Description
Sherwood has been a key figure on the margins of the UK dub reggae scene since the days of punk so it’s somewhat surprising to hear that Never Trust a Hippy is only his first full-length release. Which isn’t to say he hasn’t already built up a pretty mean legacy: as the power behind the influential On-U Sound label he’s worked as producer for the likes of Primal Scream, Nine Inch Nails and Lee “Scratch” Perry, mashing together dancehall tempos, clanking dub skankiness, rootsy world-music and electronic industrialism under one pioneering banner.
Never Trust a Hippy is the logical culmination of one man’s quest, a collection of tracks with a very definite grounding in dub’s spiritual reverence for echo, delay and heavy bass. Made diverse through a number of contributors that add their own unique spin on the sound, excellent digital dancehall producer Lenky, Indian vocalist Hari Haran, reggae greats Sly & Robbie and Sherwood’s young daughters who sing vocals on “The Ignorant Version”. Cultures are packed so densely that it comes out sounding virtually rootless, making Never Trust a Hippy sound dizzyingly unique. –Louis Pattison