Sherwood At The Frontiers

There have been two volumes of "Sherwood At The Controls", retrospectives of Adrian Sherwood's production work. A long-promised On-U compilation of international artists called "Dub No Frontiers" has yet to be released.

"Sherwood At The Frontiers" is a homemade compilation of reggae and dub from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Today, artists from around the globe can collaborate easily online; but decades ago, Adrian Sherwood and his On-U Sound compatriots traveled to Poland, Japan, Italy, and other countries to collaborate with singers and players. 

Sherwood (among others) recognized that dub techniques could be utilized in rock, blues, jazz, rap, and the folk musics of many cultures. "Whatever I've applied my own production techniques to -- be it industrial music, funk, anything -- I've made sure the production settings are using similar space and frequencies as in those great Jamaican productions."

The artists themselves incorporate local influences (such as folk instruments, musical styles and indigenous languages). Dub from Poland (or New Zealand, or Wales) may seem unusual, but reggae is no less likely to have worldwide appeal than rock, jazz, blues or hip hop.

In this set, Adrian Sherwood produces and remixes music from Spain, Italy, France, Tunisia, India, Colombia, Brazil, NZ, Japan, Peru, and the Democratic Republic Of The Congo. Some of the artists reflect the history of the African diaspora (as does reggae itself); others have been displaced by the idiosyncrasies of modern migration. For example, Mamadou Diouf is Senegalese but lives in Warsaw.