Discography Index

1: Introduction

The discography listings are grouped primarily by artist name and label but also include coverage of On-U dedicated compilations, compilation appearances and remix work by Adrian Sherwood for non On-U Sound acts.

Most of the extensive research that these discographies are based on was done by Culf and Richard Davies 6-12 years ago; Culf's well known series of highly detailed discographies at one time being available by ftp and on the web (sadly not at present). What's presented here (with permission of Culf) is information from those original discographies re-processed and re-formatted by myself with my own updates and corrections as found.

The task of documenting On-U Sound related product is a somewhat daunting one due to the sheer complexity of the job. The large collective of musicians that make up the On-U stable of singers and players is particularly diffuse and over the years have released material on a wide variety of record labels in many countries outside the UK and On-U Sound Records itself. Due to lack of money to promote releases itself (due to lacking sales because of no money to promote - the classic vicious circle!) to best market some of its artists many On-U Sound releases have been licensed to other labels (e.g. Mute for Mark Stewart, Gary Clail to BMG then Yelen / Sony).

From the late 1980s until 2004 On-U 'home grown' releases in the UK were mostly released through EFA Medien of Germany rather than directly by On-U as was the case in the early days. The artists have also often been involved in other non On-U projects before, during or after their time recording for AMS. Keith LeBlanc is a classic example - he being being a remixer, drummer and session musician in his own right and for many other artists and has done so for around 25 years.

In summary this means that trying to compile definitive lists is especially hard. Irregular distribution, relatively small production runs of many releases, reissues, unavailable, inconsistent or simply mis-information mean that getting hold of many of the early releases is especially hard. This means there is probably more to know than is appears here! Perversely it is perhaps the 'thrill of the chase' that makes the quest all the more fun! If you can fill in the gaps or provide suggestions, corrections or constructive comment please contact me.

2: The Rhythm Directory

The Rhythm Directory collates many of the tracks that have appeared by artists on On-U Sound releases and other labels associated with Adrian Sherwood's 'home' production work. It is designed as a way of cross-referencing tracks of similar basis in a way that is independent of artist, label, track name or mix name. Clearly then the Rhythm Directory is intimately connected with the Discography section and fundamentally a part of effective navigation around it. Links to appropriate parts of the Rhythm Directory occur extensively using the annotated notation [Rhythm xxx] that appears in many discography release listings.

  As both the Discography section and Rhythm Directory are complex, multi-part, interconnected resources, it could be easy to 'get lost' by following links within or between them, and then forget how you 'arrived' at the page you are on. This can be alleviated by clicking any Back Arrow button (pictured) found in each Rhythm Directory listing and discography entry. This button will take you one URL back in your Internet browser's history - hopefully back to the discography or Rhythm Directory entry you came from! Note: The Back button facility will only work if your browser is JavaScript enabled.

3: Image Bank material

Photo galleries of sleeve artwork are linked to each other in the sequence they appear in the discographies that include them. For act discographies this is usually chronological order, for record label discographies - catalogue number order and other discographies - alphabetical order. A JavaScript-enabled browser is also required to open each individual gallery.

4: General abbreviations

The table below lists most of the abbreviations and symbols commonly used in this section.

5: Act abbreviations