With a contested discography that is thought to be in the region of 2,000 releases, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry indisputably had a prodigious musical output. His own releases together with his production and other work for the likes of Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Clash, The Beastie Boys and Junior Murvin mark him out as incredibly influential. Work on ‘Spaceship to Mars’ with Youth who has seen the album through to its completion began four years before Scratch’s 2021death. The original bassist in Killing Joke, Youth (who earned his sobriquet due to his fondness for the roots reggae artist, Big Youth) is an ideal collaborator, his production credits ranging all the way from Bananarama through The Orb to The Verve. With the added assistance of different guest vocalists on each of its nine tracks, they have created an album full of solid grooves that sounds great on tiny laptop speakers, even better on a stereo played at neighbour considering volume and for now it must be left to the imagination as to how immense it would be booming from a huge sound system.
Scratch’s inimitable vocal stylings were marked out by scores of incomprehensible babblings, punctuated by cackling laughter and bursts of disorienting cogency. This works well in counterpoint to the various guest vocalists. Hollie Cook makes a harmonic contribution to opening track, ‘Butterfly Sky’, a piece notable for great echoing effects, groovy guitar runs, horns and James Hallawell’s swirly organ which is also prominent on second track, ‘Love is War’ alongside Michael Rendell’s warm keys. Love is a prominent theme featuring on three songtitles. There is also a fascination with the elemental, sunshine and skies, featuring in the titles.
“Everything comes from Africa, everybody’s from Africa and everyone is going back to Africa” Scratch states at the beginning of ‘Love Sunshine Peace’, a timely reminder to race-baiting numbskulls like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (otherwise known by his pretending to be man of the people alias, Tommy Robinson) of our common ancestry. As Scratch mischievously anoints himself emperor of the globe, Carol Thompson’s gorgeously luscious soulful vocals, Youth’s deep and on point bass and Rendell’s Moog make it an absolute high spot. ‘The Lizard’ features vocals from Boy George whose voice sounds far more lived in than the delicate charmer who emerged in the early 1980s but this suits the song, its excellent vocal melody combining well with Nicole’s trombone which reinforces the bass in adding welcome depth to the sound.
One of the album’s most notable qualities is how each track explodes into life with pieces of studio trickery. This is exemplified by the manipulated drumbeats which introduce ‘Dr Love’ which features Youth and Don Letts on vocals. With its “from Genesis to Revelation”, it continues reggae’s preoccupation with the books of the bible. Similarly, ‘Iron Shirt’ seeks to “chase Satan out of earth” as vocalist Zoe Devlin looks to send him to outer space to find another race. It is a smooth and delicious number. The title track voyages to Venus and Mars, while serving as a metaphor for Scratch’s exploratory nature, as well as being particularly joyous.
‘Bulldozer Dub’ has Scratch borrowing the song lines, “if you don’t know me by now, you will never know me again” which feels apt, while burbling about psychopaths and psychiatrists. Amber’s vocals blend especially well with the swirling key runs. Album one closes with ‘In The Sunshine’ featuring Blue Pearl, a boisterous soulful vocal matched to a fast, emphatic rhythm and plentiful sound effects. There is then an additional record consisting of dub versions of the first eight numbers that serve to emphasise the instrumental qualities of these tracks while the concluding ‘Lessons in Dub’ acts as a musicologist’s guide to reggae.
Appropriately for an artist who seemed to be broadcasting from another dimension, this posthumous release is a joy throughout, a fitting addition to the legacy of a one-off who was unique to the very end.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry & Youth: Spaceship to Mars – Out 13th September 2024 (Creation Youth Records)
I was editor of the long-running fanzine, Plane Truth, and have subsequently written for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the most angular independent sounds, performing in recent years with a community samba percussion band helped to broaden my tastes so that in 2021 I am far more likely to be celebrating an eclectic mix of sounds and enthusing about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.
