And at number seven…

Artists: Lee “Scratch” Perry & Adrian Sherwood
Title: Dubsetter
Label: On U Sound 126
Released: July 13, 2010

This is truly a sonic experience. Just when you think you know your dub, Adrian Sherwood and Lee Perry do it again. With the roots of this material lying in the 1990 Mighty Upsetter, the duo rework number from that LP to where the compositions take on new personalities.

1990’s “Yellow Tongue” becomes “Yellow Fever,” stripping away Samia Farah’s voice and replacing it with wandering violins. “Lee’s Garden” is morphed into “All Will Be Well In The Garden,” with a harmonica and a bowed cello in a dub surrounding. “Lucky Charm” becomes “Lucky Tarzan,” and so on, but these versions change dramatically with the presence of strings. You can also hear Sherwood’s influence with his dabbling into Asian dub.

A composition not included on Mighty Upsetter but still drawing some source material to compliment it is Ernesto and Margarita Lecuona’s “Taboo.” The song since its 1941 inception, has been recorded by lounge icons, Ferrante & Teicher, Les Baxter, Henry Jerome and Xavier Cugat among others. The Sherwood/Perry treatment sends the song to another genre, transcending all previous attempts.

The musicianship and production values surpass anything else I heard in 2010. It is rich and textured. It demands your attention while at the same time, sweeping you away into a trance.