Fired up in his pre-teens by the first great wave of reggae in the UK charts, Adrian Sherwood has been active in the music business since the age of 13 as a DJ, producer of Lee "Scratch" Perry among others, solo artist and label founder. In the mid-1970s, as co-founder of labels like Carib Gems and Pressure Sounds, he was instrumental in the distribution of some of Jamaica’s most legendary massive recording and recording artists into Britain.
However, it’s as the founder of On-U-Sound during the post-punk era that he is most famous, having applied his blistering dub treatments not just to artists on his own roster such as Bim Sherman, African Headcharge and Tackhead, but also to a range of sometimes unlikely artists that includes Mark Stewart, Sinead O’ Connor, Depeche Mode, Skinny Puppy and Einstürzende Neubauten. He cut his first solo album, with the heartfelt title of Never Trust A Hippy, in 2003. Last month saw the release of his latest solo work, Survival & Resistance.
Sherwood met up with the Quietus to discuss 13 favourite albums, which range all the way from Ray Charles and BBC library music to Augustus Pablo and Burning Spear. Click the image below to start browsing though his list.
