ADRIAN SHERWOOD

For more than three decades, Adrian Sherwood has been quite probably Britain's finest and most consistently ground-breaking producer. In the process, he has wrought his wizardly magic upon such internationally acclaimed artists as Blur, Nine Inch Nails, Sinead O'Connor, The Cure and Lee "Scratch' Perry, as well as coining countless mind-melting new sounds with legendary acts such as Tackhead and Mark Stewart, whose influence is ongoing and, to this day, omnipresent.

Yet, he is neither a household name, nor an instantly recognisable face - indeed, even those who've followed his crypto-revolutionary movements in music since the mid-1970's, might struggle to pick out the guilty party from a line-up of shaven-headed suspects.

Sherwood has always preferred to operate in the shadows, where his creative integrity is least threatened by the all-corrupting ludicrousness of the pop mainstream. Largely left to his own devices, he has built up a colossal body of work, whose staggering diversity - after launching off from reggae and dub, he duly innovated with electro, industrial noize, various world musics, and much else besides - somehow never eclipsed his own identity, nor diluted his unique bass-quakin' sound.

In the 2010s, when every survivor with a chunk of glorious '50s-'80s heritage to sell has long since done so, in a manner that would've repulsed their younger selves, this fiercely independent spirit has stuck by his original vision. Adrian Sherwood remains the genuine article, as radical and forward-thinking today as any twentysomething hotshot, a man who has put his whole life and family on the line for his music.

By 1983, On-U had the London punky-reggae market sewn up, but, on microscopic budgets, the label struggled commercially. Adrian lived out his production-house ethos with rapid-fire releases from New Age Steppers, Bim Sherman, Singers & Players, Creation Rebel and African Headcharge, an Afro-roots rhythm combo centred around a percussionist raised in a rasta camp in the Jamaican hills, named Bonjo Iyabinghi Noah. All these were inspirational in their own way, but, in the face of blanket-bombing strategies from rivals like Virgin's Frontline, they would frequently undersell, and lose money. That year, Sherwood decided to diversify on from reggae, for very different reasons, as his friend and mentor, Prince Far-I, had been brutally murdered in Kingston.

In British music through the mid-'80s, there was little alternative to your Duran Durans and Spandau Ballets. White rock was at an all-time low, and On-U gradually assumed a fearsome outsider status. Adrian's first team-up with Lee "Scratch' Perry, 1987's "Time Boom De Devil Dead' was a highlight, but one of the label's biggest records to date came from an unlikely setting.

So, at the turn of the '90s, On-U had segued perfectly with the times. As part of a major-label push, some remixes from Gary Clail's "Emotional Hooligan' album by Paul Oakenfold/Steve Osborne were bona fide chart hits. On-U itself, however, stood firm, still firing along on all its experimental fronts, and releasing a series of budget-price samplers of its diverse catalogue, pointedly entitled "Pay It All Back'. The "Pay It All Back' nights at London's Forum, meanwhile, were regular sell-outs.

Without much fanfare, Sherwood had a busy Noughties, often as a DJ and live mixmaster. "A lot of the time," he explains, "my name was on the poster, rather than on the back of the sleeve." He DJ'd and remixed for Blur. In 2009, he cut a wonderful third record with Lee Perry, entitled "The Mighty Upsetter', laced through with tantalizing echoes of Perry's golden years at the Black Ark, and followed up with a collaborative "Dub Setter' mix. "I think I still get the best out of Lee," he notes.

Listening to Sherwood vibing about this and other plans for On-U's future, it would be nigh-on impossible to misconstrue the label's 30th anniversary as some kind of exercise in living off its (and his) past. This year, On-U unveils new music from African Headcharge, and New Age Steppers (recorded shortly before Ari Up's passing). Under various auspices, the man himself has recently toured Mexico (with video director Chris Cunningham), Brazil and China.

http://www.adriansherwood.com/