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#TBT: Lee Scratch Perry's Dub Revolution
Reggae | Thursday 23rd October 2014 | Osh
When looking for essential reggae albums, it’s hard to see past ‘Dub Revolution’ (1975), produced by the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry. A deep and brooding album, it sees Scratch at his peak, constructing groundbreaking drum & bass beats as well as innovative sound effects, that can still be seen influencing music today.
The introduction to the opening song, ‘Revolution Dub’, gives an indication of what's to come, with a mix of slow, heavy bass, strange background noises interspersed with Perry croaking ‘This is Dub Revolution…Music to rock the Nation’.
Dub music grew out of reggae in the 60s as producers such as Perry & King Tubby reworked ‘versions’ (existing tracks with the vocals removed) with an emphasis on the drum and bass guitar sections. ‘Scratch’ remarked that ‘sometimes the rhythm track would be so perfect that we’d forget about the other parts and just play about with the drum and bass’.
‘Scratch’ was known for his maverick nature and acute producing skills, particularly for his use of outside sounds. His track ‘People Funny Boy’ in 1968 included one of the first uses of a ‘sample’ (a crying baby) and further innovation, as well as Perry’s quirkiness, can be seen in this album. ‘Doctor on the Go’ features snippets from vintage English TV show ‘Doctor in the House’ while being simultaneously mixed into Junior Byles’ rhythmic ‘The Long Way’. The result is a weird and wonderful track, which flows between Perry’s vocals and audience laughter from the late 60’s TV show, with a seriously deep baseline throughout leaving you turning your stereo up to eleven.
In 1973, Perry built his iconic Black Ark studio in his garden to have more control over recordings. He had recently produced two of The Wailers early albums (writing the music for ‘Soul Rebel’ on the album of the same name) and at Black Ark, he continued to record some of the great reggae singers and produce masterful dubs.
Dub Revolution saw Scratch at his prime with a perfect blend of smooth, profound dubs and production techniques unseen at the time. The album sees an early use of a drum machine, now commonly associated with electronic music, which spawned genres such as Electro, House, Techno, DnB etc. in the 1980’s. Whether focusing on the melodies or looking at the wider influences of the album, Dub Revolution is Perry at his absolute best.
Ben Browett.
