A sprawling insight into the birth of dub reggae via Lee “Scratch” Perry – with a few poppy treats thrown for good measure…

Release Date:  21^st February 2025

Label: Doctor Bird (A division of Cherry Red Records)

Formats: 2 x CD

DESERVED SCRUTINY

The fascinating career of Producer/Innovator Lee “Scratch” Perry is currently undergoing a period of detailed and deserved scrutiny, courtesy of our friends at Cherry Red/Doctor Bird.  2024 saw the release of People Funny Boy, a compilation of Perry’s work at Upset Records with sound engineers Barry Lambert and Lynford “Andy Capp” Anderson and, just a couple of months ago, that offering was followed by Soulful I, a 2CD set that collects Perry’s productions from early 1969 to early 1970, the period when he was starting to generate some particularly startling waves.  Now, the sequence continues; Land of Kinks picks up the Lee “Scratch” Perry story in 1970, the year when he really started to experiment.  The year when dub reggae was born.

LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY

The man who was to become Lee “Scratch” Perry was born as just plain Rainford Hugh Lee Perry in 1936, or 1939, depending upon which biographer you believe.  He was involved in the Jamaican music industry from an early age – he was still a teenager when he hitched up with Arthur ‘Duke’ Reid, owner of the famed Trojan Sound System, in Kingston the mid-1950s. 

He didn’t last long as a Reid acolyte and soon entered into an often-troublesome relationship with another sound system proprietor, Clement “Coxsone” Dodd, initially as a record seller for Dodd’s Downbeat Sound System before progressing to become a general factotum and, eventually, a producer at Dodd’s Kingston Studio.  The Dodd-Perry relationship was never an easy one and accusations of financial chicanery flew in both directions until the pair split up in 1966.  Perry soon found alternative employment with Joe Gibbs’ Amalgamated Records, where he continued to build the reputation as an engineer and producer that he had established with Dodd.

ROCKSTEADY SINGLES

Working for Gibbs, Perry was the driving force behind a string of rocksteady singles by the likes of Cool Sticky, The Overtones and The Mellotones, as well as producing records in his own name, the most successful – and significant – of which was I Am the Upsetter (1968), a track that, in addition to referencing his perceived mistreatment at the hands of Dodd, Perry also established his reputation as an “Upsetter” of the status quo.

Soon after releasing I Am the Upsetter, Perry moved on once again, this time to launch Upset Records with the aforementioned sound engineers Lambert and Anderson.  The company’s first major release, People Funny Boy – credited to The Upsetters – was a tilt at Perry’s former employer, Joe Gibbs and was a massive hit in Jamaica, selling over 60,000 copies.  Lee Perry had arrived.

INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS

By late 1968, Perry was ready to make what would be the first of several key career moves.  He parted company with Lambert and Anderson and set out on his own, establishing the infamous Upsetter imprint in the process.  It was around this time that Perry’s unique production style had started to find favour with the UK’s Jamaican population and a deal for the worldwide distribution of the Upsetter Records catalogue was agreed with the London-based Trojan Records. 

International success was almost immediate – the second single to be released under this arrangement was Return of Django (1969) an infectious tune that resonated not only with London’s Jamaican communities but also with the UK’s growing population of skinheads.  On the back of this appreciation, Return of Django climbed to No.5 in the UK singles chart in the autumn of 1969.

EXPERIMENTS IN SOUND

The revenue generated by the sales of Return of Django enabled Perry to establish his Upsetter Record Shop on Charles Street in Kingston and provided the encouragement for Perry to release his debut album, The Upsetter, which appeared in November 1969.  That welcome financial boost also created the freedom that allowed Perry to pursue his studio experiments in sound – experiments which quickly led to the emergence of dub reggae.  And that’s where Land of Kinks comes in, to continue the Lee “Scratch” Perry story.

The small pool of session musicians, originally named The Hippy Boys and rechristened The Upsetters by Perry were well-established as the sixties morphed into the 1970s.  The Upsetters’ core lineup of brothers (and future Wailers) Aston and Carlton Barrett (respectively, bass and drums), Glen “Capo” Adams (keyboards) and Alva “Reggae” Lewis was frequently supplemented by artists such as Lloyd Charmers, Leroy Brown, Max Romeo and others and they provide the driving force for every track on Land of Kinks.

VOCAL GEMS

Unsurprisingly, this collection is predominantly instrumental – 41 of the 52 tracks fall into that category – but there are some real gems to be found amongst the vocal offerings.  Dave Barker’s reworking of Otis Redding’s Mr Pitiful is a particular standout that holds its own as a Jamaican-flavoured alternative to Otis’s peerless original.  The Beatles’ Let It Be shouldn’t work in a reggae format but when subjected to the tender mercies of The Soulettes – a female trio that featured Rita Marley within its ranks – it certainly does. 

Busty Brown’s interpretation of Eddie Floyd’s Consider Me is soulful and sophisticated whilst The Heaters’ version of Melting Pot, a 1969 hit for Blue Mink, is, quite simply, awesome.  Less successful, perhaps, is the reggae-fied rehash of the Blood, Sweat and Tears hit, Spinning Wheel by Busty Brown and Dave Barker; the duo’s vocal efforts are described in the excellent booklet that accompanies the set as “…occasionally over-enthusiastic” and it’s noted that the song was included in DJ Kenny Everett’s 1978 chart of “The World’s Worst Records.”  Say no more…

THE GENESIS OF DUB

But, really, it’s with a selection of those 41 instrumental tunes that Land of Kinks comes into its own and demonstrates its raison d’être.  It’s here that listeners can witness the birth of dub in the comfort of their own headphones and the highlights are almost too numerous to list.  It all starts off fairly innocently with a chugging, slightly strange, version of The Coasters’ Yakety Yak, before the day of dub dawns with the unsettling, Spaghetti-Western themed The Tackro. 

Pioneer Toaster U Roy makes an appearance in the sinister OK Carrol, whilst an opportunity to repeat the startling success of …Django was surely missed when the fast-paced, bouncy, Kill Them All (named after a 1968 Spaghetti Western movie) failed to gain the traction it deserved in the UK singles chart.  The tune’s thumping groove should have been a sure-trigger to get the 1970 skinhead hoards stomping.  Elsewhere, The Upsetters’ Grooving is rocky and quirky and lives well up to its name and Selassie Serenade – another Upsetters’ instrumental – is forceful and catchy.

Land of Kinks is an enjoyable collection – a fascinating insight into the Genesis of dub – and indispensable to any Lee “Scratch” Perry completists.  And, as an extra sweetener, 14 of the tracks are making their first-ever appearance on CD – Sticky & The Upsetters’ Move and Groove, The Soulettes’ Shoo Bee Doo Ee and Chuck Junior’s Do It Madly and Penny Wise amongst them.  Enjoy.

Listen to The Tackro – a track from the album – here:

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