Ecstasy of Mankind (Makasound, 2005)

The Jamaican recording industry has never been known as artist-friendly, but the case of Carl Harvey's Ecstasy of Mankind  is particularly eye-opening.  Harvey, an accomplished guitarist, was recruited to record the album in 1977 by renowned producer Bunny Lee.  For whatever reason, Lee never released the album himself.  Without his or Harvey's knowledge (and thus without compensation), it came out in England in 1979 on the Cancer label and then was amazingly misrepresented as a Lee "Scratch" Perry album called Guitar Boogie Dub (There's a long history of albums attempting to capitalize on Perry's name.  See the book Super Scratch.)  Finally, almost 30 years after its creation, Harvey's work is finally receiving an official release (thanks to French label Makasound), and he will finally reap the fruit of his labor.  (He hasn't been in the poorhouse, though; during most of the near-30 years, he's been playing with Toots & the Maytals.)  For Ecstasy of the Mankind, Lee essentially gathered 10 previously recorded rhythms and had Harvey work his guitar magic over each.  The ones most familiar to listeners will likely be "Break Outs" (Ken Boothe's "Moving Away"), "Late Night Raver" (the Techniques' rendition of Curtis Mayfield's "Queen Majesty"), "Misty Night" (John Holt's cover of Brook Benton's "Rainy Night in Georgia"), and "Breezing" (Mikie Chung's cover of the George Benson tune).  Even if the rhythms are familiar, though, Harvey's electric guitar spices up the music with a bluesy rock 'n roll passion (all save for the jazzy, cool "Breezing").  Certainly, the rock guitar sound isn't for everyone, and there are instances here where it doesn't blend with the music as well as other times, but overall Ecstasy of Mankind presents a unique '70s dub sound, with a grittiness that is only enhanced by Lee's typically edgy production.