Time Boom X De Devil Dead

Reggae producer and On-U Sound honcho Adrian Sherwood has never made any secret of his debt to the legendary producer Lee “Scratch” Perry, and on Time Boom X de Devil Dead he began paying that debt back, a process that continued with From My Secret Laboratory and, many years later, Rainford. On Time Boom, Sherwood enlists his house band, Dub Syndicate, to provide instrumental tracks over which Perry could declaim his typically unhinged pronouncements. Then Sherwood dubbed everything up in fine style, creating dark and brooding soundscapes from the raw material of Dub Syndicate’s rhythms and Perry’s incantations. Three separate mixes of “Jungle” were maybe a bit much, but honestly, which one would you jettison? And “Allergic to Lies” is undeniable. The whole album is a trip, and an enjoyable if occasionally scary one.