Showing posts with label Singers & Players. Show all posts

10 February 2016

Finally, Some DUB Again

This bashy offering is from mi key Dub-fanatic Jonder. I wanted his compilation to be the first Dub of the new year here. Let’s get wit da rockas & have us a bangarang, bwoys.

The website skysaw.org is an invaluable resource for the adventures of Adrian Sherwood and his merry men. The site's Rhythm Directory reveals that a number of songs released by the On-U collective known as Singers & Players were also issued in Dub versions, mostly on albums by Dub Syndicate. Dub Syndicate was a collective as well, with Lincoln "Style" Scott the only consistent member from 1982's Pounding System through 2015's Hard Food (released a few months after Scott's death). Five albums credited to Singers & Players were released by On-U between 1981 and 1988.

Like the Jamaican producers who inspired him, Sherwood remixes and reuses his source material, issuing new dubs and versions often re-titled and credited to different artists. Over 250 rhythms have been traced back to their original On-U recordings by the dub detectives of the Rhythm Directory.

Singers & Players In Dub is a mix that alternates S&P songs with their corresponding Dubs, as identified in the Rhythm Directory. For me, listening to the songs in this order heightens my appreciation of the talented singers, the musicians of the Dub Syndicate, and the inspired madness of the man behind the mixing desk. Thanks to the host of skysaw.org and its contributors, and respect to the late Style Scott, Prince Far I, Mikey Dread and Bim Sherman.

Jonder Underneathica

Singers & Players - In Dub

Devious Woman - Singers & Players featuring Bim Sherman
Last Sane Dream - Creation Rebel/New Age Steppers
Fit to Survive - Singers & Players featuring Bim Sherman
Threat to Creation - Creation Rebel/New Age Steppers
Bedward the Flying Preacher - Singers & Players featuring Prince Far I
Pounding System - Dub Syndicate
Dog Park - Singers & Players featuring Prince Far I
Hi Fi Gets a Pounding - Dub Syndicate
School Days - Singers & Players featuring Mikey Dread
Ascendant Part 6 - Dub Syndicate
A Matter of Time - Singers & Players featuring Bim Sherman
Substyle - Dub Syndicate
Snipers in the Street - Singers & Players featuring Congo Ashanti Roy
Drainpipe Rats - Dub Syndicate
Boof Um Baff Um - Singers & Players Feat. Delroy Cat
Boof Um Baff - Dub Syndicate - Boof Um Baff

Thanks Bredda Hope…
Enjoy All,
NØ

24 May 2014

This One's On-U

A friend of mine who had been MIA for a couple years recently contacted me. It was great to hear from him again. He, like myself, is a big fan of all things On-U Sound.

In the past I have posted a good amount of Singers & Players, but like my friend, Vacuum Pumping has been missing in action here. Jonder asked if I would rectify that short-coming & I am only too glad to oblige.

Singers & Players – Vacuum Pumping, On-U Sound On-U LP39, 1988.
all decryption codes in comments

Side A –

Run Them Away

Lighthouse / Dreamworld

Holy Scripture

To Be Fee

Side B –

I Don’t Want AIDS

Boof Um Baff Um

Pneumatic

These Eyes

While I’m at this thing, here are a few other On-U treats for you to enjoy.

In 1982 Adrian & Co. issued the Discoplate series of 10" singles, DP1 – DP6. There are actually only five 10" releases. I don’t know why, but DP5 is a 12" EP of three tunes from Mark Stewart & Maffia. Here we go…

Prince Far I / Singers & Players - DP1.

Side A –

Prince Far I / Singers & Players – Virgin

Side AA –

Singers & Players – Danger

Bim Sherman / Singers & Players - DP2.

Side A –

Revolution

Side AA –

Too Much Work Load

Creation Rebel – DP3.

Side A –

Independent Man

Side AA –

Creation Rebel

London Underground – DP4.

Side A –

Strange Things / Conspiracy

Side AA –

Why Do Fat Men Have Such Skinny Thoughts?

Mark Stewart & Maffia – Jerusalem EP DP5.

Side A –

Jerusalem

High Ideals & Crazy Dreams

Side B –

Welcome to Liberty City

Noah House of Dread – DP6.

Side A –

Murder

Side AA –

Stand Firm

Next I thought I’d offer my friends, visitors, lurkers, & leechers Andy Fairley’s only credited 'solo' album, System Vertigo from 1992.

The late Andy Fairley had probably the most distinctive vocal style of any artist to record for Adrian Sherwood. In the early 1980s, art school dropouts Howard Purse & Doug White landed in Bristol, UK. There they masterminded the creation of the band Fish Food. Joined by local drummer Dan Swan, ex-Cortinas, & poet Andy Fairley, the group began cooking up their fractured slices of surreal beat. Always on the fringe of the Bristol scene, the four rehearsed in their squat, a haunt for the likes of The Pop Group, Pig Bag, & Scream & Dance.

