Profile of the label On-U Sound

[Music] [Music] on The Late Show tonight the return of heavy metal as the steel sculptures of Sir Anthony Caro go on show and music from the margins with on new sounds [Music] good evening some of the most inventive music in the recent history of pop has come from the margins of the industry the independent labels and one of the most inventive of these has been on new sounds in operation since the late 70s like the best of Motown or the pioneering reggae studios of 20 years ago the records are based on the work of a corps of session type musicians who work quickly and to order with results that are often greater than the sum of their parts at the center of the web is one of the legendary record producers of the last decade Adrian Sherwood the white man who rewrites the language of dub reggae from a terraced house in North London Paul tekele goes in search of the sound of our new sounds you could say it's like a druggie music that you don't have to take drugs to appreciate they've been experimenting with hybrids over the years so they won't come up with something that's purely reggae but it will have elements of reggae [Music] the beautiful thing with the the reggae and a lot of the current dance stuff is you see it's got a lot of space and it's not too cluttered I was used to listen to records when I was at school that you know the mainstream stifle things that my friends might have been listening to him I just couldn't come to grips with it his I heard reggae there's like loads of space in it it was like bouncy and spongy like a rubber room almost when you listen to a record on the radio you listen to a happy little dance number you always instinctively know how what's going to happen next and that's part of why you you do enjoy it but our new sound records suffer that by introducing other elements [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on new sound is more an umbrella organization than a conventional record label although some of its artists have been with on you since it started over a decade ago others come and go at will and have contracts with other labels to unused version of the star system is a collective one artists find themselves fronting their own projects on one album but backing up someone else on another an on new live showcase means that everyone has to muck in [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Mike's out in the area [Music] Guerry clue DJ with the on yu-san system is proof it on you in spite of its anti corporate and fiercely independent philosophy can slot into the mainstream his new single comes after chart success earlier this year with human nature [Music] [Music] let the carnival begin the nerve center of on new sand is in a house in Muswell Hill North London it serves as a warehouse and office more recently a recording studio was added this is where Adrian Sherwood producer of over 60 albums lives and works one of the most significant things about looking at the career of Haven showed at this time is that we have the benefit of seeing what's happened in dance music in a way he added as a forerunner for so much in terms of bringing the producer to the to the very front that the kind of engine room creatively and in every other way and this is exactly what we see and can accept now with the poor locals and Andy Weatherall dance producers those big names that previously people wouldn't have paid any attention to you were sampling years before sampling became a fashionable thing he was using the studio basically using the studio as another instrument a lot of are you sound stuff is played either there's actual human musical input and then the electronic it gets electronically treated that comes afterwards [Music] studying sound study music you can go to point we learn too much and it almost puts handcuffs on you if you feel frightened of how it's going to sound in a club that's got like shag pile carpets it won't stand out the speakers will get muffled so you have to compress it to death and things like that and sometimes it's better you ignore all those rules and just like and pretty terrorize the the mixing desk and overload the tape and a great result comes out he's here with it you understand we're in a lot of people is like on the top adrian is right under there and then he floats the other stuff on top which make it all sound beautiful [Music] [Music] all the great producers of reggae music have always insisted on their their trademark and that people have always known or recognized as a studio and a producer from its sound Adrian Sherwood has a lot of those kind of traits that he continues with like the they may be sampled crowd noises or they may be sounds of running water or or the way that a bell sounds even show it doesn't produce a sound in a way that sounds nice he produces sound in a way that makes you prepare your ears and notice it imagination agent Scott he was the first man he would capture a door slamming Oh glass shattering he was one of the first people I need to do that and and to like what became the scratching sound rewind in the nature would like have loads of tapes editing it and he'd have about this much of a hole tape he wanted to edit one to another bit and he'd be like that with lots and lots of edits until all the computers Kingdom made it a little bit easy studio techniques using about using basic effects you had probably in the sixties always psychedelic stuff whenever shaking a phaser unit or something but the Jamaicans you know people like Lee Perry took your many stages further they'd have you know the phrase are feeding into a reverb plate with mad feedback and you know delay [Music] I love the old Kentucky's you know Lee Perry all Gus's Pablo Keith Hudson the sounds they were using any ideas with parametric's bending the sound during the mix all you do is you take a very powerful equalizer and like a treble and bass control on a hi-fi but a parametric or graphic is that much more active you can get into the trebles and get kind of sweeping sound by bending it as like a high hats playing guitar you just concentrate a lot of German bangs because that's where he's coming from the sound system the heavy dub you know agian kill you with that [Music] basically it's kind of um taking dog music as it was started by Lee Perry and King Tubby in Jamaica say in the lake early 60s and kind of updating it kind of modernizing it kind of introducing a European element into it all new song had the series of Records called pay all that where that term hail backing from a William Wallace used language piecing together bits of language so that they made new sense and in a way what is a chilled does with sound is like that [Music] [Laughter] [Music] reggae isn't Sherwood's only inspiration recently he's got more and more involved with American musicians from a funk and rock background like bass player Doug Wimbish and his guitarist collaborator skip MacDonald [Music] as well as being members of the band TAC head they contribute to lots of on new projects including the barmy army [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] basically I go to noon regularly and I made the first record for a giggle and I really got into it myself we went around football grounds all over the country recording football chants and started researching few little things not in a deep way but getting a plan before we went and did it and basically bashed together probably about 15 football songs over the last six years or so [Applause] we will go to Westham on the south bank I travel to a couple of away games and we had like concealed microphones in the middle of the loudest singing element in the crowd [Music] [Applause] [Music] times of the cup and it's got a blue ribbon on it the movie it needs eyes the record business that's geared to more make me dance or the baby let me stick my tongue in your ear type music and all of that it's been so much of that now that I think it's time that people actually did start putting more pointed things on record takes actual stand and what's actually happening around [Music] some people have picked up on are you some because it's a fashionable thing and are you sound is actually much more fashionable than it's ever been well there's more to it than that they're saying things that need to be said not necessarily political things but you know just having a having a little thing on racket [Music] new Jamaica we have at least confident he landed at the end of the yield is a rock and this water coming out and lots of people come on the terrace Jamaica a new song from me this is how I described it another second well and you know comin over drinkin beer because that's what I did as I used to know you know I think it's very important for on your side to be on the margins I think of the music industry and creatively I think that's exactly where it wants to be and that's what it thrives on there's always this element of slightly unusual deranged input that is at the very heart of what they've ensured is creating all the time with what he does to bring him into the mainstream would mean removing all those elements would mean that there was no place for the likes of Jesse rail or maestro there'd be no place for people who haven't all these people who haven't found a place anywhere else that I see is his great strength and it's something that I'm sure he'll continue to to work in the same way [Music] [Music] Paul to Cal and on new sounds but from me good night [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: smokebelch

Views: 5,216

Rating: 4.976048 out of 5

Keywords: Onusound

Id: dr9rIALXpcY

Length: 20min 45sec (1245 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 16 2018