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From the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Super Ape

The Upsetters

1976

Super Ape
Album Summary

This album has been submitted by a user and is not included in any edition of the book.

Super Ape is a dub studio album produced and engineered by Lee "Scratch" Perry, credited to his studio band The Upsetters. In Jamaica, the album was released under the name Scratch the Super Ape in July 1976 on Perry's own Upsetter label. The Jamaican version had a different track order than the international version that was released in August the same year on Island Records. The album was listed in the 1999 book The Rough Guide: Reggae: 100 Essential CDs. Super Ape was reissued on November 29, 2013 as Record Store Day Black Friday double vinyl release with three extra tracks: "Rastaman Shuffle", "Magic Touch" and "Corn Fish Dub". Side 4 featured an etching of the Super Ape album cover art.

Wikipedia

Rating

3.04

Votes

70

Genres

  • Reggae

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Reviews

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Aug 22 2024
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5

Inject this shit directly into my veins. I was about 11 years old when my cool music uncle introduced me to dub and I have never been the same since.

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Aug 21 2024
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5

Yes! More dub! Finally Lee Perry getting some love!

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Aug 21 2024
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4

Super chill; great working music.

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Aug 22 2024
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4

I am just a fan of adding dub/Reggae diversity to the list, even if I do think the selections originally made are not altogether awful. So good on ya.

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Sep 13 2024
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4

This was a great dub album. For the breadth of its influence on popular music, it’s surprising that the Jamaican subgenres were not well represented on the original list. I’m not as familiar with them as I should be either so I don’t feel qualified to evaluate this album, but it enjoyed it quite a bit. Dub in general is very rhythm focused so the music has a stripped down driving quality that became very influential.

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Aug 22 2024
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3

I don’t know what it is, but if you add some funky guitars and a healthy dollop of psyched-out reverb to one of my least favorite genres (Reggae) it becomes one of my absolute faves. This was a great, slow-burn Dub LP that chilled me out on a particularly stressful day. A tad less vibrant and varied than the previous user-submitted Dub album (light spoilers, sorry), but a great addition nonetheless.

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Aug 24 2024
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2

Reggae isn't my thing. I'm sure this is a shining example of it, but eh. Why does every song sound soooo identical? No other style can get away with it, yet reggae does, album after album. 2/5.

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Oct 20 2024
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5

How was this not on the actual 1001? I mean, that's about all I have to say on this. You could bin Kid Rock, The Waterboys or one of the ever present Elvis Costello albums and have some dubby perfection instead!

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Oct 25 2024
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4

This is a 3.5 but I'm going to round up because I learned the difference between Dub and Reggae, and I liked it.

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Aug 22 2024
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3

I don't know very much about dub. But this album was all right for me

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Aug 30 2024
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3

This was fantastic, thanks for sharing it. Deep, sonorous, chill to the point of being almost trancelike. Fave Songs: Dread Lion, Zion's Blood, Three in One, Patience, Black Vest

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Sep 05 2024
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3

This is the type of music I wish I was able to find more often. Just some funky fun reggae music that is so smooth and fun to listen to. Aside from Bob Marley I’ve found that reggae is either hit or miss but when it hits it’s oh so good. This album was a pleasant experience and I enjoyed it and listened to some more of the upsetters after. 7.2/10

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Oct 25 2024
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3

Not really my jam, although I liked the instrumentation on a lot of these and the cover is certainly interesting. It kept me more interested than reggae usually does when played for an hour, so rounding the score up.

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Oct 29 2024
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3

Sigh. I really want to enjoy dub music, and I do for a time, but a full album of it always causes me to stare off into the middle distance by the end. This is clearly a solid album, because I did enjoy listening to it, just not entirely my schtick. Favorite track: "Underground"

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Aug 21 2024
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2

I understand better now why preferably enormous amounts of weed are required to sit through albums like this in their entirety. My God, this just goes on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on-and-on.

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Aug 22 2024
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2

It's alright, not really my thing though. 2 stars.

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Aug 26 2024
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2

For the reggae fans and dub purists. A variety of singers on some 70s Lee Scratch Perry dub and reggae. This is ok, but not really essential.

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Sep 01 2024
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2

Dub reggae. The first half much stronger than the second. Rating: 2.5 Playlist track: Zion's Blood Date listened: 04/09/24

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Aug 21 2024
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1

A kind of hypnotic and repetitive reggae... the truth is that I've had enough of this type on the main list, it's music to get high on. The best thing is the pulp cover of the gorilla.

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