The On-U Sound super-group’ was responsible for the launch of both single and album releases. Steve Barker gives an overview: The eponymous album of the New Age Steppers (ON-U LP 1) provided On-U Sound with its first long player release in January 1981. The band had previously re-arranged the Junior Byle’s “Fade Away” [Rhythm 1] as the first 7″ single for the label (ON-U S 1(1)). London Underground’s “Learn a Language” was featured on the flip. NAS has always been a significant part of the history of On-U Sound. Not only did they contribute singles and albums, but they also brought together a diverse group of people for the sole purpose to make music – a model that On-U would follow for the next two decades. Arianna Foster, a.k.a. “The driving force behind the creation of NAS” was the debut single on-U. Ari Up – Ari Up is the singer from the Slits. One of the first “girls with attitude”, bands. Along with other UK outfits such as the Clash or the Ruts the Slits felt a close connection with the rebel axis in reggae music. This link was most evident for the Slits in their collaboration with Dennis “Blackbeard”, Bovell, an unrecognized genius in UK reggae production. Ari was joined by Neneh Cherry, who was just a few short of international stardom. She is the step-daughter jazz legend Don and is responsible for stomping up the indie-funk scene along with Rip Rig, Panic, and others. Bruce Smith and Sean “Hogg” Oliver were also part of that band, though drummer Bruce was previously a founding member of the controversial Pop Group. John Waddington, guitarist, and Mark Stewart, vocalist, both of whom later produced some of the most brutal and radical music to vinyl ever recorded in his two solo albums for OnU. Keith Levene, Public Image Limited, was also in the area. However, he wasn’t on the first album. Style Scott, Jamaica’s rhythm machine Roots Radics, and George Oban (from the UK’s top roots band Aswad) provided the drum and bass foundations and credibility for the venture. While Creation Rebel’s Charlie “Eskimofox” and Tony “Crucial”, both from the UK, provided the link to Adrian Sherwood’s previous studio work. Vikki Aspinall and Viv Goldman were both recruited from The Raincoats, an all-female Rough Trade group. Steve Beresford is perhaps best known for his Flying Lizards association. Technically, he is able to inspire, provoke, provoke, and create. Here he is making one of his many appearances for early On-U Sound recordings. It is rumoured that NAS and Adrian Sherwood took 17 musicians to Maida Vale, England, to record a session on John Peel’s radio show in 1980/1981. Considering the poverty of musicians at the time, 17 lots of Musician’s Union fees would have been very useful! [***Ed. [***Ed. “Crazy Dreams u0026 High Ideals” [Rhythm 60] was one of those songs that was a favourite at On-U. It was also rewritten many times over the years by other artists and Mark Stewart. The original UK single of “Animal Space” by the Slits was released on the Human label. It can also be found on their album, “Return Of The Giant Slits” (CBS). Next up is Bim Sherman’s Love Forever [Rhythm B13] which gets the Ari Up treatment. The track closes with some fantastic on-key screams and spooky vocals. A dub version Viv Goldman’s overtly political “Private Armies” completes the set. Viv was primarily a music journalist for the New Musical Express music paper, rather than a musician. Her single was “Laundrette”, which appeared on a Rough Trade 7 and featured the vocal version “Private Armies”. On-U’s debut LP The New Age Steppers’ and On-U’s debut was also remarkable for another reason, entirely separate from musical context – it boasts art work, by the never-to-be-forgotten Bill Bell (? This is the most absurd title in the entire label’s catalog. The album cover shows a mock-gyrating Elvis, hula-hooping with a car tire around his knees, a jeep in front of him, and a football-playing baby doing a neat “dribble”. All this is set within the context of a tasteful, minimal Soviet neoconstructivist design in red, white, and black. The NAS’s second album, “Action Battlefield”, was released in 1982. On-U Sound would release “Action Battlefield” in the summer of 1982 (ON-U CD 3) and it was the second album by the NAS. 1983’s “Foundation Steppers”, which was the album’s final track, was the swansong. By this time, Bim Sherman had made a greater impact on the music scene and was now taking the majority of the vocal credit. It could have been considered a showcase album, in reggae terms, because most tracks have vocals that are extended into a dub version. In Jamaica, this would have been thirteen to fourteen tracks, rather than seven. This is all about value for money, of course. Ari Up sings the majority of the vocals and continues to scream and warble in her own unique way through the opener. It features a rendition of Bim Sherman’s “My Whole World”, [Rhythm 2] which was originally recorded by the singer in seventies. This version was re-versioned for his “Miracle”, album in nineties. “Observe Life” covers a song written by Michael Rose, an ex-Black Uhuru member. “Got to Get Away”, [Rhythm 3] is a return to Sherman’s rock solid pen. The “Action Battlefield” LP Undoubtedly, the most bizarre track on the album was “My Love” [Rhythm 142) which is a cover of a song written by Gaylad B.B. Seaton. Seaton. “Problems”, [Rhythm 129] by Horace Andy is an oldie. It was originally recorded for Leonard Chin, and later re-cut massively styled later in his career. This version is probably most well-known as the one from his “In The Light” dub collection. Sherwood is given a slow, insistent treatment here (with his hair still on the album cover). The following track, which is the only instrumental in the set (except for an unidentified chant from North London), allows Sherwood some space on the desk. “Nuclear Zulu”, [Rhythm 7], is a template that will be used for future experimentation under the banner of African head Charge. The reggae classic “Guiding Star”, [Rhythm 4] concludes matters, originally written by Heptone and Leroy Sibbles. This is a classic rhythm bed that has remained popular for decades. It is best known through Augustus Pablo’s beautiful melodica version. The NAS / Creation Rebel album, “Threat To Creation”, contains dub versions of “My Whole World”, and “Got To Get Away”. These tracks can be found as “Painstaker”, the “Final Frontier”, and “Eugenic Device” on the ON-U LP 07. The New Age Steppers, largely Ari Up, made their first appearance on a compilation in On-U Sound in 2008. The times have changed and the sound has too, but we still hold the original ‘band’ that started it all, even if the charts have not. from http://www.skysaw.org/onu/artists/newagesteppers.html
