The
Orb Featuring Lee ‘Scratch’Perry – Ball Of Fire (Cooking Vinyl)
Vinyl/DL
Out
Now
When
asked, Steve Barker from Radio Lancashire’s legendary alternative music
programme, On The Wire, told me that the sky in the world of Lee ‘Scratch’
Perry was probably “transparent with pink and green lustres”. He might have a point, the man is clearly
bonkers. And so, with a group who
themselves who have also been known to be slightly ‘different’, there would
appear to be a collaboration in the making.
Last years album, The Orbserver In The Starhouse, was proof of the
theory, in fact, so well went the sessions and recording, that a second album
has been borne from the partnership.
Ball Of Fire contains six versions of the song and precedes the release
of the June album More Tales From The Orbservatory.
The
regular mix of Ball Of Fire is a dub house bounce. Changes in key are marvellous and Perrys
voice sounds just like, well, Perry.
Whether he improvised the lyrics on the spot is open to debate, but
anyone that can get away with singing “Shooby dooby doooo, I love you” can’t be
all bad. Yes, he’s as mad as a box of
frogs, but we love him too. It’s a
killer track and there’s no reason at all why it couldn’t cross over into the
mainstream. It’s pack jammed with
musical tricks and effects and is completely spellbinding.
Following
on are two mixes from Deadbeat – a Version and a Dub. Both give the track a whole new feel. The Version is slow and easy with Perry’s
voice easy to distinguish with the music of Alex Paterson and Thomas Fehlmann
given a backseat but with the essence of The Orb still shining through. The Dub mix is an aural delight. A lesson in how to make dub mixes, the lazy
feel of the instrumentation is put through a superb dub treatment and the
result is an absolute joy.
The
Dabrye Remix brings in sounds that either aren’t on the original mix, or, were
less easy to distinguish in the overall scheme of things. Sounding like a traditional reggae track in
parts and also containing dub elements, it sounds like a completely different
track.
There
are then two versions from Mad Professor – the I Need Balls Version and another
Dub Version. Again, continuing the lazy,
summer feel and both with some brilliant dubbing carrying the instrumental hook
throughout. You’ll be humming the melody
for quite some time after the near thirty minute collection has finished.
Genius.
9/10
Links
Published on Louder Than War 28/05/13 - http://louderthanwar.com/the-orb-featuring-lee-scratch-perry-ball-of-fire-single-review/
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