He would do some strange flange technique that would approximate that groaning bovine. Mixed by Lee “Scratch” PerryĪnother of his hallmarks was the “moaning cow”. Engineering credit was Lee’s Recorded at the Black Ark. There was often times when I ‘n’ I would purchase a new disk or LP and hear that trademark cavernous sound and think, “That’s a Black Ark recording.” And sure enough, even if the LP was produced by another label. How he captured that sound on primitive Jamaican recording equipment speaks to his prowess as a producer/engineer. It had a sort of “stone skipping on water” buoyancy. Then he would cut that murky sound with a slicing high hat and cymbal crash. It overloaded everything to the point that your monitors were over-bassed. It had everything that originally attracted I ‘n’ I to Reggae music: great lyrics about Rastafari love, the story of downtrodden Jamaicans living in the Diaspora (Babylon) and this throbbing bass.Īt the Black Ark, Perry was notorious for dumping all of his instruments onto one track. When I ‘n’ I started building my collection in the late 80’s, it became very easy to just automatically add Perry’s productions/performances as the epitome of quality.Įspecially through the Mango label, the penultimate releases from the likes of Junior Murvin (Police & Thieves), Max Romeo (War in a Babylon) and The Congos (Heart of the Congos). In Reggae, we collector obsessives are often more interested in labels and producers than performers. From the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant buried in a church in Ethiopia. In fact, when I ‘n’ I upload these Reggae Radio showcases I can them the Smile Jamaica Ark-Ives in a backwards tribute to him. In the Secret History of Reggae music, that label took on mythic undertones without sacrificing the impeccable quality of 70’s Roots Reggae. Brought the Wailers their riddim section and he was a giant in the Reggae mythos via his Black Ark studio.Ī mad genius who marched to his own drummer. For me, Lee “Scratch” Perry epitomized what I loved about Reggae music.
Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Reggae Giant and Dub Pioneer, Dead at 85ĭamn. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and I caught an alert on my phone from Rolling Stone Magazine: I ‘n’ I was putting together an entirely different Smile Jamaica.
KRCL is building a new studio and so all Summer we have been building shows from home.
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