Pounding System

Released in 1982 shortly after the founding of the On-U Sound label and studio, the first album by label mainstays Dub Syndicate lays out a map for just about everything that would come out of that studio in subsequent decades: a monstrous bass sound, dark and heavy roots reggae rhythms, and wildly adventurous production techniques. On tracks like “Hi-Fi Gets a Pounding” and “Humourless Journalists Work to Rules” the band and producer Adrian Sherwood sound like equal partners in the creation of the music, Sherwood’s sonic manipulations doing as much to define the sound as the grooves of Lincoln “Style” Scott, bassist “Lizard” Logan and Crucial Tony.