Biography All Music Guide Wikipedia
Group Members: Mark Stewart, Adrian Sherwood, Mark Stewart & The Maffia, Mark Stewart & The Mafia
All Music Guide:
Rallying around the considerable talents of British producer/modern dub mastermind Adrian Sherwood, the New Age Steppers were not so much a band as they were a loosely knit aggregation of musicians from some of Britain's best avant-garde post-punk/funk bands. There was Ari Upp from the Slits, Mark Stewart from the Pop Group, and John Waddington and Bruce Smith from Rip, Rig & Panic. Along with the usual gang of suspects employed by Sherwood's dynamically creative On-U Sound (George Oban, Style Scott, Eskimo Fox) studio, the sound of the New Age Steppers was that of cut-and-paste dub mixing, psychedelic swirls of found sounds, dissonant aural collages, sinewy reggae riddims, and odd, semi-tuneful vocals. Not for the faint of heart, the music created by Sherwood and his Steppers was among the most exhilarating and consistently challenging to come out of Britain during the early post-punk era. It wasn't always accessible, but it has few peers in terms of ingenuity and daring. Highly recommended to those whose musical tastes occasionally reside on pop's radical, experimental fringes.
Wikipedia:
New Age Steppers, one of the On-U Sound stable, under the creative direction of Adrian Sherwood, were a collective of musicians which varied over time. The overriding sound was a heavy and chaotic dub, with an underpinning bass guitar, and substantial use of samples, often from other On-U Sound creations.
Their first release, the eponymously titled album, New Age Steppers, was the first LP to be released on On-U Sound, and as such is an important landmark for the label, and a seminal work in dub reggae.
Personnel
Among the known personnel of the New Age Steppers were Bim Sherman, George Oban, Ari Up (of The Slits), Steve Beresford, Mark Stewart (of The Pop Group and later Mark Stewart and the Mafia), and a young Neneh Cherry, also associated at the time with Rip Rig + Panic. Bruce Smith and Keith Levene have also made contributions to the collective. Vivien Goldman, at the time a journalist with the NME, provides vocals on "Private Armies".
