Forty Minutes Of Adrian Sherwood

Adrian Sherwood's career in music dates back more than four decades. You can dip into it at point since he started producing, mixing and making records in the early 80s and not be disappointed- there is no weak spot, no off period, no loss of quality; everything he touches is worth hearing and much of it is music of the very highest calibre. Various people have spoken about watching him in the studio, using the mixing desk as an instrument, throwing sound around the channels, pushing faders up and down, his use of echo and space and reverb creating music from somewhere else, inspired by Jamaican dub but identifiably British too. Through his label On U Sound he has released hundreds of records, Sherwood's golden touch for sound, space and rhythm all over many of them, a man with a sound that is always moving forward, always modern. As with The Fall a few Sundays ago, I could sit down a do another two or three Sherwood mixes without any bother at all- what is in this mix is just a selection of Sherwood recordings, productions and remixes. 

Forty Minutes Of Adrian Sherwood

• Whirlpool Dub
• Nocturne (Adrian Sherwood Remix)
• Acid Tabla (Adrian Sherwood Remix)
• I'm A Winner
• Dub For The Spirits
• Haunting Ground Dub
• Ju- 87
• Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood's Dub Lightning)
• Bless Those
• The Way Of The World

Whirlpool Dub is from this year's Reset In Dub, Adrian's reworking in dub style of the entire Reset album, released by Sonic Boom and Panda Bear in 2021. It is one of this year's best albums. The vinyl arrived this week, a December dub treat. 

Mark Lanegan has never sounded darker or more doomy than in Adrian's hands (and that's saying something. Mark made a career out of dark and doomy). This remix came out in 2017 on a Mark Lanegan mini album, Still Life With Roses (Gargoyles Remixes) along with remixes of Beehive by Andrew Weatherall. 

Suns Of Arqa's Acid Tabla EP came out in 2016, produced by Sherwood and Wadada with the late Style Scott on drums (of Dub Syndicate). The bassline, tabla and rocking rhythms are all spot on. The original version of Acid Tabla was on Suns Of Arqa's 1980 album Revenge Of The Mozambites, Adrian credited as Adran Riddims.  

I'm A Winner is one of the standouts on this year's Africa Head Charge album A Trip To Bolgatanga, an album where Adrian and Bonjo shift the African Head Charge sound yet again. When they set out with AHC back in 1980 the idea was create 'a vision of a psychedelic Africa'. They made several definitive albums between 1980 and 1990, dub, sound FX, samples and African drums fused in a mystical sound. In 1990 they released their pinnacle, the mighty Songs Of Praise. In 2020 an album of extras including unreleased tracks from Songs Of Praise came out including Dub For The Spirits.

Bim Sherman became one of the key figures of the On U Sound collective, a man with a golden voice. Haunting Ground was on 1986's album of the same name, an album which featured Dub Syndicate and Roots Radics. The dub mix coming out on one of the pair of CD compilations titled Sherwood At The Controls. Bim died of cancer in 2000. His 1996 album Miracle is one of the lost gems of the 90s, songs from his back catalogue given a Bollywood makeover, re- recorded with Indian strings and Talvin Singh's percussion. 

Adrian dubbed out Primal Scream's entire Vanishing Point album, released as Echo Dek on Creation in 1997. Ju- 87 is a dub version of Stuka, a fairly uncompromising track in its original form. Adrian adds doorbells, and pulls rattling echo, deep bass, ricocheting bleeps and a scuzzy, screwed up dub to the fore. 

Long As I Can See The Light was a 1998 single by Monkey Mafia, released on Heavenly, a cover of a 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song. Monkey Mafia's cover is a lovely late night, downtempo cover. Adrian bends it into a new space. 

Bless Those is from Pay It All Back Vol. 4, released in 1993. Pay It All Back is a long running series of compilations/ samplers dating back to 1985. Little Annie has been part of the On U family since the early 90s, with David Harrow, Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald all contributing music to Annie's vocals. A dense sound, distorted horns and dub FX.  

The Way Of The World is by LSK and Sherwood, a track on Pay It All Back Vol. 7 from 2019. LSK is British singer/MC Leigh Stephen Kenny, born in Kent and now in Leeds. This track is a suitably dubbed out way to close this mix, two and a half minutes of digital dub, noise and samples, unease and LSK's honeyed vocal.  

Put A Candle In The Window

                               

I was out walking last night, in the rain natch (it's been pouring down all week). We (me and my daughter) went to see how high the Mersey was. Pretty high was the answer- up to the top of the banks and over the paths in places. I could see the river skirting the underneath of the bridge I drive over when I come off the motorway towards home. The picture above doesn't really do it justice or show how fast it was flowing and at the point I took the photo the banks and high and steep so it looks lower than it is. Walking back home this Monkey Mafia cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song started playing in my head.

Long As I Can See The Light

Monkey Mafia put this out in 1998, a 12" single in 1998, a downtempo, after hours reading of a 60s classic with squelchy bass, a slow, dusty beat with scratchy, smoky vibe and the voice of Shirzelle. I bought it at the time and find myself coming being drawn back to it now and then. Adrian Sherwood remixed it, bringing the dub influences to the fore and adding his own special brew. It's a gorgeous dub mix of an already lovely cover. 

Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood's Dub Lightning)

And then when I considered everything it seemed that this was also a perfect song for today, a song I'd like to offer to all my friends and the friends of this blog who live in the U.S.A. and to mark the end of what for a lot of them has been a four year waking nightmare, that to some extent is coming to an end today. 

