Metro Pulse/Music/Mad Professor

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What:
Lee "Scratch" Perry and the Mad Professor

When:
Monday, Nov. 5, 9 PM

Where:
Blue Cats

Two veterans of reggae, dub and techno combine talents

by Joe Tarr

It's not the accent that throws me, but the chewing noises. I'm on the phone with Mad Professor (Neil Fraser), who is talking to me from his recording studio, Ariwa, in the UK.

They're preparing tracks for Mad Professor's upcoming tour with Lee "Scratch" Perry. Both musical iconoclasts are known for their somewhat out-there art and style. I was prepared to hear bizarre responses to my standard, unimaginative questions. The answers aren't so oddball, but the chewing in my ear—dinner, perhaps, I don't ask—keeps the whole affair off kilter. It's not maddening, so much as unsettling—a word that could be used to describe both Perry's and Professor's music.

Of the two, Perry's legend is the larger. Perry got his start in the late '50s, as a singer and engineer for Coxone Dodd's Studio One in Kingston. He was integral to the evolution of reggae, ska and dub genres, seemingly having a hand in every major shift in their development. Perry has worked with three generations of musicians, including Bob Marley and the Wailers, the Skatalites, the Clash, the Beastie Boys.

Although much younger, Mad Professor is a cult legend in his own right. Born in Guyana, Fraser got his nickname from school friends, who teased him over his constant tinkering with electronics. He built his first studio in the front room of his home in 1980—a mere 4 tracks at the time, it's now a 24-track studio. In it, Fraser has produced Sade, the Beastie Boys, Massive Attack, the Orb, and most recently Depeche Mode, Jamiroqui, Rancid and Perry Farrel. His seminal work is perhaps the his remix of Massive Attack's Protection, released as Massive Attack v. Mad Professor No Protection.

Fraser says he likes the challenge of trying to breathe new life into songs. "There is some demand for it, as we all know. Especially if you could bring a new element out of an established song. It's like a refresher course on a track—give it a new lease on life. It's pretty creative, but obviously limited by the original."

There are times when Fraser doesn't know what to do with a work, because it's so uninspiring. It's one reason why he always asks for more than one track, so he has a lot of material to work with.

"Bear in mind, that the original producer probably got tired," he says of the sporadic flat track he's given to work with. "To get to that stage from zero, is hard work, so you have to respect that, the initial hard work that was put into it."

Fraser says it's hard to measure the influence Perry has had on him as a musician and producer. Mainly, it was Perry's use of domestic equipment in making records, and "proving you could make records on anything you want to."

The two first worked together in 1984, when they cut the single "Judgment In A Babylon." The vibes were such that Perry ended up spontaneously singing over a number of Mad Professor pre-recorded rhythms. "At that time, he was mainly singing. He had loads of ideas and things he wanted to say. We just had to try to get it down as quickly as possible because there's always something else coming."

They recorded several albums worth of material—including 1989's Mystic Warrior. Fraser has collaborated with Perry a number of times since then. Fraser produced Perry's Techno Party from last year, and they'll soon release Techno Dub.

On Techno Party, Perry tackles a variety of styles, including Drum and Bass, reggae and techno. Now in his 60s, Perry's singing sounds free-verse, the lyrics almost sermons from the Third World.

Fraser's at a lost to describe how the two work together, or how they differ in approach to making music.

As for what the show will sound like, Fraser says it's anybody's guess. "We can't play out and predict what we'll be doing. I'm not even going to go there. You just do what you got to do and let God do what he's got to do," he says.

"Get drunk, get high, have a good time. Don't have any preconceived notions."