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The Boys are Goood Dub. Echo WarriorsWhen PRIMAL SCREAM got legendary knob-twister ADRIAN SHERWOOD to do a dub overhaul of their "Vanishing Point" album. a very 'dark and heavy' creature was born. All hands on Dek:JAMES OLDHAM (words) MARTYN GOODACRE (photos)'London's Southern Studios, 1985: during daylight hours, Bobby Gillespie is recording 'Psychocandy' with The Jesus & Mary Chain. Every evening as they his head at Adrian Sherwood and the On-U dub first time their pitths have crossed, and even though only a few words am exchanged, ft isn't destined to be the last. Twelve years later, they're sitting and laughing together in the living room of Sherwood's High Wycombe home. After a decade of aborted sessions and drunken promises (Bobby used to go to On-U Sound nights organised by Sherwood and it's there where they became friends), they've finally made an album together something that neither of them could have predicted after that first meeting in '85. "They were nice boys and everything," recalls Sherwood of the Mary Chain, "but they never used to say much. I used to think they were a bit on the sensitive side." "I'd heard about Adrian Sherwood," remembers Bobby grinning, "and for some reason I thought he was going to be a really evil guy, a paranoid anarchist or something. I don't know why... maybe it was because he used to hang out with Crass, who also recorded at Southem. Primal Scream first tried to work with him four years ago during the sessions for the 'Give Out But Don't Give Up' album, but were so untogether it came to nothing. Three years later, however, Sherwood mixed and produced 'The Big Man And The Scream Team Meet The Barmy Army Uptown' - Primal Scream's Unofficial anthem for Euro '96. So impressed were the band that a futura collaboration was agreed on the spot - hence, the newly-released 'Echo Dek'. Their second album of the year, it's an ambitious, highly experimental reappraisal of 'Vanishing Point'. Recorded in February of this year, it features nine radically rebuilt versions of songs from that album. Mixed by Sherwood in the close company of Gillespie, Innes and Duffy, it's a record that reverberates with colliding plates of sound and ricocheting effects, and one that successfully manages to replicate the intensity of pioneering early PiL albums. Justifiably, everyone connected with the record is very proud of it, but not surprised. As we speed towards the Bucks countryside to meet the man responsible, Bobby Gillespie explains why the band had such trust in Sherwood. "He made all those dub records, but he was never a splifihead. He was up all night taking speed," grins Bobby excitedly. "I tell you, that man's a legend..." ADRIAN SHERWOOD HAS been acting as a legend since 1970 when, at the age of 12, he was going to the house parties of a Caribbean school friend and fast becoming addicted to both the calypso sounds as well as the food. By the age of 15, he'd acquired his own mobile sound system and was putting on parties at local schools around the Hillingdon area, as well as organising gigs by the likes of the Bay City Rollers and Mungo Jerry. Before he was 20, he had set up and then bankrupted four separate reggae record labels. In fact, prior to the arrival of punk in the late '70s, he was largely responsible for distributing the only dub and reggae records that came into this country. So it hardly came as a surprise when, in the summer of 1977, he decided to make one of his own. Aided by a friend called Pete Stroud - aka Doctor Pablo - they recorded the first Creation Rebel album for £200. It went on to sell over 3,000 copies, and from this humble starting point, Sherwood rapidly became a respected (and highly sought-after) producer. Throughout the '80s, he contributed to countless albums released through his own On-U Sound label, as well as working with artists as diverse as dub legend Lee 'Scratch' Perry and (more recently) Shane MacGowan. No wonder, then, that he was the person Primal Scream turned to when it was decided to rework 'Vanishing Point'. Initially, however, he was nervous about the commission. The band had agreed that he shouldn't just be given the tapes and left to get on with it. Not only did they want to be there from the outset, but they wanted him to strip the songs to the barest of skeletons and then rebuild them virtually from scratch. "It was an experimental thing," explains Bobby, "to try to take things that little bit further out to see what would happen if we put them in Adrian's hands. "I think that 'Vanishing Point' is like a drum'n'bass LP, not actual drum'n'bass, but like Public Image and Joy Division records that had the bass and drums totally in the forefront. They're two examples of rock music that's influenced by reggae, and that's what we're after with 'Vanishing Point', that's a good basis for an experimental records, do you what I'm saying? Stuff like 'Long Life' (retitled 'Living Dub' on the album) is one of the best pieces of music that I've ever heard, I can't believe it's us. It's dark and skeletal and right now that feels just right. That's the sort of music I want to be making." Is this obsession with making everything sound 'dark and heavy' any reflection of your current state of mind? "Maybe. Not that I'm unhappy, it's just I can see things and feel things. It's the environment around at the moment. There may be a lot of money in the music business, but there isn't a f-k-ng lot of money on the council estates. The Tories are still here and things are getting bleaker, and I think that's there in our music. "At the moment all rock music sounds like 1974 or '75, it's pre-punk. We're doing something that nobody else is. I mean, 'Echo Dek' isn't some sort of rip-off record, it's a totally separate album that stands on its own." "The best compliment I can pay it," adds Sherwood, seizing his moment to get a word in, "is that it sounds like a proper dub record. I bet you could listen to this record in a few years and it'll still sound good. You know, every track." of course, 'Echo Dek' is also part of a newer Scream manifesto. After the debacle of the 'Give Out...' period, the repercussions are still echoing through the band. These days, there's a desire to make more challenging records that don't take an eternity to finish. As a result, the band have already started recording their next album. Apart from obsessively listening to Miles Davis live albums, they've spent time in the studio with Can's drummer, Jaki Liebezeit, as well as working with My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields (who's contributed guitars to a new track). The first indications of that new sound are to be released soon, starting with a 12" featuring a Kevin Shields remix of 'If They Move, Kill 'Em'. "Kevin's mix is so disturbing," enthuses Bobby, sucking in his cheeks and blinking repeatedly. "He's left all the horns in and turned them up as far as they'll go. It's wailing, man, I'm telling you, it's really f-mg incredible. "As well as that we've got two new tracks mixed already, and one of them is going to be the lead track on the Acid House soundtrack (Forthcoming film based on the Irvine Welsh book). It's called 'Insect Royalty', and it's hard and dark, but soulful at the same time, that emotional warmth is there. Do you know what I'm saying? It's easy to make a f-mg psychotic, unemotional record, thousands of people do that, but that doesn't touch me. We want to make something that touches people." Such is Bobby's enthusiasm for this new material and such is the speed at which he communicates his feelings, you fear that he'll explode before he's had a chance to finish. He doesn't though, and before the tape recorder grinds to a halt, he just about has breath left to reflect on his (and the band's) achievements this year. "We had a point to prove when we came back," he concludes softly. "People never think we can play or produce, but they're wrong and these records have proved that. I think 'Vanishing Point' and 'Echo Dek' are the two best albums I've heard this year, y'know, with the exception of the Spiritualized record. Two in a year! It's not bad, is it? And the thing is we couldn't have done it without that man over there." Sherwood slowly nods his head and smiles. It might have taken 12 years, but it's been worth it. Originally appeared in NME, 1 Nov 1997. Copyright © IPC Magazine Ltd. Back |
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