On-U Sound will release Sherwood At The Controls Volume 2: 1985 – 1990, the second compilation from esteemed producer Adrian Sherwood, digging into the On-U Sound archives, later this month. Ahead of its release, you can check out a previously unreleased track from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, an alternate mix of ‘Music & Science Lovers’, above.
The sessions that birthed the track were brought about by the efforts of BBC Radio DJ Steve Barker and saw Sherwood work alongside Style Scott and Dub Syndicate to produce a selection of sounds for Perry to add his vocals too. This resulted in the Boom X De Devil Dead album which came out on On-U Sound in 1987.
“After Far I’s murder, I didn’t really embark on any new reggae until I met Lee in 1986. It was Steve Barker who suggested we work together. We made Time Boom with Style Scott. Lee was staying with a guy called Rudy in Harrow, who was married to Max Romeo’s sister – a bit of a mad scene.
"I actually first encountered Lee in person when I was 13. Joe from Pama drove us up to Soundville Records in Harlesden, where I would eventually work. Lee and his family had come over from Jamaica and he was stood in the doorway to the shop. I was just a little kid so I wouldn’t have said hello, I would have just been staring at him. When I worked with him I had quite a big ego and was doing quite a lot of speed, coming off the back of doing remixes for people like Depeche Mode. So even though I was a massive fan, when he turned up and put on a tape of him doing a Bob Marley tune, I thought it sounded a bit tired. I put on a few of my rhythms and said ‘try these out’, and before we knew it, we were making an album.”
The album will be launched at the Jazz Cafe in London this Friday with Sherwood set to be joined by a number of special guests including Andrew Weatherall. For more details and to get tickets, click here. The album is out on June 24.
