadent regurgitant of mainstream disco and fed it through a filter of Gang of Four's knotty funk and the Pop Group's acerbic, clawing production. Great bass lines make me weak at the knees, and Hungry, So Angry has so many: check the popping glides of the title track, the shimmy-cum-melody of "Nadsat Dream", and the scores of cinder block kicks, thumps and thuds found throughout. Most impressive, perhaps, is the stylistic and aesthetic variety-- something Medium Medium's more "important" contemporaries neither achieved nor, frankly, cared about-- seen in the album's descent from hard boxy funk to glittering atmospheric jams.



 Medium Medium - 'The Glitterhouse ( flac 271mb)

01 - Hungry, So Angry
02 - Serbian Village
03 - The Glitterhouse
04 - Guru Maharaj
05 - Further Than Funk Dream
06 - Mice Or Monsters
07 - hat Haiku
08 - Nadsat Dream
09 - Hungry, So Angry (Adrian Sherwood mix)

Produced by AMS and Graham Spink.

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Ministry - Twitch (' 86 flac 343mb)

The second CD i ever bought and one of my favourite records that year. Jourgensen performed mostly solo for Ministry's Twitch (1986), The music was danceable electronic music, but wasn't pop music, and the sound was harsher and more aggressive than what Ministry had recorded before. Twitch sold well, and was considered to be "underground" as such this album was quintessential in asserting industrial music's importance in new-wave dance clubs. Twitch would also prove to be a pivotal move in the course of Ministry. Much of the new sound was created with the use of digital sampling and the input of producer Adrian Sherwood.





Ministry-Twitch 343mb

01 - Just Like You
02 - We Believe
03 - All Day Remix
04 - The Angel ||
05 - Over The Shoulder
06 - My Possession
07 - Where You At Now
08 - Crash & Burn (prod by Jourgensen)
09 - Twitch (Version II)
10 - Over The Shoulder (12" version)
11 - Isle Of Man (Version II)

* Produced by AMS.

Ministry @ Wiki
Ministry @ Amazon

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Primal Scream - Echodek

The release is a dub version of Primal Scream's 'Vanishing Point' album and the corresponding titles on that release are given in (brackets). Primal Scream - 'Echodek' (Remix and additional production by Sherwood. )



Primal Scream - Echodek ( flac 284mb)

01 - Living Dub (Long Life)
02 - Duffed Up (Get Duffy)
03 - Revolutionary (Star)
04 - JU-87 || (Stuka)
05 - First Name Unknown (Kowalski)
06 - Vanishing Dub (Out Of The Void)
07 - Last Train (Trainspotting)
08 - Wise Blood (Stuka)
09 - Dub In Vain (Medication)

Primal Scream @ Wiki
Primal Scream @ Amazon

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Looplizard - Into the Sun ('97 -418mb)

This is a belgian band and hasnt had an international release, nvertheless they managed to bring in Sherwood to mix and postproduce their album.Into the sun sounds like ambient or techno, but actually the band is guitars, bass, drums and a few samples. They folded in 2003.



Looplizard - Into the Sun   flac 418mb

01 Burn 3:29
02 Party Time 6:17
03 Mental Rape 3:56
04 Dear Marlena 5:00
05 Tekno 4:23
06 Sunny Side Up 1:10
07 Walkman 5:22
08 Teknoid 5:07
09 Rubberman 3:52
10 Into The Sun 2:33
11 Vertigo 4:12
12 Indy 5:03
13 Monster 5:47
14 Joe's Freakshow 4:50

Produced and mixed by AMS and Harvey Birrell

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Suns of Arqa - Revenge of the Mozabites (1979 * 207 mb)

Suns of Arqa creator and mentor Michael Wadada has been continuously investigating the supernatural potential hidden in the Classical Raga structure of the music of India. His mission – to mix the cerebral and illusive cosmological vibrations of Raga, with the mother earth rhythms of Niyabinghi drumming that were surfacing in England in the guise of Dub Reggae.

In 1979 Wadada set about recording the ground breaking Suns of Arqa album 'Revenge of the Mozabites' with his friend Adrian Sherwood. Together they formed the ‘4D Rhythm’ label – the world was not ready! Wadada retreated to the Pennine mountain range in Lancashire, Adrian Sherwood went on to create the formidable ‘On-U Sound’ label. Next came the legendary collaborations with Prince Far-I, which can be heard on ‘A Brief History of SOA’ . 7th December 1982 Prince Far-I did one last show in Manchester with Suns of Arqa; on his return to Jamaica he was murdered by an unidentified gunman. This last performance can be heard on ‘Suns of Arqa Live with Prince Far-I’. In 1982 a very curious Peter Gabriel came across a rare copy of that first Suns of Arqa album; he was putting together the very first World of Music and Dance festival (WOMAD), and asked Suns of Arqa to come and perform.

Produced by Michel Maffia and Adran Ridims (Sherwood)




------Light Side-----
01 - Acid Tablas ( 3;49)
02 - World Peace, A Dream ? (2;10)
03 - Scully's Reel (1;30)
04 - Bali Sitra (3;39)
05 - Scullys Jig (1;47)
06 - Piece of the World (1;08)
07 - Acid Tabla Dub (3;00)
------Dark Side-----
08 - Ananta Snake Dance (7;19)
09 - Return of the Mozabites (3;38)
10 - Sanaiscara Return (6;18)
11 - Paintings of a Cave (1;21)
Bonus
12 - Acid Tabla Re-Mix (3;37)

Suns of Arqa @ Base
Suns of Arqa @ Amazon

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Some new trees for Sherwoods forest, one even grown from green vinyl.


Voice of Authority - Very Big in America Right Now (1984 * 93mb)

Voice of Authority, alias Adrian Sherwood
Voice Of Authority were yet another of those non-bands whose name roamed the corridors of On-U HQ in the 1982-4 period in the same ilk as Playgroup. In truth, these labels were more like working titles for particular collaborations of recording musicians in a world that insisted on hanging a name on any group of people who happen to release a record.

Dubbed "Science Fiction Dancehall Classic" at the time, spinning the album today, it still sounds as off-beat and timeless as it did when it first came out. As for the giant roasted peanut adorning the cover of the original vinyl edition - you'll just have to give it a listen if it doesn't make sense!



1 - (Short Intro) Knock The House Down (1:47)
2 - Very Big In America Right Now (6:46)
3 - Middle East Power Station (4:35)
4 - In Another World, Ft - Shara Nelson (7:12)
5 - Stopping And Starting Ft - Lizard (5:56)
6 - Technical Miracle (5:08)
7 - Slipped Disco (1:57)
8 - Grand Prix (2:47)
9 - Feeling Wild (4:56)

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