'Put a candle in the window/ 'Cause I feel I've got to move/ Though I'm going, going/ I'll be coming home soon/ Long as I can see the light'

Some Folks Are Born To Wave The Flag

There's a lot of war in the ether at the moment, both real and imagined. Obviously the Iran- USA situation but also Brexit looming and the lunatic fringe making their usual absurd comparisons. Leave.EU recently tweeted that 1st February should see all the church bells ring across the country to celebrate 'our independence'. The original tweet read-

'BELLS FOR VICTORY
Just as we did to mark the Allies' victory in Europe in 1945 we're calling all patriots to ring the bell at their local church... to celebrate Britain's new found independence! If the powers that be don't like it? We'll do it anyway!'

I'm sure we don't really need to unpack this swivel eyed insanity any further but this shows what we're dealing with and where the leave ultras heads are at- leaving the EU is for them on a par with defeating Nazi Germany. Mark Francois, comedy little right wing Tory bellend, repeated this call in the House of Commons, demanding Big Ben ring out to mark the occasion.

The right wing who have pursued this national idiocy have made these World War II comparisons all the way through. Brought up on Second World War films and comics like Commando and Victor, there is an enormous emasculating shadow that falls over them, the knowledge that their fathers and grandfathers served in the two big wars of the Twentieth Century and that they never would. They're obsessed with the Germans, Dunkirk, Churchill, Spitfires and D- Day, never missing an opportunity to hark back. This idealised Britain of their imagination, all white cliffs, Sten guns and Anderson shelters, is of course a Britain before immigration and before the liberalisation of the 1960s. In their version of World War II the Soviets are always inconsequential, despite losses of 20 million, and the USA always arrives late, 'after all the serious fighting's done'. Francois, Farage et al, a lifetime spent wishing the Second World War was on their CV, their little Dunkirk hard ons leading their politics.

Meanwhile in the USA the last two Republican Presidents both had the opportunity to serve in the jungles of South East Asia and both passed it up. Trump had five deferments from Vietnam. George W Bush had his Dad pull strings and served with the National Guard at home. Trump (especially) loves the hard man imagery of assassinating men in foreign countries by drone strike.

These things came together last week. And then I heard Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 song Fortunate Son while looking for some footage of Vietnam for a lesson with my Year 11s.

Fortunate Son

Sherwood

Tuesday brings a pair of Adrian Sherwood mixes for your listening pleasure. The first is his dub mix of Monkey Mafia's after hours classic from 1998, their cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival song As Long As I Can See The Light. Echo, delay, melodica, the full Sherwood dubbed out business. A lovely way to start the day.

As Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood Dub Lighting)

My own personal Woodentops revival continues- the band haven't been far away from my stereo for most of 2018. Sherwood remixed several of Rolo and co's songs. This is my favourite, vocals up front, crunchy guitars dropped in and out and frenetic pace maintained.

Love Affair With Everyday Living (Adrian Sherwood Mix)

Looks Like We're In For Nasty Weather

Creedence Clearwater Revival's rootsy 60s rock 'n' roll is almost the exact opposite of yesterday's Tortoise post-rock. Killer guitar riff, Southern boogie and portentous lyrics- Vietnam, student protests, civil rights, assassinations, rioting. This song has possibly suffered from being overused in films and on TV.

Bad Moon Rising

Monkey Mafia 'As Long As I Can See The Light' (Adrian Sherwood Dub Lighting)

Another Adrian Sherwood remix of an 90s dance act for you, following earlier posts featuring his dub remixes of Primal Scream and Death In Vegas, both a few months back. This is the dub version of As Long As I Can See The Light by Jon Carter's Monkey Mafia, who were a bit big beat, but this, and the original A-side, are chilled out loveliness. It's a cover of a Creedence Clearwater Revival song (actually the second cover of theirs I've posted, the other was by Minutemen, Have You Ever Seen The Rain?). This is spacey, dubby, features some really cool melodica, man, and does everything you'd want it to.

As Long As I Can See The Light (Adrian Sherwood Dub Lighting).mp3

Minutemen 'Have You Ever Seen the Rain?'

I was watching Nurse Jackie the other night and two versions of this song were played, including the original by 60s rockers Creedence Clearwater Revival. Which made me remember that I have a version of this song, Have You Ever Seen The Rain? by Minutemen from 1985. By their standards this is an epic, clocking in at 2 minutes 24 seconds.

Minutemen were post punk 'corn-dogs', signed to SST, home of Black Flag and Husker Du. Minutemen played jerky, sparse, politically- edged songs, often in around a minute or two. They don't really sound like anyone else, and are true post-punk; inspired by punk but not Sex Pistols clones. Their 1984 double lp Double Nickels On The Dime has 40-odd songs on it, and hardly a duff moment. Some of their stuff is truly great. This was from their 'mersh' period (Minutemen slang for going commercial). Needless to say, they never crossed over, despite supporting REM in the mid-80s.

Singer and guitarist D Boon died in a van accident in 1985, and the band broke up, re-appearing as fIREHOSE. Bassist Mike Watt is an all round good guy, having done stuff with The Beastie Boys, and recently playing bass for The Stooges re-union. There's a good Minutemen doc on dvd We Jam Econo, worth seeking out. In the meantime, here's Have You Ever Seen The Rain?

06 Have You Ever Seen the Rain-.wma