Review Summary: I’m the old who makes it new.
Considering the exhaustive amount of writing and remembrances already published on the account of Lee Scratch Perry and his influence, I will spare you my superfluous words on the matter. It only must be said that in history of dub music, few have been of the significance and popularity of the ole master Scratch. His reach and versatility, with the help of a select several equally canonical contemporaries, was enough to spawn an entire generation of followers and experimentators willing to push his style far and wide. Scratch himself was no stranger to expanding boundaries, be it theoretical or compositional. Some three years after his death and a few months before his 88th birthday,
King Perry arrives to cement his final words with the help of a few current and up-and-coming house staple names in dub Scratch helped guide and influence.
Produced using techniques Scratch has pioneered or invented, mixing elements of electronic and synthetic sounds, remixing own concepts and past work, turning predictability on its head, and making sure that each feature is thematically and artistically justified, the album/compilation is the perfect send-off to the old grandmaster. To complete the project False Idols recording label has enlisted the help of Greentea Peng aka Erykah Badu for the young folks, the propagator of dub in British popular music of the 90s Shaun Ryder (of Happy Mondays fame), avant-gardist extraordinaire Fifi Rong, trip-hop legend Tricky, as well as Tricky’s frequent vocal collaborators Rose Waite and Marta. The production and glue of the album was helmed by Daniel Boyle who has previously been a keen musical supporter and oftentimes producer of Perry’s late-career works. It is an ensemble of dedicated fans and close collaborators who had a strikingly clear vision of what ole King Scratch might have wanted. And in their fine-tuning of Perry’s final recordings gave life to his last musical will: make something new.
Ever the changer of narratives, it makes sense that Scratch would have wanted his final word to be that of novelty and newness. Think of it as a way to reincarnate oneself, from the ashes of old ideas comes a sound of new perspective. All he ever wanted, really. Therefore,
King Perry mainly features a whole lot of Scratch’s usual suspect beat types but spiced up with twists and innovations so obvious they near the “wish you could have written it” territory. The kick-off “100lb of Summer” misleads you at the start with what appears to be the basic-most dub beat before swiftly underlying it with hip-hop drum line as slick as a tailor-fit suit. It is as if the song were telling you to drop your expectations, even if its lyrical topic is all dub’s archetypes, clearly suggested by the song’s anything-but-subtle title. To a similar degree, “Evil Generation” also starts off with a typical rhythm, but soon devolves into a more industrialised, sharp sound, which serves as a stylistic transition into an even more bent-up “Midnight Blues”. Here, the blues of it all truly shines and Fifi Rong’s avant-pop leanings are in symbiosis with Scratch’s jointy song-writing.
For the most part, this is how the album flows on from there: it is all deconstruction and revision of what dub and its adjacency means, constantly twirling at the tip of its electric plug an influence or direction shaping its core in a new creative way. Take “Green Banana” with Shaun Ryder, whose UK-Rave obsession is held back only by the inherent laid-back attitude of Scratch at its centre. Or “Jesus Life”, where all instrumentation takes on a form of minimalised darkwave. In these moments, the album even honours dub’s most contentious daughter project, dubstep. Not quite the screeching, high-octane blunder that it eventually became, but the dark, tortured, arhythmic tool of atmosphere. The entire latter half of the album starting with “I Am a Dubby” and finishing with “Goodbye” is essentially a testament to dubstep’s validity, as well as a support for many an afrofuturistic electronic and house offshoots that Scratch helped bear into the world. The incredible run of tracks “I Am a Dubby”, through “The Person I Am”, and “Jah People in Blue Sky” show how such a robustly electric approach can help elevate dub’s inner emotionality and covert vulnerability to new heights rarely heard before.
Final “Goodbye” is perhaps the last we’ll ever hear of Scratch’s original writing on record. In his traditional run as a pathological humourist, the song features very little of his actual coherent lyrics, but rather has ole Perry adlib to dramatic beats. His repeated goodbyes are bittersweet, reassuring of his status as “the captain” (if he says so himself) and casually laughing at you for taking it too seriously. It is difficult not to, though. But Scratch’s career has been nothing if not an inspiration for countless others, leading to his final word being a showcase of just how much you can do with pure dub at your side. Also give or take 100lb of Summer too.
