The legendary producer, singer, and bandleader
Lee "Scratch" Perry gets prominent billing on this release, but in fact what it is, is a
Dubblestandart album to which
Perry contributes vocals. In a certain sense, though, every
Dubblestandart album is a
Lee "Scratch" Perry album, because since the gradual demise of
Dub Syndicate it has been
Dubblestandart's duty to carry on the psycho-dub tradition of
Perry's Black Ark studio almost singlehandedly. Helping them to shoulder the weight on this album are not only
Perry himself, but also the always-brilliant and always-slightly-crazy
Ari Up, singer Gudrun Liemberger, and even famous film director
David Lynch (who contributes the occasional spoken word bit). There are nods back to the glory days of the Ark, such as recapitulations of such classic
Upsetters material as "Chase the Devil" (a rhythm made famous by
Max Romeo) and "Blackboard Jungle"." And unfortunately, there are also plenty of excursions into the topics that seem to fascinate
Perry more and more as he gets older: namely, his own bedroom expertise and his own excretory functions. If hearing about those things is less than fascinating to you, then skip around the program a bit -- no matter where you land, you'll hear ten-megaton grooves from the mighty
Dubblestandart and all kinds of quirky and enticing vocal contributions from the others. The second disc in the package includes dub, techno, and dubstep remixes of tracks from the main program. ~ Rick Anderson