It’s a Congo Party

Lee Perry’s production work has come to me mainly in compilations, single sides, hodgepodges, bits. But The Heart of the Congos, by the Congos – recorded at Perry’s Black Ark studio and released in 1977 – is I think the only Perry-linked proper album that I disappear into on a regular basis. The way the dub rhythms of “Fisherman” roll like a boat-bearing tide; the ghostly incantations of “Congoman”; the gentle percussion clanks of “Open Up the Gate”....

I could go on track by track, but for brevity’s sake I’ll stop at #4, “Children Crying,” which always knocks me out. With the piano flutters (or pianolike? I guess you never know) and the cresting backing vocals, it seems like a bloom of colour and warmth bursting out of a dark landscape. The moo sounds really help sell it, too.

You can buy the two-disc CD reissue of The Heart of the Congos here. I remember buying it just before moving to Toronto, so it always has fond summer associations for me – though it works pretty fine as an autumn record too.

• The Congos, “Children Crying”