Dash the Henge have announced the vinyl release of Mercy an innovative record featuring the legendary Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry and the work of Peter Harris and Fritz Catlin, out on 28th February 2025. Pre-order here. It is preceded by vibrant visual representations of key tracks ‘Reggae Poison’, ’Row Fisherman/Whale Song’ and ‘This is Hell’ created by Peter Harris and Llyr Williams.
“I always saw Lee as a performance artist rather than a musician in the traditional sense, so this conceptual backing feels like a more accurate setting for his stream of conscious performance art,” Peter Harris explained.
“There is an attention to Lee’s history here too, something that elevates the musical collage with the echoes informed by albums like Super Ape where earlier tracks were recorded over again. In ‘Big Fish,’ the lyrics pay homage to Bob Marley’s ‘Small Axe’ and the tune references Perry’s version of ‘Sugar Sugar,’ which he recorded with the Silvertones. Although the structure might seem chaotic, the songs were crafted over a long period of time and the approach was the same as making a painting, where foundations are worked on then painted over and over until it is fully wrested.”
Nathan Saoudi (founder of Dash The Henge/Fat White Family) boils it down. “It’s kind of quintessential outsider music – I can’t explain what they are doing, but they have a why, and that’s enough. That’s why I needed to get involved.”
In his book, ‘People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee “Scratch” Perry, David Katz said,
“One of the most compelling and complex releases of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s post-Black Ark canon, Mercy is the fruit of a long and complex working process that has yielded exceptional results. Spearheaded by the maverick artist and musical outlier Peter Harris with Fritz Catlin, the drumming co-founder of industrial funk dub act, 23 Skidoo, Mercy’s experimental sonic occupies its own space.”
A unique vinyl edition of Mercy with double-sided colour inserts and distinctive artwork will drop on 28th February 2025, Pre-order here
