| Release Date | 13/06/2025 |
| Format | 10" Black |
| Label | On U Sound |
| Catalogue Number | ONUDP67 |
Adrian Sherwood returns with his first music as a solo artist in 13 years with the mutating rhythmic soundscapes of ‘The Grand Designer’ EP, the latest instalment in On-U Sound’s long-running and much-loved ‘disco plate’ series.
The title track serves as a trailer for a forthcoming full-length album, with different instruments filtered through Sherwood's bank of effects over an irresistible groove, and typically deft percussive detail.
‘Let’s Come Together’ flips the same rhythm into a mystical dub, with sadly departed friend and collaborator Lee “Scratch” Perry providing typically off-the-wall vocal interjections. It also serves as a reminder that Sherwood has been far from idle since his last release under his own name: in recent years releasing critically acclaimed new albums with not only the Upsetter, but also Horace Andy, Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3) and Panda Bear (Animal Collective), African Head Charge, Spoon, Creation Rebel, Pinch and more.
‘Russian Oscillator’ perhaps cleaves closest to the Sherwood & Pinch records, experimental electronics weaving in and out of heavy sound system sonics and a ruffneck dancehall adjacent swing.
The EP closes with ‘Cold War Skank’, a left hand turn off the highway into scorched desert blues, distorted slide guitar patterns over widescreen film score atmospherics.
Available to independent retailers on a collectable 10”, mastered and cut by Frank Merritt at The Carvery and housed in a classic On-U disco plate sleeve with cover collage by Studio Tape-Echo.
Tracklist:
The Grand Designer
Let’s Come Together (feat.
Lee “Scratch” Perry)
Russian Oscillator
Cold War Skank