Online Reggae Magazine

Articles

Articles about reggae music, reviews, interviews, reports and more...

The Upsessions & Lee Scratch Perry - Shake It

Home
Articles
Reviews
The Upsessions & Lee Scratch Perry - Shake It

The Upsessions & Lee Scratch Perry - Shake It

By Erik Magni on Monday, September 29, 2014 - Comment

Shake it with The Upsessions and Lee Perry

Sampler

Eccentric Jamaican music legend Lee “Scratch” Perry is a little bit of everywhere these days and works in several genres. In May he was part of the vintage sounding Back on the Controls album and he has also worked with more future-sounding acts like The Orb, Dubblestandart and EasyRiddimMaker.

Now he is involved in another project with a vintage sound. But it’s not swirling roots like Back on the Controls, almost the opposite actually. Shake It! is Dutch band The Upsessions’fourth album, and it features 14 tracks in the ska, rocksteady and early reggae vein, largely inspired by Desmond Dekker, The Maytals and The Skatalites.

They teamed up with Lee Perry while on tour in Germany and he has injected his distinctive half-sung/half-spoken style to several of the songs. It certainly adds a rough flavour to the otherwise smooth, yet often up-tempo, material.

Just as many albums in this vein Shake It! blends vocal cuts with instrumentals. And the set ranges from the calypso-tinged and risqué The Big Bamboo Treat and Punani Strike via the funky 100.000.000 Tons of Reggae and Funky Lumpini to skanking dance floor crashers like the title track and Hold Your Wining.

Sharp and infectious for your dancing feet.