The Fourth Phase

Catch-Wave is both a transition into the fourth phase of legendary Japanese experimenter Takehisa Kosugi's career and an all-time classic Japanese side-long psychedelic freakout. Two extended tracks find Kosugi constructing long drones using his violin, tapes, electronics, and droning voices. On the utterly brilliant "Mano Dharma '74," Kosugi layers violins over earlier tape experiments he'd created in New York in 1967, the textures of his sources bending in and out of each other as the music moves out of phase and new textures are introduced. With "Wave Code #E-1," described as "triple performance by a solo vocalist," Kosugi sends the vocals rushing through echo and bending toward deeper and deeper abstraction over 22 and a half droning minutes…

A quick internet search brings up some extraordinary footage of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry producing a session at the Black Ark. Taken from the film ‘Roots, Rock, Reggae’, directed by Jeremy Marre, the sequence shows Junior Murvin collaborating with members of the Congos and the Heptones on a song improvised on the spot for the film crew. Before the vocals are recorded, the Upsetters lay down the backing track. The musical director of the session is the afro-haired bass player, Boris Gardiner; unusually, it is he who counts in the band to start each take. After a long conversation with Boris a few years back, I asked Lee about his contribution to the Black Ark sound.