Andy Fairley was a modern-day poet; a shrewd observer of the injustices & insanities of the modern world. His lyrics tackled issues such as the state of politics, privatization, & the plight of the under-classes. His raw vocal delivery perfectly & powerfully complimented the issues he addressed.

During the 1989-1993 period his voice was a familiar feature of Sherwood productions: Gary Clail; Dub Syndicate; & Keith LeBlanc among others. When not reciting his own verse in full, he was often sampled for use in-the-mix, often regaling the sonic qualities of the recording or giving a MC-like shout to the artist, On-U Sound, or Sherwood personally.

Here are a few that anyone familiar with the On-U catalogue have probably heard:

"This sound system comes to you with fuel injection!"
"Your head will become a crazy bulbous punch bag of sound!"
"Targeting your brain with sonic thrust!"
"This is the precinct of system. This is the precinct of sound!"

System Vertigo is a collection of his writings set to solid rhythms built by Adrian Sherwood & the Little Axe alums Skip McDonald & Doug Wimbish with a cast of others.

Fairley left On-U in the mid 1990s & vanished back into the Bristolian aether from which he had emerged. Sadly little else was heard from or about him until news of his death in 1999.

Andy Fairley – System Vertigo, On-U Sound ON-U LP61, 1992.

Side 1 –

I Stopped the Clock

System Vertigo

Ghost

The Election Pt. 1

Side 2 –

You Look at Life

Audio Visual Attack

The Election Pt. 2

A Nation Responds

Fun & Games

The Song of the Phoenix

False Start

Finally, a compilation of various On-U Sound celebrities on On-U Sound Celebration.

Various – On-U Sound Celebration, Trance Records TCCD 9 00662 O, 1988.

Tracklist –

The Deal (intro)

Stopping & Starting – Voice of Authority

Quante Jubila – Prince Far I & Creation Rebel

Dreams are Better – London Underground

Silent Mover – Playgroup

Last Sane Dream – Creation Rebel / New Age Steppers

Make a Joyful Noise – Singers & Players

AllaLa Dreadlocks Soldier – Singers & Players

Love I Can Feel – Creation Rebel

Creative Involvements – Creation Rebel

Deep & Mintyful - Playgroup

The Dice – Judy Nylon

Woodpecker Sound – Jah Woosh

Final Frontier – Creation Rebel / New Age Steppers

Independent Man pts. 1 & 2 – Creation Rebel

Epic Sound Battles – Playgroup

Feeling Wild – Voice of Authority

Knock the House Down – Voice of Authority

Thanks, Jonder, for the nudge,

NØ

20 April 2014

4-20

When I was re-upping Singers & Players - Leaps & Bounds the other day, I realized I hadn’t yet posted up Revenge of the Underdog. Remedying that right here right now. Nothin’ much else to say, but On-U Sound…Dub.

Here Singers & Players are: Bim Sherman, Neville ‘Jah Woosh’ Beckford, Lizard, & Prince Far I – vocals; ‘Crucial’ Tony Phillips – guitar & bass; Keith ‘Lizard’ Logan – bass; Carlton ‘Bubblers’ Ogilvie & Nick ‘Housmous Mouse’ Plytas – keyboards; Lincoln ‘Style’ Scott – drums; & Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah – percussion.

Singers & Players – Revenge of the Underdog, On-U Sound On-U LP 11, 1982.
decryption code in comments

Side A –

Dungeon

Merchant Ship

Jah Army Band

Too Much Work Load

Prodigal Son

Follower

Side B –

Water the Garden

Resolution / Resolution (part 2 / version 2)

Thing Called Love (Don’t Fight)

Cha-Ris-Ma

On-U,

NØ

24 March 2011

Singers & Players - War of Words

Lotta people seemed to have enjoyed the last Singers & Players that I posted up, so here’s another one. From 1981 on 99 Records in the U.S., released the following year in the U.K. on On-U Sound. Although Bim Sherman does the vocal duties on five of the seven tunes (& never sounded finer), this is the first album by Singers & Players with Prince Far-I & Jah Woosh.

War of Words has that heavy slow dub with early dancehall influences. Bim Sherman handles the vocals on "Devious Woman," "Fit to Survive," & "World of Dispensation", great funky rootsy skankers while "91 Vibration" has echoed dub with vocals he must have phoned in from another area code. However, when Prince Far-I steps up to the mike on "Quante Jubila" a re-working of Creation Rebels 's "Know Yourself" it is a thing of beauty, the juxtaposition of the Prince’s gruff vocals with the songs emotional lyrics. If you liked Leaps & Bounds, you’re gonna really groove to this one.

Singers & Players here are: Bim Sherman, Prince Far-I, & Jah Woosh - vocals; “Crucial” Tony - guitar, bass, keyboards, & vocals; Keith Levene - guitar; Geotge Oban - bass; Lizard - bass & vocals; Ari “Stepper”, “Bigga” Morrison, Doctor Pablo, & Nick Plytas - keyboards; Eskimo Fox & “Style” Scott - drums; & Mr. Ranking Magoo - percussion. Produced, of course, by Adrian Sherwood.