Lee "Scratch" Perry Albums (34)
'Return from Planet Dub'
Release Date 6/16/2009
Tracks 25
Label Collision Cause
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What The Critics Say
The legendary producer, singer, and bandleader Lee "Scratch" Perry gets prominent billing on this release, but in fact what it is, is a Dubblestandart album to which Perry contributes vocals. In a certain sense, though, every Dubblestandart album is a Lee "Scratch" Perry album, because since the gradual demise of Dub Syndicate it has been Dubblestandart's duty to carry on the psycho-dub tradition of Perry's Black Ark studio almost singlehandedly. Helping them to shoulder the weight on this album are not only Perry himself, but also the always-brilliant and always-slightly-crazy Ari Up, singer Gudrun Liemberger, and even famous film director David Lynch (who contributes the occasional spoken word bit). There are nods back to the glory days of the Ark, such as recapitulations of such classic Upsetters material as "Chase the Devil" (a rhythm made famous by Max Romeo) and "Blackboard Jungle"." And unfortunately, there are also plenty of excursions into the topics that seem to fascinate Perry more and more as he gets older: namely, his own bedroom expertise and his own excretory functions. If hearing about those things is less than fascinating to you, then skip around the program a bit -- no matter where you land, you'll hear ten-megaton grooves from the mighty Dubblestandart and all kinds of quirky and enticing vocal contributions from the others. The second disc in the package includes dub, techno, and dubstep remixes of tracks from the main program. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Since his legendary Black Ark studio burned to the ground in 1979, eccentric reggae godfather Lee "Scratch" Perry has made the transition from dub producer to oddball dancehall vocalist, delivering his wild lyrics in a futuristic Rasta style while leaving the bulk of the work to other musicians and knob twiddlers. This has driven away his purist fans, who find his later work "rubbish," and while they have a point when it comes to Perry's iffy relationship with quality control, the man can be a fascinating left-field personality and wonderfully twisted guru given the right surroundings. Any collaboration with Adrian Sherwood or Mad Professor's name on it is just that. Repentance adds a surprising name to that list, Andrew W.K., the "Party Hard" man who here creates a laptop dancehall landscape filled with head-bobbing grooves, slight touches of dub, and just the right amount of strangeness. Sounding much more animated and inspired than he did on 2007's The End of an American Dream, Perry rides the shift from slow Jamaican shuffle to crunchy guitar grumble on the opening "Shine" and acts like the dreadlocked equivalent of Usher on the great "Pum-Pum," L.S.P. and A.W.K.'s version of the hip-hop strip club track. "Crazy Pimp" might even be more pimp than crazy, while the busy space disco of "Santa Claus" finds the one they call the Upsetter belting out a hearty "hee-haw!!" Anyone who thinks A.W.K. the wrong man for the job probably isn't aware of his history on the avant side of rock -- founding member of noise heroes Wolf Eyes for one -- or his work with the apocalyptic folk group Current 93, whose leader, David Tibet, shows up on the especially creepy "Baby Sucker." Former Half Japanese and Gumball member Don Fleming shows up too, but none of these iconic names come close to upstaging the master of ceremonies, leaving him plenty of room to praise Jesus or praise booty. Repentance likes to wander and sprawl -- it can get sleazy, and can sometimes fade into the background -- but it's a great example of how the snobs are really missing out on something fun, weird, and uplifting in the most bohemian way possible. ~ David Jeffries, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Lee "Scratch" Perry's eccentric persona often obscures the incredibly innovative approaches he brought to Jamaican music, and his kitchen-sink recording methods likewise cloak the very real vision behind his one-of-a-kind creations. Perry is quite simply reggae's one true auteur, and no matter who is singing or playing at a Perry session, the finished result is all Scratch. This two-disc set, Dubstrumentals, collects three mid-'70s Perry dub albums, Kung Fu Meets the Dragon, Return of the Wax, and Vin Gordon's Musical Bones (all three were released in the U.K. in 1975). Perry's legendary Black Ark Studio was up and running by this time -- it had become more or less operational at the close of 1973 -- and he was just beginning an amazing run of productions. Kung Fu Meets the Dragon benefits mightily from the presence of Augustus Pablo on melodica, which gives it all a vaguely Far Eastern vibe, and the sequence flows like nothing so much as the soundtrack to some long-lost Jamaican spaghetti western. Sound unlikely? Welcome to Scratch country. Return of the Wax was originally released as a limited-edition, white-label LP, and it is less dub proper than it is a deep, dense drum'n'bass set. Musical Bones is actually a sequence from Jamaican trombonist Vin Gordon (with Perry producing), featuring Gordon and friends fleshing out classic reggae rhythms with jazz structures and phrasing. Among the standout tracks on this double-disc reissue are the almost polka-sounding "Scorching Iron" from Kung Fu, the odd musical wisdom of "One Armed Boxer" from Wax and the weird, spooky "Licky Licky," complete with drunken-sounding trombone, from Bones. The real gem here, though, is a bonus track, an amazing and singular version of "House of the Rising Sun" done up as only Perry can do it as "Ark of the Rising Sun." Perry is often as much irritating as he is entertaining, but there is an undeniably strong vision at work here, and once you've surrendered to its joyful, surreal lunacy, a wonderful and wild world emerges, a sort of mirror image of the one you expect. