Lee Scratch Perry – Repentance
Reviewed by Sadie O., 8/27/08
Dub, electronica, and dementia. Lee “Scratch” Perry is back again, and more bonkers than before! Interesting riddims, lots and lots of electronic squoobles, some really fat bass on a few tracks, and Scratch just chanting whatever comes into his mind. Scratch’s mind has gotten REALLY bizarre…
Major FCCs on track 5, tracks 3 and 6 may be iffy.
I like 1, 2, 7, 8, 11 best.
1. 4:18 ****electronic drone and very slow claps intro, downtempo skank with great bass sound and electronic whooshes. Turns into a sort of very subdued heavy metal march.
2. 3:59 ****horn flourishes, killer electronic skank. Wow! Nuts! Lots of changes, very crazy. 15 seconds of random noises at end.
3. 3:42 ***electronic dancehall, bouncy and squirpy… pum pum is Jamaican slang for female naughty bits, but you can probably pretend you don’t know this. I’m not sure what Jesus Christ has to do with it, but it clearly makes sense to Scratch…
4. 4:03 ***rubbery bloops, rather glitchy beat, lyrics based on Lord’s Prayer.
5. 4:34 FCCs like crazy – don’t play at any time! Piano plunks and extremely naughty chanting.
6. 3:48 **slow and disjointed sounding skank with random sounds. Some barely blanked out “mother*ers”…
7. 3:34 ****groovy midtempo electronic skank, rather surprisingly danceable, cool chant.
8. 4:08 ****very downtempo skank, fat sound with gooey bass, female chorus.
9. 3:57 ***random electronics and invocations of things like Santa Claus and San Francisco. Turns into fast jungle, more or less. No pretense of sanity in sight.
10. 3:13 **starts with random goofy laughter for 20 seconds… slow cool skank, female chorus, something that actually resembles a song, too.
11. 3:32 ****electronic whoosh, then quite a funky midtempo shuffle, and Scratch’s train of thought.
12. 4:22 ***completely random intro, then … er, disco? Bleepy jungle beat, gets increasingly loud and complex. False ending after 2 minutes, then back again.