Lee “Scratch” Perry + Subatomic Sound System “Blackboard Jungle Dub” 45th Anniversary Tour

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System, Emch

photo by John Shore

LEE “SCRATCH” PERRY + SUBATOMIC SOUND SYSTEM
45th ANNIVERSARY PERFORMANCES OF “BLACKBOARD JUNGLE DUB” + MORE
1st dub album in history, live for the 1st time!

presented by Dub Champions Festival
in assocation with SubPac (check the contest!) and our media sponsor Large Up.

Upcoming performances Sept 18-27, 2019 in USA & Mexico. Prior dates  Oct 12-31, 2018 and Feb 7-23, 2019 across North America.
For complete tour schedule visit: www.SubatomicSound.com/events  Sign up on our mailing list to hear about new dates being added in the future and receive an exclusive promo tour mixtape.

https://www.facebook.com/PerryScratch | https://www.facebook.com/SubatomicSoundSystem

Grammy winning dub & reggae pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry celebrates the 45th anniversary of his landmark album “Blackboard Jungle Dub”, the world’s first dub album. Scratch, now 82 years young, will embark on a tour across North America performing his 1973 studio masterpiece live in its entirety for the first time, aided by the technology of NYC’s Subatomic Sound System, his hybrid band of new school electronics and veteran Jamaican musicians from the Black Ark era recordings. For the past 8 years, Subatomic Sound System has been Scratch’s go to band for re-creating the Black Ark sound live on stage. They will also perform music from their album “Super Ape Returns To Conquer” ( http://bit.ly/SS033s ) which topped both reggae and electronic charts in 2018, plus singles like “Black Ark Vampires” (http://bit.ly/BAVss ) and classics from Perry’s work with the likes of Bob Marley, Max Romeo, and many more. Perry’s Blackboard Jungle album includes dub remixes of hit songs he co-wrote with Bob Marley, “Kaya” & “Keep On Movin”, as well as other big tunes from The Wailers and Junior Byles. Kaya turned out to be Marley’s most successful album of his career and celebrated its own anniversary with a massive festival earlier this year.  Keep reading for dates and details…

L$P & Subatomic Sound System “Blackboard Jungle Dub” tour sold out in Brooklyn at Elsewhere.

Check it here in 3D virtual reality if you have the necessary technology.

Grab the new 2019 “Dub Organizer” single

MORE SHOWS TO BE ANNOUNCED THIS WEEK, WITH DATES STARTING FEB 2019 IN NORTH AMERICA

7-Feb, Thur | San Rafael, CA @ Terrapin Crossroads
8-Feb, Fri | Ventura, CA @ Discovery Ventura
9-Feb, Sat | Long Beach, CA @ One Love Cali Festival at the Queen Mary
10-Feb, Sun | San Diego, CA @ House of Blues [adv tix]
12-Feb, Tue | Austin, TX @ Flamingo Cantina
13-Feb, Wed | Denver, CO @ Cervantes’ Other Side
15-Feb, Fri | West Palm Beach, FL @ Respectable Street
16-Feb, Sat | Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum [adv tix]
17-Feb, Sun | Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbits [adv tix]
19-Feb, Tue | New Orleans, LA @ Tipitina’s
20-Feb, Wed | Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
21-Feb, Thur | Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall
22-Feb, Fri | Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar

— 2018 —

12-Oct | Vancouver, BC The Commodore Ballroom
13-Oct | Seattle, WA Nectar Lounge
14-Oct | Portland,OR Aladdin Theater
17-Oct | Los Angeles, CA Dub Club @ Echoplex ( Echo)
18-Oct | San Francisco, CA The Chapel Folkyeah Presents
19-Oct | Santa Cruz, CA Rio Theatre
20-Oct | San Luis Obispo, CA SLO Brew
21-Oct | Sonoma, CA  The Reel Fish Shop
24-Oct | Asbury Park, NJ House of Independents
25-Oct | Philadelphia, PA The Ardmore Music Hall
26-Oct | Washington DC Rock ‘N’ Roll Hotel
27-Oct | Brooklyn, NY Elsewhere
28-Oct | Boston, MA Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub
30-Oct| Burlington, VT Club Metronome
31-Oct| Holyoke, MA Gateway City Arts
and more coming

Sign up on our mailing list to hear about new dates being added in the future and receive an exclusive promo tour mixtape.

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System core live band [Larry McDonald, Troy Simms, & Emch] photo by Nataworry

Watch this video playlist of Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System live for a preview: http://bit.ly/LSPLiveApeVids and check this for 360° virtual reality http://bit.ly/vr360zb

Check some reviews from the October 2018 tour from the first show in Vancouver, to Cali, to Philadelphia, to the final show in Holyoke and the tour preview in Rolling Stone Magazine.

