In case you missed it, Lee 'Scratch' Perry's final album - and last recorded performance in his lifetime - was released earlier this year.
King Perry was issued on Tricky's False Idols label and the album represents Perry's desire “to do something new, something different but still with a dub framework”. Working with producer Daniel Boyle, the 12-track album includes guest appearances from Greentea Peng, Fifi Rong, Marta Zlakowska, Rose Waite and a memorable performance from Shaun Ryder on Green Banana.
There are a bunch of remixes available separately too, from Dubkasm, No. 1 Special, Daddy G v Robot Club and Tricky himself. Tricky also co-produces a couple of tracks and appears with Marta on the penultimate song Future Of My Music.
In a sad irony, King Perry's final song Goodbye features the last vocals that Scratch recorded before he passed away in August 2021. It's all the more touching in this context.
King Perry is available on vinyl, CD and digital formats and one to add to the list for Bandcamp Friday.
Staying put in Bristol with noisenik four-piece SCALPING. Comprised of Nick Berthoud (guitar), James Rushforth (bass), Alex Hill (electronics) and Isaac Jones (drums), the band have been around since 2017 and released their debut album Void at the tail end of April 2022.
The band's biography and music press reviews variously describes SCALPING as "heavy metal in 4D", "a modern, metal twist on Bristolian trip-hop" and "a corrosive river of noise that thrills and terrifies in equal measure".
My search for the Daddy G vs Robot Club remix of Emily Breeze, posted yesterday, led me down this particular rabbit hole as Grant Marshall and Stew Jackson also remixed Tether, track three on the album and released as a single to coincide.
The original version sounds in parts like a slowed down track by The Prodigy, with a menacing rap from Oakland, California-based artist DÆMON aka Jahsiri Asabi-Shakir. The remix strips the music right back and heightens the menace and wouldn't sound out of place on a latter-day Massive Attack album.
Tether was the first song that SCALPING ever recorded to feature vocals (a second closes the album) and it absolutely works.
The other track
on the Void Remixes EP is a remix of Flashforward by Anton Pearson of Brighton band Squid. The track comes on like a breakbeat Mogwai
(who previously remixed a song from 2021 EP Flood), with relentless
synth waves and snatches of guitar.
The Void Remixes EP is available on Bandcamp along with the original album and SCALPING's back catalogue. All worth a deeper dive.
Rapture, the third album from Bristol-based Emily Breeze, was released last month and I've been listening to it lots over the past few weeks.
It's a great album and deserving of a more detailed post in it's own right later on. In the meantime, last Friday saw the release of a new remix of album track (and 2020 single), Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl.
What makes this particular release even more special is that it features a rare remix from Massive Attack's Daddy G, in partnership with fellow Bristol legend Stew Jackson aka Robot Club.
Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl (Daddy G vs Robot Club Remix) is a pulsing, throbbing beast of a song which kicks into full dancefloor filler halfway through. It's a radio-friendly remix, coming in at just over four minutes, which will have you putting it on a loop to hear it again and again.
There's not a video for the remix (you can find the original via my post last July) though you can listen to it on YouTube and other streaming platforms. The remix isn't available as a physical release or via Bandcamp, but you can buy it from the usual outlets such as Juno and Apple.
Rapture is available on vinyl, CD and digital formats via Sugar Shack Records and other retail outlets. Emily is coming the end of her tour to promote the album and I'm sadly going to miss her sold out homecoming gig in Bristol on Friday. By all accounts, it's going to be tremendous.
Confessions Of An Ageing Party Girl
Some fell at the first sign of trouble Haircuts and interviews followed How we laughed as they retreated into their salaries There but for the grace of god They can have my hands for a few pounds an hour I said But they'll never take my mind We danced and drank and talked and danced and drank And I threw my alarm clock out of the window Just to prove I truly the last of the great bohemians I was showing off
Nothing glitters when you're gone
Your shirt and tie looked liked fancy dress You were so feral, we couldn't believe you'd fooled them But I was secretly impressed you'd got a proper job Besides, it wasn't real, you were a spy And we'd use the money to buy motorbikes and run away Forever and ever and ever
My dancing feet are weary My steps are twisted out of time Eternity under a strobe light As I drift through the dry ice Do you remember When we were running wild
Nothing glitters when you're gone
The party's over baby But I'm never going home Wrap my arms around a stranger
Nothing glitters when you're gone
The party's over baby The house lights have come on Wrap my arms around a stranger
