from last fm–
Sheer Taft were Thomas Taft of Greenock, Scotland and vocalist Ingrid Kudos. They were a dub/leftfield/downtempo dance act signed to Alan McGee’s Creation label, active between 1990-92. They released two singles (‘Cascades’, ‘Atlantis’) and one album (‘Absolutely Sheer’) before disappearing into obscurity… ‘Cascades (Hypnotone Mix)’ is considered a Balearic house classic and continues to appear on various dance/chill out compiations today.
JC adds:-
I know that Sheer Taft have featured in the Bagging Area a few times over the years and that Adam thinks Cascades is superb, describing it as a sunny, druggy, bubbling delight, sent from Greenock to Camden via Ibiza.
I don’t have that particular song, but I do have an edited version of the other single, courtesy of its appearance on the Creation Compilation Cassette given away with Select magazine in April 1992.
mp3: Sheer Taft – Atlantis (edit)
Here’s what Thomas Taft had to say at the time:-
“This was recorded over a year ago, before the Italian thing exploded, and I suppose it’s a kind of Balearic thing – but that’s not a dirty word to me, y’know? ‘Atlantis’ is mean to be tacky, it’s a total pisstake. On the new LP, there’s a track called ‘Explosion Into Dub’ and it’s like Egyptian Reggae – not Jonathan Richman, but more like Jah Wobble. He’s a genius, is Wob. We’ve got old Audrey Wutherspoon (Andy Weatherall) doing a remix of our first single ‘Cascades’, and we’re trying to get Wob to play on it. Make it really dub y’know, really weird and menacing. Music to look worried to…..”
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
I first heard the Hypnotone mix of Cascades on a mixtape, then got it on Creation’s seminal Keeping The Faith dance compilation. It remains one of the best songs of that period. Swiss Adam will be the authority on this but sadly I don’t think we ever got to hear the promised Andrew Weatherall remix of Cascades, with or without Jah Wobble.
I have the album (credited only to Sheer) and there isn’t a track called Explosion Into Dub, but a couple of tracks – Smother Earth and One Eye Love – are definitely inspired by the Wob.
I remember the Creation Tape well, although I think I lost my copy between flat moves in the 1990s. Another snippet to add in keeping with the Scottish song theme is that this is an edit of the Vocal Mix by Glagow’s finest, Slam aka Stuart McMillan & Orde Meikle.
Excellent selection, JC!
Cascades is an all time top 50 record for me. Taft got in touch with me quite recently to send his condolences when Isaac died (we’re friends on Facebook) and described Cascades as ‘a daft acid house record’. It’s a record that touched a lot of people and as Khayem said its one of the cornerstones of the Keeping The Faith comp. No Weatherall remix of Cascades sadly and to the best of my knowledge no Wobble either.
Is that the Joy Division underground tunnel or do they all look like that?