Tokyo Indie

This year sees On-U Sound, the legendary London based dub label celebrate 30 years in the game. The party is coming over to Tokyo, with label owner and producer, Adrian Sherwood, hosting a night at the recently opened superclub, Vision, in the heart of Shibuya on December 9th.

Sherwood first started the label in London in 1981, recording artists who despite being from funk, punk and reggae backgrounds were drawn to dub. Amongst On-U Sound’s notable releases were albums by Asian Dub Foundation, Mark Stewart (of the Pop Group), New Age Steppers, Tackhead (which featured Sherwood himself), Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge and Japan’s own Audio Active, who charted in the UK with their “Tokyo Space Cowboys” album. In bringing all of these artists together On-U Sound was more like a collective than a record label with many of their artists playing on each others records and helping to cultivate the distinctive “On-U Sound”. At the same time many of the label’s acts were made up of artists who were individual musicians in their own right, with Singers and Players for example consisting of reggae legends Prince Far I, Mikey Dread and Bim Sherman. This musical matchmaking allowed Sherwood to not only promote his artists but to also promote the label itself, by being the creative force for these unique collaborative projects.

Over the years Sherwood has always kept himself at the cutting edge Sherwood by turning his hand to produce records for numerous big name acts outside of reggae, with work for Primal Scream, Depeche Mode, Sinead O’Connor and Nine Inch Nails being particular stand outs. The same is true of his DJ sets with Sherwood delivering a unique blend of bass-driven contemporary dub, original roots, reggae and dance all of which is given a live dub treatment and processed into a cacophony of reverb delays and FX. Joining for the super session will be Audio Active, who had two albums and their “Free the Marijuana” single produced by Sherwood, and Ao Inoue, occasion singer in the dub band Dry & Heavy, and recently the creator of a wicked instrumental electronic album called “Arrow” which is out December 7th.

http://www.beatink.com/on-u/

Words: Sam Mokhtary

Translation: Asuka Ozutsumi