Blackboard Jungle Dub album 45th anniversary tour  Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System

“Sometimes one might go see, say, Glen Campbell or Little Richard to really just “See” an artist and appreciate all he has done in the past. This is not the case with Perry. Without exaggeration, in the live context, Perry and the Subatomic Sound System have pushed his work into the next level which is as electrifying, interesting, and chaotic, as that which came before it. Instead of winding down his career and taking stock of his past, the radically reworked live version of Blackboard Jungle Perry is already on to the next phase of his creative exploration and there is no sign of him slowing down yet. Live album please!”John Gentile/ Punk News / Oct 2018 show review

“Those in attendance witnessed firsthand the creative energy and flames that, like the smoke billowing from his beloved collie weed, continue to emanate from Lee’s soul. Accompanied by the talented members of NY collective Subatomic Sound System, including drummer Larry McDonald, saxophonist Troy Simms and DJ and multi-instrumentalist Emch, the group cast an organic, gritty, dance-inducing spell of good vibrations, like irie magicians ushering a neophyte into a transcendant vision quest.”InnerEdge / Oct 2018 show review

Blackboard Jungle Dub 45th anniversary tour

WIN A ONE OF A KIND “SUPER APE RETURNS TO CONQUER” SUBPAC + SOLD OLD LIMITED EDITION VINYL!. ENTER THE CONTEST HERE

SubPac ApePac Super Ape Returns to Conquer Contest

Perry’s collaborations in the early 1970s with Bob Marley & The Wailers defined the reggae genre and launched them to super stardom, but Perry himself shifted his focus in 1973 to constructing his infamous Black Ark recording studio so he could create a mystical new genre called “dub” made by using the mixing board as an instrument and stripping the music down primarily to drums and bass. Blackboard Jungle was the world’s first dub reggae album, and signaled not only the birth of dub as a genre, but also the dawn of remixing, the concept of the producer as an artist, and the power of an independent home studio to create world class music – ideas that impacted so many people around the world that they have essentially become the blueprint for music in the 21st century. Kanye West & Jay Z have sampled his recordings, the Sex Pistols hailed his work as inspiration for the punk movement, and artists across generations like Paul McCartney, Keith Richards, The Clash, The Beastie Boys, and Major Lazer have all sought out Perry for collaborations.

For over eight years in the USA, Subatomic Sound System has been Scratch’s go to band for bringing his Black Ark Studio sound live to the stage, a unique hybrid configuration that brings together a handful of live musicians like legendary Jamaican percussionist Larry McDonald (Peter Tosh, Bob Marley, The Skatalites, Gil Scot Heron) with computers and live dub mixing of classic recordings as well as brand new sounds Scratch hears from outer space. Subatomic is spearheaded by Emch a producer, musician, and DJ, who anchors the live show with his dub mixing, melodica and multi-track riddim arrangements. The touring band also relies heavily on the saxophone of Troy Simms who commbines classic Jamaican lines with both American and Ethiopian jazz melodies. Formed in NYC at the turn of the millennium, Subatomic Sound System tours worldwide as DJ or live performance and band for Lee Scratch Perry; runs the Subatomic Sound label; hosts a radio show on Brooklyn Radio; and founded Dub Champions Festival.

Born in Jamaica in 1936, Lee “Scratch” Perry has been overturning tradition and confounding conventional wisdom for more than six decades. In the process, the widely acknowledged father of dub reggae became arguably the first creatively driven “artist-producer” in modern recorded music. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Perry on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Lee Perry began in the music business in the 1950’s and by the 1960’s became known for his innovative production techniques as well as his eccentric character. His first single “People Funny Boy” in 1968 was notable for its innovative use of sampling as well as a fast, chugging beat that would soon become identifiable as “reggae”. Concurrent with his own releases with the Upsetters, Perry produced numerous reggae artists at his Black Ark studio, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Heptones, and Max Romeo.

After his famed Black Ark Studio was consumed by fire, Perry took refuge in England and the USA performing live and making records with collaborators from a wide range of musical genres, all artists who had been inspired by his innovative work. NYC bass music specialists Subatomic Sound System connected with Scratch in 2007, creating his first dubstep remixes through a collaboration with Vienna’s Dubblestandart.

Lee “Scratch” Perry, 82 years young and now into his sixth decade as a pop-music provocateur, has few peers when it comes to fresh ideas and their implementation. Perry remains one of the world’s most imaginative sonic architects and his live show with Subatomic Sound System is proof that regardless of his age, he continues to break new ground.

Lee Scratch Perry Subatomic Sound System

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System
MORE HISTORY ON THE “BLACKBOARD JUNGLE DUB” ALBUM

“Late 1973 saw the release of one of the greatest Lee Perry productions ever: UPSETTERS 14 DUB BLACKBOARD JUNGLE, the album better known as Blackboard Jungle Dub. The first fully-fledged Lee “Scratch” Perry dub album, and one of a handful of records vying for the title of “First Dub LP,” the album was initially issued in small quantities in Jamaica on the Upsetter label as a 14-song album mixed with channel separation, like an Esquivel record, with the drum and bass largely in the left speaker, and the guitar and horns in the right; later editions were reduced to 12 songs, and often issued with a monophonic mix (check the Auralux edition for the definitive reissue).

Some say King Tubby collaborated with Perry on the release, though Perry has often downplayed or denied Tubby’s involvement. In any case, opening number “Blackboard Jungle” is an awesome dub of “Bucky Skank,” had sense-surround drums, roaring sirens and wild guitar licks; “Kasha Macka” re-worked Prince Django’s “Hot Tip” within a stop-and-go mixing format; and there are dubs of Junior Byles’ “Place Called Africa,” and the Wailers’ “Kaya,” “Dreamland” and “Keep On Moving.” A true classic of the dub genre, this album is absolutely essential.” – David Katz, reggae historian and author of Lee Perry’s biography ( excerpt from RBMA Ultimate Lee Perry Guide )

Lee Scratch Perry + Subatomic Sound System “Super Ape Returns to Conquer” album 2018 tour photos

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System live Super Ape Returns to Conquer album tour

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System live Super Ape Returns to Conquer album tour

Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System live Super Ape Returns to Conquer album tour

Lee Scratch Perry Subatomic Sound System Larry McDonald

Lee Scratch Perry Subatomic Sound System Troy