This wondrously eclectic and entertaining final official album project by the legendary Jamaican producer and artist, made before his passing in 2021, is a collaboration with the German electronic duo Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma, mixing reggae, krautrock, ambient, dub, jazz, New Orleans brass and more, alongside Perry’s distinctive voice. It came as a result of a surprise visit by Perry to Mouse on Mars’s Paraverse Studio in Berlin in December 2019. During their creative sessions, the German pair asked Perry if he was familiar with with Spatial Audio and multi-channel sound diffusion. His response provides not only the title of this collage of genres, but the very method of its making. “Spatial,” he said, grinning, “No problem.” As soon as Perry arrived, his ideas flowed. With pens and markers, he wrote further slogans and ideas on walls and surfaces and transformed the studio with sound. Chanting, singing and mumbling in rhythm, communicating in murmurs, coughs and sly glances. Doing rude and loving damage to words. The musicians followed him, recording all the time. Jan St. Werner talks about the instinctual recording process: “We hardly spoke about what we were doing. We met and got going. He was laughing a lot and we laughed along. We also cooked and ate fish soup and papayas.”
The result is full of highly original infectious grooves, all decorated with samples of Perry’s voice. Of the singles, opener Rockcurry has a chugging freshness, a krautrock-ish, motorik momentum. To The Rescue mixes precision with a carefree and meditative quality, and while avoiding being full reggae, which was not Perry’s intention, still harks back to his work with Bob Marley & The Wailers on Soul Revolution Part II’s number Sun Is Shining. But in between Hallo Shiva brings in a wealth fabulous syncopated percussion, bass, brass, flutes and other instruments, with a dub elements and Perry’s pronouncements about picking cherries in a rose garden. Economic Train has mesmeric African rhythms and woodwind, Spatialee has more of whirl electronic rhythms with seductive saxophones, Fire Dali a spicy mix of funk and reggae, Yayaya a slower, more meditative, sleepy, laughter filled and beautiful dub vibe. The climax is the 8-minute closer, namechecking Jamaica and other places around the world, has a dark, mournful, spooky, New Orleans funereal jazz feel that moves like slow steam train, supremely vivid, with timpani and woozy brass and orchestral atmospheric sounds that is absolutely brilliant. What a sendoff. What a man. What a legacy. Out on Domino Records.
More details can be found about the album project here, including current special events at the Barbican in London about the album and Perry’s life and legacy, part of the venue’s summer Project A Black Planet exhibition.
Lee “Scratch” Perry having fun with Mouse on Mars in the studio
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