The original issue of Singer & Players' debut album "War of Words" was another early clue to the eventual direction of the slightly more than virtual On-U Sound Records mega-conglomerate. It was counted as third of the label's total of five releases to be initially licensed through a more robust commercial entity - this time 99 records out of New York, home to the ultra-hip ESG (Emerald, Silver and Gold) and Liquid Liquid, the outfit who generated the classic bassline which, only slightly mutated, was to provide the tough bed for Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel's "White Lines" - a twisted Sugarhill Gang link if you like!

Also on the Singers & Players, as implied by their name, were not a band but a loose collective, and therefore a contribution to what was to become and On-U Sound tradition. "Artist Development" was not a business methodology adopted into the On-U strategy, other acknowledged industry practice was also noticeable by its absence at On-U bored (sic) meetings, for example A&R, marketing, promotion and public relations.

At this time Adrian Sherwood held a vision that around fifteen to twenty musicians, all friends/lovers/musical co-conspirators, could revolve around one axis, creating five or six touring and recording bands, taking money off as many big record companies as possible, all sharing the same vaguely subversive but essentially gentle visions, all driven forward by the pulse and vibration of drum and bass, all willing to lose time in space of echo and reverb, all coming in from different musical and cultural directions. Of course this was the crazed dream of a slightly demented idealist and was never fated to work out - at least not to the letter!

In November 1981 the extended bass-dominated workouts that dominated "War of Words" must have sounded like the bizarre moises received from a blazing comet rapidly travelling away from the orbit of Planet Earth, a much safer place where sound was increasingly being sucked through a process to provide a comfortable dose of the slightly dangerous for an audience that was growing more and more immune to the sucker punch. The album opens with "Devious Woman", the first of five Bim Sherman tunes which mark his debut On-U appearance, that is on lead vocals, previously having been found on backing vocals to Neneh Cherry's lead on a track on New Age Steppers' "Action Battlefield".
Versions of "Devious Woman" can be located on Creation Rebel/New Age Steppers' "Threat to Creation" as "Last Sane Dream", and as an instrumental "Without a Love like Yours" on saxman Deadly Headley's "35 Years from Alpha". The following track, "Quanté Jubila", is one of Adrian Sherwood's favourite Prince Far I tunes, featuring the DJ accompanying the vocal of Crucial Tony on a rhythm that first appeared as "Know Yourself" on Creation Rebel's Hit Run album "Close Encounters of the Third World". "Sit and Wonder" is a vocal track from Bim Sherman which can be located on his only On-U album "Across the Red Sea", but the version found here is dominated by the rapid toast of Jah Woosh - which gives due respect to the fine filigree vocals of Sherman. "Fit to Survive", the closing track from side one of the original vinyl album, is a tune first versioned by Bim Sherman on a Jamaican 7" pre-release, and the rhythm can be sought out on numerous On-U outings, notably by Dub Syndicate as "Crucial" Tony tries to Rescue the Space Invaders (with only 10p)" on their "The Pounding System" set, recently re-released in this series of Master Recordings.

The "old side two" kicked off with the most totally abstract "Reaching the Badman", the longest track of the album which clocked in at over eight and a half minutes - it was never destined to garner much radio airplay but there again neuther did its rhythmic companion - the shorter but equally cultural "Nuclear Zulu" as presented by New Age Steppers on "Action Battlefield".

Given that black and white photographic images of Bim Sherman graced both the front and back of the original vinyl album sleeve, together with the fact that five of the affair's eight tunes were contributed by the singer, one would have not been surprised to find the product presented as a solo album, especially since Bim had already been publicly acknowledged as his favourite singer. However such individual prominence did not comply with the ethos of the time when it was much more of the "done thing" to share the glory (if sometimes not the grief!).

"World of Dispensation" was another tune revived by Sherman and Sherwood from an earlier pedigree as a 7" Jamaican pre-release on the singer's own Scorpio imprint. In fact Bim has continued to revisit this rhythm over the years and to this day it remains one of his most enduring songs. Hidden in the ethereal backing vocals on this version is the Slit known as Ari Up, drafted in for duty from the then seventeen strong performing "Steppers". Prince Far I opens up the final track with a typical Old Testament exhortation and the vocal from Crucial Tony is so far back in the mix as to almost ambient. Of course "91 Vibration" was recorded in '81 and as such complied with the then current conceit of future-proofing the date stamp of individual releases or song titles within them. It says much for the vision, freedom of playing and the sheer energy which went into On-U productions of this era that, like jazz and blues much other so-called genre playing, this music still retains that certain ingredient which still makes it seem fresh today. It matters not that Singers & Players no longer exist - they did not exist when this music was recorded.

Steve Barker - On the Wire, July 1998