Lee Scratch Perry: Upsetters (translucent bright green vinyl) [LMLR]

Why you'll love it

This remastered edition comes on translucent bright green vinyl with a printed inner sleeve. It runs through 15 short, echo-drenched dub cuts, from "Dub Metal" to "Star Dub."

This edition

• Translucent bright green vinyl
• Remastered
• Printed inner sleeve
• Stereo mix

About the album

Few people have treated a mixing desk as an instrument quite the way Lee 'Scratch' Perry did. Born Rainford Hugh Perry in Kendal, Jamaica, in 1936, he became one of the pioneers of dub in the 1970s, stripping reggae tracks back to drum and bass and rebuilding them with echo, reverb and studio effects. His house band, The Upsetters, took its name from his own nickname, and over the years he worked with Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Congos, Max Romeo and, later, the Clash and the Beastie Boys.

This set keeps things short and heavy. "Dub Metal" and "Rocking The Dub" lean hard on the bass, "Having Fun Dub" and "Dub To Love" lighten the mood, and "King Tubby Dub" and "Scientist Dub" carry the names of two fellow giants of the mixing desk. Fifteen tracks fly by, each one built from the same raw materials and each one sounding like its own small universe.

Perry kept making music almost to the end of his life in 2021, aged 85. He said the sound of stones clashing first sent him to Kingston; we'd have suggested the bus, but there's no arguing with results.

Also at Kops: more Lee Scratch Perry on vinyl · browse Reggae & Caribbean

Tracklist

Listen

On LMLR (cat# LLM783986.1).