BLACK ALBUM

The Black Album is the second collaboration between dub reggae innovator Lee "Scratch" Perry and London-based producer/engineer Daniel Boyle, following 2014's Back on the Controls. Like that album, this one attempts to faithfully re-create the sound of Perry's trailblazing work from the '70s, using strictly analog equipment and instrumentation, as well as live dubbing during the mixing process. While Back on the Controls was a thoroughly successful effort which stood up to Perry's past achievements, The Black Album somehow ends up feeling par for the course. All of the ingredients are in place, from the rich instrumentation (including everything from a hurdy-gurdy to a kete drum, as well as offbeat sounds such as Boyle's baby crying at the beginning of "Mr. Brown in Town") to Perry's free-associative, often self-referential lyrics. Each of the songs are immediately reprised by dub versions, and these indulge in all of the spacy echo and delay effects one would expect, often improving on the originals. Overall, though, the music just doesn't seem quite as pushed to the outer limits as Back on the Controls. The Black Album isn't a major disappointment, but it isn't exceptional, either. ~ Paul Simpson