You can read the History of SH on the History page, but I will just add here some probably 'rambling type' notes on what SH is all about to me. I first discovered Dub strangely through hearing some of the Ozric Tentacles reggae tunes whilst "mellow" I then felt a growing need to hear more like this and over the next few years began buying Dub and reggae albums like crazy. My personal favourites range from Prince FarI to Radical Dance Faction to Burning Spear to Zion Train et al... But what I realized when making my own tunes is that the aspects I love are repetition and heavy Bass. Strangely I find repetition hard to do for some reason, I don't feel I've ever conquered it in the way I want to. I think the closest I've heard to what I mean is probably Rhythm and Sound. When its played loud there's nothing like it, but it can drive some people round the bend, plus there is always the danger of producing something boring, yet when done well it becomes engaging.
I have always loved repetition since first hearing Joy Division, the Fall, the Velvet Underground and some of the Doors tracks. It's definately one of the musical elements which drives me. I think that Rhythm and Sound must have incredible control to achieve what they do, it is soooo easy to keep adding instruments.
When I first heard Zion Train I loved what they were doing, the sound was mellow, essential heavy bass and they also mixed up the styles nicely to create that recognisable Zion Train sound. I saw them live a couple of times around that time and the whole idea was great to me, to be on stage essentially just dubbing tunes and sending out heavy vibes. The music I was ceating at that time was definately influenced by them and I have the greatest respect, but I was on a slightly different venture.
When I was DJing and Jeckyl approached me and said he'd like to drum it was an exciting prospect, total credit to him, he's an excellent drummer and he also had a mixing desk and the mic's for the Kit which could make it happen. Initially all I did was dub the drums and the backing, for the first time in my life I was on stage without a guitar and a Mic in front of my face, and began to learn how to Dub. I learned a lot from Grant, a legendary sound engineer in Hull. Whenever we played live in the other band (Hotknife, Astral Pedestrian, Self Diagnosis) and he was engineering, he would Dub us. I learn't a lot from him whether he knew it or not!
It was interesting with the live stuff to see where it went as more people got involved and not much was ever recorded as it was always continually developing. Towards the end the sound was immense and chaotic as you can hear on some of the live tracks. I think really that's where the spirit of SH was truly and the studio recording where something different, mainly starting blocks for this purpose.
