Domino Records announce details of, Spatial, No Problem, the posthumous last official album project from Lee “Scratch” Perry, with Mouse On Mars.
After the passing of Lee “Scratch” Perry in 2021, a deluge of recordings appeared claiming to be the “last” or “final” project of the Jamaican icon. However, his last official album project took him to Berlin, Germany where he landed on the doorstop of electronic pioneers Mouse on Mars (aka Jan St. Werner and Andi Toma). The resulting album, Spatial, No Problem, will be released on June 5.
Alongside the album announcement, the first single from the record has been shared. ‘Rockcurry’, the opening song from Spatial, No Problem, is indicative of Perry’s time in Berlin, where he was drawn into the soundworld of his “German Professors” in their “German laboratory,” taking to the group’s blend of motorik rhythmic elements with free improvisation, digital glitches, dada poetry and the dubby “voodoo” he always insisted haunted our machines. Whilst Perry was keen to not do a reggae album with Mouse on Mars, he was too much a part of reggae to disavow it, and the weight of that legacy is present in every track they recorded.
Listen to ‘Rockcurry’ on Sport Playlists New Releases.
The video for, ‘Rockcurry’, directed by Studio Sparks, uses photos from the recording sessions, drawings and found objects collaged together to create a vibrant and energetic ode to Lee “Scratch” Perry and Mouse on Mars’ time in the studio.
Rainford Hugh Perry is often described as one of the single most important figures in the history of Jamaican music. Producer, engineer, label owner, performer, his impact traced ska to rocksteady to roots reggae, to sound systems, to dub, to Bob Marley and Junior Murvin and Max Romeo and The Congos and so many other legends. Generations passed through him and his ears. And beyond them his influence included punk, funk, electronic music, hip and trip hop as well as his own uncategorisable career as explorer of words, sounds and esoteric concepts. Such a man could only be imagined through science fiction, surrealism, bush magic and what some still call Afrofuturism.
Mouse on Mars are recognised as one of Germany’s most defining and versatile electronic music projects. Across more than 3 decades, they’ve released over 10 albums including Niun Niggung (1999) and Idiology (2001) – the former was declared the Album of the Year by The Wire – several EPs, an imagined film score for Werner Herzog’s Fata Morgana and many more idiosyncratic projects.
Spatial, No Problem. is the story of what Lee “Scratch” Perry left behind in Berlin in his encounter with Mouse on Mars. It’s a story of spaces mixing, and cultures morphing towards a different kind of future.
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