Search - Various Artists :: Complete Upsetter Singles Collection 2

Skip the terrible pap - uh, pop - and step back

Derrick A. Smith | USA | 04/18/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like everyone except Christ, Lee Perry was, after all, human. This set is the second in Trojan's series of two-disc volumes collecting every Upsetter label 45 rpm single the producer leased to the company from 1969 to 1973. As such, it's a look at his technical and musical progression from silly experiments to serious experimentation. This second volume drops us into the pivotal year of 1970. Scratch is crudely splicing together previous hits into loungy pastiches, perfecting his bass sound, jumping on the DJ bandwagon, divining the hidden talents of Bob Marley and the Wailers, and continuing to record oppressively banal Jamaican pop tunes, while on the side he's running a record shop complete with a bar (where alcohol is not the only intoxicant served.) It's the banal vocal tracks that weigh down this collection, the least of which are covers of Northern Hemisphere hits like "Let it Be" and "Spinning Wheel". But when the Upsetter gathers the Upsetters and lets the tapes roll, later interjecting obscure effects-laden vocals (or overdubbing a hypercharged Dave Barker) or dropping out certain tracks at unexpected moments, all is well and you got yerself some funky, silly, yet edgy classics."