Super Ape

Follow the bass, then change your allegiance to a voice. Super Ape rewards that small adjustment: a chorus can become the centre of a passage without dislodging the rhythm beneath it. The fascination lies in negotiating those competing invitations, rather than waiting for a conventional lead singer to return.

Released in 1976 under the Upsetters name, the album belongs to Lee “Scratch” Perry’s work at Black Ark. His production is fundamental, but describing the record as a one-man performance obscures the ensemble behind it. The producer and the musicians offer two connected ways into the music.

A programme with several speakers

The ten-track Island sequence starts with Zion’s Blood and ends with Super Ape. Between them, Croaking Lizard places a markedly different vocal personality near the opening, while Curly Dub offers another route through the relationship between melody and rhythm. These changes matter more than an inventory of studio tricks. Track boundaries provide useful opportunities to reset your attention: listen for who or what seems to lead, and notice when that impression becomes unstable.

A voice need not disappear

Dub reworks recorded material through changes of balance, arrangement and effects. That description is more useful here than calling it a song with the singing removed. Voices can carry a phrase, interrupt the instrumental texture or establish a communal presence. Try treating each arrival as an arrangement decision. What becomes easier to hear when one element withdraws? Which part keeps the music moving while your attention is elsewhere?

Keep the players in view

On a second pass, follow the rhythm section through passages where another sound initially caught your ear. The continuity is part of the achievement. A mix can reshape an ensemble without making its playing irrelevant, and this record invites both perspectives. There is no need to begin with stories about Perry’s eccentricity or mysterious studio rituals. Start with the practical question of where a sound sits in relation to the beat. The answer can change during a phrase, making repetition an activity rather than a fixed backdrop.