From the computerized bop of dance hall to the slow, sticky one drop of Bob Marley, reggae music moves like a heartbeat. Take away the vocals, keyboard shuffles and guitar chunks, and you're still left with the mighty pulse of the drums and bass. Reshuffle all the elements over this rhythmic foundation and throw in the appropriate touches of echo and reverb – using the mixing board as an instrument – and you have dub, the original remix format.

Jamaican studio engineer Osbourne Ruddock (a k a King Tubby) unlocked the possibilities of dub while tinkering with a primitive two-track tape machine in the late '60s. His aural alchemy set the stage for hip-hop, house, techno (especially Britain's fiercely popular jungle) and ambient. Among the modern-day dub masters is knob twirler Adrian Sherwood, an English producer who has plumbed the depths of the form, creating bass-heavy, psychedelic symphonies that blend primal rhythms with the best that technology has to offer. After 15 years of being little more than a cult figure in the United States – known more for his remixes for Ministry, Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails than his own work – Sherwood recently inked a distribution deal with Restless Records that promises to bring his futuristic On-U Sound label into the light.

The first Restless releases include anthologies of early work by two seminal On-U entities – Creation Rebel's Historic Moments Vol. 1 and Massive Hits Vol. 1 by New Age Steppers. The Creation Rebel material, which sets the standard for the seamless mixing for which Sherwood has become known, alternates between chunky, feel-good grooves and more meditational pieces. Bubbling rhythms like "Dub From Creation" define the pre-digital sound of English dub: Flying high-hats are bright, the low end deep but precise, while whirling guitar licks, snatches of keyboard and melodica, stuttering snares and rim shots oozing reverb bounce around the soundscape in a blur of echo.

Essentially the same band, New Age Steppers spotlight vocalists from such early '80s punk-New Wave faves as Pop Group, Mark Stewart and Maffia and the Slits. Vintage cuts like "Fade Away" and the maniacal "High Ideals and Crazy Dreams" are sung with an offbeat cadence that is strangely appropriate as the stoned grooves bend and quake, eventually breaking down to their various components. Not to be missed are some chestnuts by the honey-voiced Jamaican crooner Bim Sherman.

While On-U stalwarts like African Head Charge and Dub Syndicate continue to release fresh studio work (In Pursuit of Shashamane Land and Echomania, their most recent titles, respectively), the newest member of the On-U posse is a white band from Reading, England, known as Revolutionary Dub Warriors that Sherwood signed after a UK festival appearance. Their debut, Reaction Dub Part 1: Deliverance, favors up-tempo, danceable rhythms while maintaining the warmth and spirituality of roots reggae. Add to this equation a cosmic hail of sound effects and ethereal vocals and you have a New Age Steppers for the '90s. The Warriors are at their best on the dub-hop workout "Industrial" and the primitively funky "Dub the E," though their Rasta posturing (shouts of "Jah" and "one hundred years of Haile Selassie") on "Centenary" and "Squat" sounds somewhat affected.

Sherwood has sold his most recent project, Little Axe, to Epic's revived blues imprint, OKeh. Featuring Tackhead members Doug Wimbish, Keith LeBlanc and Skip McDonald (previously the Sugarhill Records house band, responsible for such early hip-hop hits as "Rapper's Delight"), Axe's debut, The Wolf That House Built, was two years in the making. But it was well worth the wait. Sherwood describes this eclectic blend of down-home funk, Indian tablas, slide guitar and Howlin' Wolf and Leadbelly samples as "blues dub for the 21st century." The spacey "Crossroads" certainly fits that bill, with its locomotive shuffle, throbbing bass and harmonica. But other tunes, like "Wake the Town," simply defy all categories.

Adrian Sherwood's ever-innovative sound may have slipped through the cracks in the past, but this recent burst of activity should earn him credit that is long overdue. (RS 703)

S.H. FERNANDO JR.