Adrian Sherwood – Never Trust a Hippy

Adrian Sherwood has been pushing at the boundaries of dub/reggae/electronica with his famous On U Sounds label for quite some time now. Although you’d never call a release by this guy a debut, it is actually the first release under his own name. Beautifully bouncy dub rhythms, profuse with emotions and underscored by a diverse range of additional instrumentation marks this album out. “Never Trust a Hippy” draws on all the wonderful layering and texture from the world of dub and is augmented by some lovely stuff from outside the box as well.

It’s essentially roots dub, with the theme expanded and developed using a variety of beats and pieces from all over the sound spectrum. It’s especially nice to hear the q’awalli vocals of Rizwan-Muazzan Qawalli (two teenage nephews of the late great exponent of the form Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn), which further elevate the ethereal soundscape of the tremendous ‘Paradise of Nada remix’. The driving ‘Ignorant version’ is kicking, blending the more modern dancehall sound with excellent electronic/dub beats cutting it up in fine style. MC snippets and a mad chanting bit intersperse now and again adding to a wicked tune. ‘Haunted by your love’ is beautifully crafted, vocals sliding over a hypnotic flow provided by rhythm legends Sly and Robbie. Twisting and turning it’s way to the stars lifting your emotions alongside. Sly and Robbie still know how to hit the spot, adding their talent to great effect on ‘Strange turn’ as well. An example of the little touches that make the album is ‘Boogaloo’, which utilises a simple wandering trumpet to produce a fine result. ‘Processed world’ has more traditional dub patterns, with mad atmospherics, and a beat that just drives on as you simply glide along the journey. The production is also mad tight, skillfully assembling a rich tapestry of diverse sounds together (always with tight riddims) and developing them throughout the album.

As the disc closes with ‘Majestic 12’, the rhythms plug away deep into your brain, trumpet, eastern vocals, etc floating around in a delicious mix. All the diverse sounds from before seem to come back in, fused together in such a fresh way. It felt like the sun was shining. Which when you consider the rainy weather outside, is no bad thing. This isn’t just ambient dub we’re talking about here, Sherwood has attempted to expand the boundaries, drawing on a variety of influences and pushing the limits to great effect.