Before spewing up my opinions, I wanted to wait until both the template (released in May) and the new dub version of Jamaican reggae pioneer Lee "Scratch" Perry's latest expression had struck the cosmos. Glad I held off, because they are companion masterpieces.
Produced by Perry's leading British acolyte, Adrian Sherwood, with whom he has held professional and personal ties for three decades, "Rainford" (Perry's given name) feels like a summation. Which doesn't mean it's a deathbed statement, like Bowie's "Blackstar" and Leonard Cohen's "You Want It Darker"; no, it mainly just offers ideal distillations of the modes Perry works best: skank, lilt, deep groove, MC wordplay, dub. Scriptural prophecy, too. But fun.
Perry has cut a lot of records, many of them tossed off. Not this one, thanks to the collaboration with Sherwood, who has spared no effort to make "Rainford" the most detailed, balanced yet low-bumping modern reggae record you will hear. A cello visits a tango ("Let It Rain"). A vocal-sax duet graces a classic Marley-style chop riddim, with Sherwood's daughters on hand here and elsewhere to reinforce the I-Threes vocal connection. Most unusual is "African Starship," a druggy, moody slog through the Sargasso Sea lightened by jazzy trumpet and flute. But everywhere, hooks rule. Really, this is pop.
"Rainford" does deal in death, not necessarily Perry's own, as he describes money worshipers killing dreams, and children of the light walking like the undead. He begins by predicting that judgment will come, and we feel certain he believes he will rise among the righteous. Perry finishes the album with a 7-minute musical autobiography -- not an epitaph, just a casual brag, delivered in the creaky yet confident whisper of an old man who has always done exactly what he wants.
"Rainford" also features plenty of dubby echoes, effects and dropouts, but these are splashes of color to enhance the compositions, not primary ends in themselves. The major dub statement was left for the new "Heavy Rain."
Dub began as a tricky abstractive field, pitting boundless imagination against strict limitations. When Perry and the Upsetters recorded the groundbreaking "Blackboard Jungle Dub" in 1973, they were using minimal tracks (4?) later dubbed into phantasms through King Tubby's 12-track mixing board.
Now you can have 400 tracks. Therefore, in every kind of music, we often hear artists' ability to lavish many ideas and their inability to recognize what's inessential. This hurts most in dub, a form that can't breathe without empty space.
What a pleasure then to hear "Heavy Rain," with Sherwood and guest mixers Brian Eno, Vin Gordon and Gaudi employing all the wide vistas a modern studio can offer, and leading our ears from sound to sound with the acumen of ace tour guides. Although Eno's retitled mix of "Makumba Rock" is the least deft dub, it's warm and atmospheric in the way we expect from him, and the nostalgia carries its own power.
With crispness and dynamism, "Heavy Rain" takes us on a ride through crashing echoes, boggling electronic whooshes and instrumental switch-offs, all the while cushioning us like a Turkish bath on supportive waves of rich bass. The stereo motion makes an especially heady impression, so if you've got surround sound, use it, and make it loud. Relaxing through "Heavy Rain" for three straight plays was the best entertainment I've had this year, and like Perry himself these days, I wasn't even smoking.
