Dub charts

Review: Creation Rebel were the original On-U Sound house band, laying down some of the definitive riddims in the early days of Adrian Sherwood's voyage into dub. 40 years on from their last record, the trio of Crucial Tony, Eskimo Fox and Magoo have reunited with Sherwood at the controls for another masterclass in heavyweight sounds from a crack team of players. Originally they formed as a backing band for the late Prince Far-I, and some of his unmistakable tones manifest on this new record from archive tapes, while Daddy Freddy brings his famous fast chat flow to proceedings and Italian synth player Gaudi crops up on occasion too. Rather than dub-by-numbers, this is an exploratory record which takes in different grooves and influences, all filtered through the expanse of space-time manipulation the dub wise approach inspires.

Review: By the time they recorded "Songs of Praise" in 1990, African Head Charge had gone from being an Adrian Sherwood solo project to a fully-fledged band helmed by percussionist Bonjo Ivabinghi Noah. Here reissued to mark the album's 20th birthday, the set remains arguably the group's greatest single work. While rooted in the twin attractions of heavy dub and dense African percussion, the album makes extensive use of a dizzying array of influences, from gospel, steppers reggae and yacht rock, to traditional Arabic music, blues, disco, religious chants and even industrial music. This edition features a handful of decent bonus tracks, but they're unnecessary: the original album is little less than a masterpiece and should reside in every discerning listener's record collection.

Review: Another one of the very many top draw On-U Sound albums from days gone by gets a reissue here. 1984's Warzone by The Missing Brazilians (a project led by label founder Adrian Sherwood in collab with vocalist Annie Anxiety, members of African Head Charge and Dub Syndicate as well as various others from the On-U Sound family) is the only album the collective put out. It's a grimy mix of dub, industrial, electro, experimental, reggae and electronic sounds with famously abrasive textures. This reissue brings it back to the fore with a great mastering job that demands loud plays and close inspection.

Review: 41 years after its original release, it's hard to grasp just how revolutionary the New Age Steppers self-titled debut album was. The brainchild of the Slits' Ari Up and producer Adrian Sherwood, the set brought paired the cream of the post-punk scene (including the Pop Group's Mark Stewart and journalist Vivian Goldman) with a string of experienced dub-wise players to create a set that genuinely took dub and roots reggae in thrilling new directions (think alien noises, industrial sounds, experimental effects and squally guitar textures). Now available on vinyl for the first time since its original release, New Age Steppers is an album that should genuinely be in every serious music-head's collection.

Review: Having previously delivered a must-have, quintuple CD retrospective of African Head Charge's influential albums, On-U-Sound has wisely decided to give the same treatment to Slits singer Ari Up and Adrian Sherwood's equally as influential New Age Steppers project - an outfit whose rotating cast of guest musicians included a string of British post-punk greats. Discs one to four showcase, in sequence, the collective's spaced-out, often experimental dub albums released between 1980 and 2012 (The New Age Steppers, Action Battlefield, Foundation Steppers and Love Forever). The fifth and final disc, subtitled Avant Gardening, gathers together rare dubs, unreleased tracks and "version excursions" from the archives. Throw in extensive sleeve notes from Oli Warwick telling the story of the project and you have a nigh on essential boxset.