Prior to his death in 2021 aged 85, the seminal Jamaican reggae producer/dub innovator Lee “Scratch” Perry had assembled a starry cast for what is now the last of two posthumous albums. “I like it blasting mi fuckin’ ears,” announces Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder, presumably his requirements to get in the zone to deliver his trademark wordplay on Green Banana. Tricky and current protege Marta bring another British flavour to the electronic dub Future of My Music, while the latter’s airy vocals make I Am a Dubby the dreamiest thing here, although south London female soul singer Greentea Peng brings similarly sweet tones to 100lbs of Summer.
London-based producer Daniel Boyle replicates the analogue capabilities of Perry’s legendary Black Ark Studios to bring contemporary electronica to the great man’s inimitable dub rhythms and pronouncements. “I am the ace of bass!” he declares on the infectious King of the Animals. It’s all very pleasant if familiar – not as thrilling or groundbreaking as, say, 1976’s Super Ape: Jesus Life all but mirrors Max Romeo’s reggae classic Chase the Devil (recorded with Perry’s band the Upsetters and later sampled by the Prodigy). Still, it’s hard not to be moved by the atypical and lovely Goodbye, which features piano and strings by classical composer Hugo Bechstein. The final track Perry ever recorded finds him embracing death as playfully as life, expecting to be reborn as a baby and declaring “Goodbye … Bye, bye, bye, bye … goodbye.”
