Lee Scratch Perry has long had a reputation for being somewhat of an eccentric musical genius bordering on all-out nutcase. You could hear the constant muttering of ‘Is that really him?, I heard he went completely off the rails’ from various people inside the tightly packed main room of Fabric as Lee Scratch Perry ambled on-stage sporting some sizeable ring bling on his fingers. Although many think Lee Scratch Perry burned down his own studio in a fit of rage, above all he is known as a legendary producer who has outlasted many of his peers and practically invented the reggae/dub sound with his mixing board chops on vintage tunes from reggae legends like Bob Marley and Max Romeo.
For a man in his 70s, Scratch Perry has the energy and vibe of a performer half his age and had the crowd eating out of his hand from the start. While sweet, skanking dub rhythms pumped out of the notorious Funktion One soundsystem, Scratch Perry mostly let the music do the talking and chose to indulge in some symbolic artwork on the onstage painting canvas. This added another dimension to his stage performance and kept the crowd amused during a set that included many classics from the golden era of dub reggae. He departed the stage to a hero’s ovation from a crowd who realised that they had just witnessed the work of a true musical icon whose legacy will undoubtedly endure. His influence could be heard in the thumping dubstep tunes that filled the time before junglist/drum ‘n’ bass innovator Congo Natty took to the stage and cranked up the BPM’s and energy levels dramatically.
Blending dub and drum ‘n’ bass to perfection is Congo Natty’s forte and with Rebel MC on top of his game, the dance floor was bouncing to the frantic beats and bowel-stirring bass. Almost every tune was given the rewind treatment, with the biggest cheers reserved for the classic ‘Police in Helicopters’ and the set-closing ‘Exodus’ jungle remix, which brought to a close two awesome sets of Dublime music.
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