|
The Boys are Goood Dub. Echo Warriors
When 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
|
|
|
