Adrian Sherwood at the controls for this dub remix of Panda Bear and Sonic Boom’s 2022 album Reset, aptly titled Reset In Dub.

I went to see Adrian Sherwood “live” towards the end of the summer at EartH in Dalston. I love his music but it was a disappointment.

I had hoped it might recapture some of the great times I had in the late 1970s when I spent much of my youth in a club called the Four Aces less than half a mile from EartH, listening to dubplates through speakers the size of telephone boxes.

This was billed as a “groundbreaking 3D Dub Experience” giving us a chance to experience “the cutting edge of sonic technology,” which made it sound irresistible, despite the hefty price of tickets.

“Using the venue’s L-ISA immersive sound system by L-Acoustics, Sherwood will place, move, and shapeshift sound around the venue for a psychedelic spatial sound journey,” said the blurb, promising “A rare chance to see an innovative artist using cutting-edge sound technology for a more vibrant connection to dub music.”

It went on: “Parsing together individual sounds, fragments and instruments from rare and unheard sessions from On-U luminaries and long-time collaborators (including Lee “Scratch” Perry, Tackhead, African Head Charge, and Mark Stewart), Sherwood has reconstructed an entirely new set of compositions, rebuilt from the ground up, and presented through this new technology in ways never heard before.”

I suppose the last part was accurate. This was the first time I’d spent an evening sitting in an old cinema on one of the hottest days of the year – seemingly with no air conditioning – with an audience made up mostly of white men my age on uncomfortable steps while another white man my age occupied played records in the corner of a big black stage.

As for that hi-tech sound system, I can’t say it sounded any better than the one in the local cinema and my friend Kenny and I left after 15 sweaty minute in what was more like a sauna or steam room, regretting an expensive mistake.

Better to stay at home next time and listen to Sherwood’s magical production skills like this.