Coldcut x On-U Sound - Outside The Echo Chamber (CD) |

It’s tempting to ask why no one thought of it sooner. Coldcut (Matt Black & Jon More) and Adrian Sherwood – kingpin of the legendary On-U Sound label – are the perfect sonic match; two pioneers of British music united by a maverick spirit. These artists have a deeper intertwined history- On-U Sound is printed in Coldcut’s genes in the music they grew up with. This is something much more special than the average collaboration, and it shows in the result: Coldcut x On-U Sound’s ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ via Ahead Of Our Time (Coldcut’s first label) – a thrilling sonic adventure, and an album of freshly-minted, electronic dub-pop. Although Coldcut and Sherwood could have come together at any point in their long, fruitful histories to make a record together, there’d have been no better time to do so than now, in 2017. Uniting an array of global musicians and vocalists including Roots Manuva, Junior Reid, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and Ce’Cile – to name but a few – and made in London, Ramsgate, Jamaica, and Los Angeles – where co-producer and fellow dance heavyweight Dave Taylor (Switch & With You.) is now based – ‘Outside the Echo Chamber’ is a timely rallying call for Britain’s musical melting pot. At the beating heart of this album are some of the most talented players in music’s recent history – long time On-U Sound collaborators Skip McDonald on guitar and bassist Doug Wimbish. These two formed part of the house band for the pioneering rap label Sugar Hill, providing the music for some of the most seminal records of the era like Grandmaster Flash's ‘The Message', and many others. The trajectories of Coldcut and Adrian Sherwood take in some key moments in U.K. music. Coldcut’s origins are in the fertile hotbed of late ‘80s London, and the pre-commercial dance music that evolved from it. They were ‘the first Brit artists to really get hip-hop’s class-cutup aesthetic,’ introducing rap to ravers, creating a heady blend of hip-hop production aesthetics and proto-acid house gro