There are always reasons to make an album with material by Lee Perry to publish. Often they are flimsy pretexts to commercially exploit old material again. But Pressure Sounds has now had a new, surprising idea: you have old ones Dub-Collected plate specials that Perry had cut for various sound systems in the 1970s, these partly smooth-planed acetate discs were extensively restored and made into the fascinating album "Sound System Scratch" (Pressure Sounds / Groove Attack) compiled. It turns out that Perrys Dub Plates were by no means just a copy of a mere rhythm track, but rather that the creative dervish that he was made an exclusive remix for each assignment. It's easy to imagine that with a product as ephemeral as one Dub Plate, a product for a limited audience and with a short half-life, Perry's thirst for experimentation got hot. The aim here was not to achieve commercial success, i.e. sanding down corners and ironing away edges. On the contrary, anything was possible here; a broad field of experimentation, the limits of which were no obstacle to Lee Perry. And so he used the studio technology not only extremely creatively, but also far beyond its possibilities - which often came at the expense of sound quality. But it was only the endless copying of various audio tracks and samples into one another that produced the typical, multi-layered complex Black Ark sound. The present ones pay homage to this sound Dub Plates. They take us on a fascinating excursion through the multiple dimensions of the sound space of the Black Ark, with their typical bouncing bass, non-stop phasing and of course the clanking cymbal sounds. Before the inner eye emerges an image of the Black Ark Studio, which was an apartment for Perry, crammed with instruments, studio equipment, voodoo utensils and all kinds of things. The walls are paved with pictures and prints. Heat, ganja smoke and the aroma of Jamaican rum that permeated Perry's bloodstream. The music that was created in that atmosphere was out of this world. Maybe it was a direct outflow of Perry's genius at the time, without the controlling influence of consciousness: a direct materialization of Perry's unfathomably confused mind. Mystical, obscure and mysterious, and that is exactly why it is so extremely fascinating. Music that has retained its value to this day and which I fall for every time I listen to it. After some seemingly academic releases, Pressure Sounds has once again succeeded in a really fundamental compilation with “Sound System Scratch”. An album that wonderfully brings to mind the beauty and unbelievable innovative strength of reggae of the 1970s and that doesn't belong in the collection, but in your ears!