“Super Ape Returns To Conquer” Lee Scratch Perry + Subatomic Sound System

Super Ape Returns To Conquer “Scratch’s best work since he burned down the Black Ark nearly 40 years ago”  – Wax Poetics Magazine

41 years later… Super Ape Returns to Conquer!  Lee “Scratch” Perry & Subatomic Sound System team up to re-imagine Perry’s classic, genre defining Jamaican dub album, musically elaborated and reloaded for the new millennium. Specially designed for  interplanetary travel by the bass obsessed, sound system generation. SubPac optimized. [ Out now on DL/ CD/ Vinyl LP ]  Debuted #2 on iTunes, #5 on Billboard, #1 on NACC radio North America, #1 on Juno, #2 on Beatport reggae chart. Top 5 albums of 2017 in Large Up and United Reggae.

Oct 24 – Nov 5, 2017 + Jan 14-28, 2018, Scratch & Subatomic tour across North America perform the new album and more. Check the show review from Victoria and Los Angeles . Check the Beats1 radio Apple Music interview with Scratch & Emch, described by Hot97 host Ebro as an interview with “the most important person in music culture of the past 60 years“.

Get it now off iTunes or stream on Apple Music or Spotify.  DJs check Beatport , Juno , ReggaeRecord , or BandCamp (bonus track) for hi-rez audio.  Order CD or vinyl LP from Amazon, Juno in the UK, or direct from US distro online now.  Full album released 9/22 on digital, CD (includes bonus track) and vinyl (alternate mixes and masters).  CD and vinyl both are packed with art and a foldout 10″ poster of the phenomenal cover illustration by New Analog Design.

A classic album for a new generation of dub fans…It’s a bold move to try and improve a masterpiece, but the result is stunning. Super Ape Returns To Conquer is true to the original sound with its dense and steamy tropical sonic landscape. But at the same time it has more punch thanks to influences from electronic music, dubstep and hip-hop. It has superb horns and pounding percussion along with booming bass, blasting beats and blazing energy” – United Reggae

“Super Ape is, arguably, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s dub masterpiece” – Large Up

“Perry’s abstract dub Super Ape is digitally revisited and energised with enhanced Ethiopian horns and percussion, wider and deeper bass chasms and crisper, shinier beats” – WIRE magazine

Lee  ‘Scratch’ Perry unveiled a mesmerizing remake of “Zion’s Blood” from his upcoming reworking of the Upsetters’ 1976 classic, ‘Super Ape.’…[which] manages to deepen the song’s groove through juiced drums, rich horns, slender guitar and the occasional synth wobble. Perry’s vocals have an older, wizened grit as well, and his voice sifts hypnotically through the dense sonic milieu… Scratch co-produced Super Ape Returns to Conquer with Subatomic Sound co-founder Emch. The pair recorded the LP at Subatomic Sound Studios in Brooklyn and Scratch’s home studio, the New Ark, in Jamaica” – Rolling Stone Magazine

“The sonic experimentations conducted by legendary Jamaican producer Lee “Scratch” Perry in the 1970s in his fabled Black Ark studio were so advanced, they continue to influence 21st century electronic music strains and recording techniques” – Billboard Magazine 

“‘Super Ape Returns to Conquer’ perhaps is best described as a brilliant companion piece to an album that still today is considered to be one of the highest achievements in the genre. Neither renders the other any less effective and, if anything, furthers the myths and majesty of Perry” – Reggaeville

“Subatomic pays homage to the dub motherlode, recreating the album from start to finish, but in a thoroughly postmodern rendition that repositions the material for a contemporary audience that may not be familiar with the original… ‘DJ friendly heavyweight version of Scratch material… it sounds like classic Black Ark vibes in the high frequencies but in the low end, it has the weight and punch of electronic music – from dubstep to hip hop – that gets people moving’ [says Emch]” – MOJO magazine Lee Scratch Perry & Subatomic Sound System at KEXP “A fantastic selection of reggae tracks tailor made for a modern audience. Big, noisy and gritty with a seam of solid gold running through it”Roots Reggae Review

“If all the releases since the 90’s of Lee Scratch Perry have not always convinced you, or if you have not yet known this precursor, this genius, this inventor of the dub with his companion King Tubby, then hurry discover “Super Ape Returns to Conquer” on which the Subatomic Sound System is at the service of Upsetter, for an album to savor inna dub style!! … Superb!”  – Culture Dub

Lee Scratch Perry + Subatomic Sound System Super Ape Returns To Conquer USA tour dates 2018
“Made in collaboration with Brooklyn’s Subatomic Sound System, who’ve served as Perry’s live backing band for 10 years now.. all of the tracks from the 1976 album are transformed somehow on Super Ape Returns To Conquer.”Dangerous Minds
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“Made at his famed Black Ark studios, Lee “Scratch” Perry & The Upsetters’ 1976 album Super Ape is a landmark of Jamaican dub. Perry, who is now 81 and going strong, has made a few Super Ape sequels over the years, and is now revisiting the original album with help from his current collaborators, Subatomic Sound System. Together, they have updated and reworked all the tracks from that record into the modern dub landscape of 2017, calling it Super Ape Returns to Conquer”Brooklyn Vegan
“Lee Scratch Perry is the Salvador Dali of music”Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones To find out more about the album, check these stories in Brooklyn Vegan debuting the song “War Ina Babylon” single, Dangerous Minds debuting “Underground Roots” featuring punk pioneer Ari Up of The Slits, or this in depth interview with Emch on Reggae Roots Review.

 

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  1. […] Perry & Subatomic Sound System to play in tributes: 2017’s acclaimed “Super Ape Returns To Conquer” album captures the 40th anniversary of “Super Ape” live tour. The 2016 release […]