The On-U label's initial releases in the early '80s included albums by New Age Steppers, Singers Players, Creation Rebel, Dub Syndicate, and many other groups, which often shared musicians and vocalists, resulting in different variations on the label's signature dub/post-punk sound. Primary musicians associated with On-U have included several members of Sugar Hill Records' in-house backing band, including drummer Keith LeBlanc, bassist Doug Wimbish, and guitarist Skip McDonald. All three of these musicians worked with Sherwood as part of Fats Comet, an industrial hip-hop group that evolved into Tackhead, and also worked as the backup band for Mark Stewart. They also collaborated with vocalist Gary Clail as Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System, and also released several albums as Gary Clail & On-U Sound System.
Sherwood used the On-U Sound moniker for his remixes of songs by the Beatnigs (the more experimental precursor to the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy) and Pop Will Eat Itself. Also as On-U Sound, he collaborated with Primal Scream and Irvine Welsh on a 1996 EP titled The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown (Barmy Army being another one of Sherwood's monikers). Sherwood also produced Echo Dek, a remix album of Primal Scream's 1997 full-length, Vanishing Point. Sherwood later provided On-U Sound remixes for Sly Robbie, Jeb Loy Nichols, Depeche Mode, and Peaking Lights. In 2017, Sherwood used the On-U Sound moniker for Outside the Echo Chamber, his collaboration with U.K. breakbeat/sampling pioneers Coldcut. Released by the duo's resurrected Ahead of Our Time label, the full-length included collaborations with Lee Scratch Perry, Roots Manuva, Ce'cile, and others. ~ Paul Simpson, Rovi