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Yes, he's a genius, and yes, he's probably certifiably nuts, and yes, that combination of genius and insanity has now yielded several decades of absolutely brilliant (if notoriously inconsistent) music. And yes again, it's true that most of what has come out under his name in the last seven or eight years has been a big disappointment. But the latest album from Lee "Scratch" Perry is a brilliant return to form. On Panic in Babylon he's teamed up with the White Belly Rats, a Swiss reggae band with an uncommon ability to simultaneously stir up rich, dense reggae grooves and put the focus squarely on Perry and his sometimes incoherent, sometimes brilliant, sometimes hilarious ravings. Things come together in a perfect storm of reggae power on "Fight to the Finish," with its gorgeous chorus and stomach-churning dubwise groove, and on the ferocious "Baby Krishna," on which a swinging one-drop beat underpins Perry's invocations of Hindu deities, American presidents and Babylonian destruction. Not everything is equally brilliant -- "Pussy Man" is one of Perry's most threadbare conceits -- but when he invites you to "have a Perry salad/For this is Perry ballad" halfway through the album, you'll be more than willing to take him up on the offer. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
'Alien Starman'
Release Date 6/16/2003
Tracks 15
Label Secret Records
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What The Critics Say
The original Jamaican extra-terrestrial is still going strong and this record marks a return to the power of Lee "Scratch" Perry's most spaced-out work, picking up where his last great record, 1990's From the Secret Laboratory, left off. On Jamaican E.T., Perry creates a contemporary and challenging set by applying his psychedelic dub to roots reggae ("10 Commandments"), modern reggae ("I'll Take You There"), hip-hop ("Hip Hop Reggae"), and dazed, otherworldly exotica ("Jah Rastafari, Jungle Safari"). The riddims are groovy, transporting even, but Perry's greatest strength has always been his mixology. On this album, instead of his usual dub mixes full of insane rhythmic effects, Perry utilizes the voice as his primary instrument of dub. Throughout Jamaican E.T., vocals -- laid-back toasting, singing, mumbling, and gospel backups -- come in and out, criss-crossing and swirling, truly setting a new mark for the reggae voice. At the beginning of "I'll Take You There," Perry repeats, "Lee 'Scratch' Perry forever," a statement that, after a decade of misses, listeners can finally get behind and chant along with him. ~ Charles Spano, All Music Guide
'Lee Scratch Perry Meets Mad Professor in Dub'
Release Date 11/14/2000
Tracks 19
Label Culture Press
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'Lee "Scratch" Perry on the Wire'
Release Date 5/16/2000
Tracks 10
Label Trojan
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What The Critics Say
Lee "Scratch" Perry's personal brand of musical insanity has given many reggae artists (notably Bob Marley, Junior Murvin and Max Romeo) just the edge that they needed to set themselves apart from the pack; at his best, Perry seems to draw from powers that, if not divine, are at least extraterrestrial (and actually, he himself has made such claims explicitly). But Perry is more often at his best as a producer than as a performer -- he has no singing voice to speak of, and while his lyrics are sometimes amusing, they are just as frequently tiresome and childish. On the Wire was recorded around 1988 at the behest of Trojan Records, but as is frequently the case with Perry, weirdness and complication set in, and it took ten years for the tapes finally to be delivered. The result will be deemed worth the wait by Perry fans, but those unfamiliar with his work may find it more bewildering than compelling. The instrumental backing is credited to a handful of guitarists and one bass player, but someone also provided programmed rhythms and keyboards; the sound is mostly straightforward modern roots reggae, larded with the weird sound effects and production quirks that Perry fans have come to love. There are versions of Bob Marley's "Exodus" and "Keep On Moving," but the other songs are stream-of-consciousness affairs featuring lines like "The devil dead/I kill him with my lightning head" and "I am the elephant man and Michael Jackson could not buy me." Recommended to those who know what they're getting into. Other should proceed with caution. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
There are a couple of reasons to be leery of this album, one of them bad and one of them good. The bad reason is the similarity of its title to an earlier, generally execrated Perry album called Technomajikal. Don't be fooled -- this really is a reggae album, and with Mad Professor and Mafia & Fluxy sharing the riddim-creating duties, listeners can be sure that it's well-filled with bottomless modern reggae grooves. The second, more legitimate reason for regarding this album with suspicion is the fact that Perry -- never, shall we say, the most stable personality to begin with -- simply hasn't done much worth listening to in recent years, not compared to his output during the brilliant Black Ark period. But Mad Professor coaxes some fine, if typically unhinged, performances out of Scratch on this album. "No Dreads" revisits a classic Upsetters rhythm while Scratch babbles winningly above it; "This Old Man" takes the nursery rhyme through a drum'n'bass wringer while Perry rails against Satan; "Crooks in the Business" and "Daddy Puff" find him issuing another in an ongoing litany of warnings to those who would pirate his rhythms and steal his money, accompanied by, respectively, spare dancehall and roots beats. The days of definitive Perry material may be long past, but this one is definitely worth picking up. ~ Rick Anderson, All Music Guide
