RhoDeo 1145 Roots

Hello, we're still on that island with a huge place in the global music catalogue, Jamaica. A production hothouse and they say the Weed makes you slow and lazy-go figure. Without the ganja driven reggae music Jamaica would have remained a Caribbean backwater and dare i say would never have given us Bolt, the fastest man in the world.

Been there, but certainly not done all that, todays artist discography is so extensive there's at least another post coming after this one. Meanwhile the man is in his 76th year on this planet, and true to his size he's done it all and then some, Lee Scratch Perry..

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Lee Perry is a towering figure in reggae , some call him a genius, others claim he's a madman. Truth is, he's both, but more importantly, -- a producer, mixer, and songwriter who, along with King Tubby, helped shape the sound of dub and made reggae music such a powerful part of the pop music world. Along with producing some of the most influential acts (Bob Marley & the Wailers and the Congos to name but two) in reggae history, Perry's approach to production and dub mixing was breathtakingly innovative and audacious -- no one else sounds like him -- others may have invented dub, many argue that no one experimented with it or took it further than did Lee Perry.

Perry began his surrealistic musical odyssey in the late '50s, working with ska man Prince Buster selling records for Clement "Coxsone" Dodd's Downbeat Sound System. Soon he was producing and recording for Dodd at the center of the Jamaican music industry, Studio One. After a falling out with Dodd , Perry went to work at Wirl Records with Joe Gibbs, but not much chemistry there either so in 1968, Perry left to form his own label, called Upsetter. The first release on Upsetter was a single entitled "People Funny Boy," which sold extremely well in Jamaica, it was the first Jamaican pop record to use the loping, lazy, bass-driven beat that would soon become identified as the reggae "riddim" and signal the shift from the hyperkinetically upbeat ska to the pulsing, throbbing languor of "roots" reggae.

From this point through the 1970s, Perry released an astonishing amount of work under his name and numerous, pseudonyms he came a major force in reggae music together with his band the upsetters they worked with every performer in Jamaica. He started his own studio the black ark . Where he recorded marley and the wailers who were subsequently pick up but Island leaving Perry standing. All the hard work in the seventies didn't do his mental state much good and it is said that he burned down the black ark studio himself as he was convinced satan had taken up resedency there..

Soon after the fire that consumed Black Ark, Perry, increasingly fed up with the music business in Jamaica (which by all accounts is corruption personified), decided to leave Jamaica. Perry spent time in England and the United States, performing live and making erratic records with a variety of collaborators. It was not until the late 1980s, when he began working with British producers Adrian Sherwood and Mad Professor, that Perry's career began to get back on solid ground again. Perry also has attributed the recent resurgence of his creative muse to his deciding to quit drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis

Despite the considerable lows in his career, Perry remained busy and, so it seemed, reasonably happy. Although he was less in demand as a producer, his solo work remained very strong, and his continuing influence could be felt in the contemporary dub music of the Mad Professor. In 1997, Island (the label started by the vampire Chris Blackwell) released Arkology, a well-received three-disc compilation of Perry recordings. That same year a collaboration with Dieter Meier of the Swiss electronica duo Yello called Technomajikal arrived on the Roir label. The project was made geographically possible by Scratch's move to Switzerland.

A reunion with Trojan label happened in 2002, when the new album Jamaican E.T. was released by the label. Two years later Panic in Babylon was recorded with the European outfit White Belly Rats, while his legendary Super Ape album would receive a limited-edition reissue on the Hip-O Select label. The 1973 release Upsetters 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle -- sometimes referred to as Blackboard Jungle Dub -- saw its definitive reissue appear.

In 2008, Perry reunited with producer Adrian Sherwood on an album called The Mighty Upsetter. Unlike the dancehall/pop oriented Repentance, The Mighty Upsetter returned to the dub/reggae styles for which Perry is known. In 2009, Perry collaborated with Vienna based Dubblestandart on their Return from Planet Dub double album, revisiting some of his material from the 1970s and 80s as well as collaborating on new material with Dubblestandart.

Perry now lives in Switzerland with his wife Mireille and two children. Although he celebrated his 75th birthday in 2011, he continues recording and performing to enthusiastic audiences in Europe and North America. His modern music is a far cry from his reggae days in Jamaica; many now see Perry as more of a performance artist in several respects. Over the years a number of compilations have been released some not so good, and many of Perry's tapes were stolen. Some of these recordings have shown up on poorly mastered, and expensive, anthologies.

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Opinions run hot and cold over this hard-to-find two volume set of Scratch dub. Excellent and crucial as many of its supporters claim, awful as its detractors insist. For those that like the Perry mix so loaded with echo it sounds as if it was recorded in a canyon. Extremely difficult to find, yet here you get the chance to make your own mind up

Lee Scratch Perry - Megaton Dub 1+2    (flac  399mb)

01 Dem No Know Dub 3:42
02 Conscious Man Dub 3:59
03 Such Is Dub 3:40
04 Corn Picker Dub 3:15
05 Rasta Dub 3:10
06 Freedom Dub 2:43
07 Megaton Dub 4:56
08 Dreader Dub 3:55
09 School Girl Dub (Voc.Mikey Dread)4:42
10 Simon The Sorcerer 4:41

Megaton Dub 2

01 Traveling In Dub 5:13
02 Fisherman Dub 5:02
03 Zion In Dub 4:12
04 Groovy Dub 4:06
05 Dub Crisis 4:28
06 Green Bay Killing 3:48
07 Big Neck Dub 3:47
08 Living In Dub 3:21




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History, Mystery, Prophecy was recorded at a time when Scratch had a long-standing grudge with Island Records, it sounds as if he was forced into a new wave lounge act, complete with skinny black leather tie and other 1980s affectations. The songs all have a synth pop sound to them. The album is saved by a few good songs: "Mr. Music", an enjoyable pop reggae groove, "Daniel" (AKA "Jah Road Block"), and the hilarious, X-rated "Bed Jamming".

Lee Scratch Perry – History, Mystery and Prophesy (flac 295mb)

1 Mr. Music 4:50
2 The Ganja Man 4:20
3 Nice Time 5:08
4 Tiger Lion 2:52
5 Funky Joe 5:09
6 Heads Of Government 4:36
7 Daniel 3:39
8 Bed Jamming 5:30

Lee Scratch Perry – History, Mystery & Prophesy (ogg 116mb)

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elsewhere

Lee Perry - The Upsetter Box (Africa's Blood 72, Rhythm ) ( 85 ^ 98mb )
Lee Perry - The Upsetter Box ( Shower 73 & Double Seven 74) ( 85 ^ 95mb)

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