Originally recorded in 1978 (following the recording of Dub from Creation), the mighty
Starship Africa was already envisioned as the debut album by one
DJ Superstar, toasting over a series of rhythms performed by the basic
Creation Rebel unit, with
Misty in Roots'
Tony Henry on superbly melodic bass. These original tapes have long since vanished -- the project was canceled (
Adrian Sherwood declared the results "lame") and it would be another two years before he returned to them, while casting around for the maiden release by a new label he was involved with, 4D Rhythms. Remixing and re-recording the rhythms saw Jamaican drummer
Style Scott recruited to play live over
Charlie Eskimo Fox's original tapes; an additional half a dozen percussionists, drawn from whoever happened to be in the studio at the time, were additionally overdubbed, with
Sherwood camouflaging their basic lack of timing and rhythm by employing some truly wild phasing and echo. Indeed, his 4D Rhythms partner
Chris Garland allegedly spent most of the session encouraging
Sherwood to take the effects as far from the norm as he could, to the ultimate extent of mixing the tracks blind. The result is an album that has been compared to acts as far afield as
Tangerine Dream and
the Grateful Dead, a truly spaced-out dub experience that, spread over just two tracks (albeit broken down into five and four movements apiece), stands among the most intriguing of all
Sherwood's earliest creations -- so much so that one is not even disappointed by the ultimately undelivered promise that side one's "Starship Africa" was the soundtrack to a forthcoming movie. That it never happened was Hollywood's loss, not the music's.