Rise Again (MOD Technologies)
The Return Of Sound System Scratch (Pressure Sounds)

It’s this simple, boys and girls: if you enjoyed last year’s Sound System Scratch – an archival collection of dub plates created in Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark Studio between 1973 and 1979 – then you’re gonna love the latest release from the good folks at Pressure Sounds. The Return Of Sound System Scratch is another time machine trip back to Perry’s legendary backyard studio, featuring 18 tracks of vintage dub and roots reggae. This stuff is either unreleased or so rare that I want the soul who has it on their shelf to write me – right now.

Audiophiles take note: this is true ganja-fueled magic, created in a time and place where imagination took the place of technology. You can hear the smoke that permeated the original dubplate vinyl – I kid you not. Any sonic imperfections are part of the album’s soul. Forget about auto-tune; this is Scratch’s world.

Highlights of The Return Of Sound System Scratch include Junior Murvin’s bongo-driven take on the Impression’s “People Get Ready”; a dub mix of George Faith’s “I’ve Got The Groove” (listed here as “I’ve Got The Dub”); the fine, fine ghostly groove of the melodica on “Strong Drink”; and the passages of way-cool bluesy guitar to be found woven through “Righteous Rocking” (a dub version of the album-opening “Righteous Land”). There are moments of beauty (“Natural Dub”, a take on Bob Marley’s “Natural Mystic”) and there are moments of pure Perry weird genius (the funky crashing lurch of “Longer Dub” or the half-lidded, smiling groove of “Mr. Dubz”).

All in all, The Return Of Sound System Scratch is a great time capsule; crack it open and breathe deeply.

Now let’s zip ahead in time to the Scratch Perry of present: older (75 this past March); clean and sober (neither weed nor alcohol for the past five years); but just as out there as he ever was. Perry is still pumping out new material at a pretty-damn-prolific-at-any-age pace – a half-dozen albums in the last three years or so – and recent releases such as last year’s Revelation and Scratch Came Scratch Saw Scratch Conquered (2008) are hellish good times to listen to, for sure. What Perry’s work of late has lacked, however, is a start-to-finish feeling of cohesiveness. While he is certainly capable of playing well with others (his live shows with Dub As A Weapon, for example), in the studio Perry has oftentimes sounded like he’s over here and the basic backing tracks are over here.

You’ll find none of that on his latest release, Rise Again. Enter legendary bassist Bill Laswell, a latter-day dubmaster in his own right, equally at home on either side of the glass in the recording studio. Laswell’s production approach on Rise Again is just exactly what Perry’s needed for years. The songs swirl and wrap themselves around Perry, reacting to his words and moods – and he does the same. Undercurrents of melody and rhythm are breath and pulse rather than filler.

Laswell has created a band – that’s the deal. It’s more than a matter of personnel (although talent like Bernie Worrell on keys, Josh Warner on bass, Sly Dunbar on drums, horns by Steve Bernstein and Peter Apfelbaum, and Laswell’s wife Gigi Shibabaw on vocals – plus many others – makes for an impressive lineup); it’s the album’s vibe.

Rest assured: there’s still plenty of Scratch weirdness to be found on Rise Again – Laswell’s done nothing to discourage any of that. What he has done is embraced Perry’s raps, ponderings, and pronouncements, supported them with deep, luxurious beds of rhythm, and wrapped them in sonic layers of many colors, both gentle and totally wild-ass. For example, Shibabaw’s vocal passages on “Orthodox” are a safe place to return to after Perry’s word jams. The horns punch out ominous lines during “Dancehall Kung Fu” that match Scratch’s vocal blow-for-blow.

The ghost of “Police And Thieves” drifts through the dub mists of “Butterfly” in a manner that pays homage without mimicking. In the album-opening “Higher Level”, Laswell takes what could easily be a classic Lee Perry sing-song let-it-fly vocal and turns it into a multi-layered proclamation of joy atop a killer riddim foundation. And the bass work alone is worth the price of admission on tunes like “Wake The Dead” and “Inakaya (Japanese Food)” – which Scratch assures us will “give you good mood.”

Of course, there are moments that, despite the amazing musicianship around him, Scratch is Scratch – funky as all hell, but weird nonetheless (“E.T.”).

We wouldn’t want it any other way.