On-U Sound Records discography

On-U Sound Records has been the label and main banner for Adrian Sherwood production work since 1980 and is his follow up imprint to the short-lived Hitrun Records label. This discography is effectively a re-incarnation of Culf and Richard Davies' well known Home Game On-U Sound catalogue.

The release list and order of items presented here is that of the On-U Sound catalogue as conceived, i.e. allocated an On-U item release number. This means in practice that some releases haven't actually ever appeared on On-U Sound Records itself or even specifically carried their On-U catalogue number! Licensing of material by individual artists, for example to BMG, Mute, EMI and Mantra, remains commonplace to give the artists greater exposure - the On-U publicity 'machine' having often lacked the capital to do the job fully itself.

In recent times, as On-U Sound has become more of a production house and less of a real label releasing its own goods, the need to allocate its output actual or conceptual catalogue numbers has diminished considerably. As a result, many of its more modern releases, though On-U Sound productions through and through, are not included here on technical grounds. They are, of course, still listed within the discographies of the acts that recorded them.

The On-U catalogue numbering system has undergone a number of changes in policy over the years. The original LP album cataloguing system starting at 'LP 1' worked well until the release of 'Pay It All Back Volume 2' in 1988. Here the UK vinyl album received the catalogue number ON-U LP42 and the CD was given formally the number ON-U CD1. However it was *actually* labelled ON-U LP42CD - and so began the confusion!

From then on, for a number of years in the late 80s and early 90s the two numbering systems for CDs and LPs ran independently with no particular connection between them, with a number of CD-only compilation albums (e.g. the African Head Charge 'Great Vintage' volumes) obviously not being given an 'LP' classification at all. Eventually it was decided to merge the two systems so that all new releases from then on would be given the same number on all formats but with different prefixes (e.g. 2 Badcard's 'Hustling Ability' appeared as ON-U LP 78 and ON-U CD 78). This policy continues to this day.

Alongside this there have been a large number of reissues of older material (particularly in the 'Master Recordings' series), the emphasis here being simply to make them available again, often for the first time on CD. On these CD reissues the catalogue numbering system of the original vinyl issue has largely been followed, so for example the CD issue of the New Age Stepper's self-titled first album (originally ON-U LP 1) has been classified as ON-U CD 0001 (confusing eh?).

Within this series there were also two compilations of material from the early On-U 'Disco Plate' singles, Disco Plates Collection Volume 1 and Disco Plates Collection Volume 2 which were allocated catalogue numbers (ON-U CD 0012 and ON-U CD 0054 respectively) that effectively filled two gaps in the original LP cataloguing system left unallocated or given to releases which never appeared.

The most recent development in the 'LP' catalogue numbering policy took place with the labels 2002 re-launch where the numbering sequence was re-started at 'ON-U LP 1001'. This obviously left a number of gaps in the preceding system. Adding to the confusion, in 2008, after yet another label re-launch, several of the new releases that followed were given catalogue numbers duplicating earlier releases. In these cases, wherever their catalogue numbers are quoted, a "(1)" or "(2)" has been added as a suffix to distinguish them apart and indicate which was allocated first.

Actual CD releases that have been numbered in the 'LP' catalogue number system, or have a direct vinyl edition numbered under the 'LP' system, are listed fully in the 'LP' section. The remaining CD-format-only releases, which were given an independent CD catalogue number, make up the 'CD' section.

The first On-U 're-launch' also saw the formation of the subsidiary label Sound Boy, which for a while, took over the issuing of 'home made', non-album releases from On-U Sound itself. However due to circumstances beyond its control, Sound Boy was forced to wind-up in 2004, and singles are once again being issued on On-U Sound.

In common with the other label discographies, tracks given a [Rhythm xxx] notation link to the corresponding rhythm in the Rhythm Directory but the Rhythm Directory only links back to it here if it doesn't appear in any of the non label-oriented discographies. If the item also appears in a non-label discography then the Rhythm Directory links to the track in its listing there preferentially.

All releases feature AMS except where stated.