[The 'Masterpiece' series is a 200 words-or-so look at some of the albums that have changed the way I listen to music. Today: the warped reggae flava of Lee 'Scratch' Perry]
From a purely musical perspective, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry is the most important figure in the history of Jamaican music. Bob Marley was a global icon and a great ambassador for the genre, but Scratch was the most innovative producer of his day, and worked with most of the leading reggae artists of the time (including helping a young Marley find his sound). Additionally, Perry (and/or King Tubby) invented Dub music. Before Dub the concept of a remix simply didn’t exist, and Perry is largely responsible for this development in modern music.
This 3-disc, 52-song box set was a gift from the heavens when it was released in 1997. At that time, the number of Lee Perry albums in print was insignificant, and it would have taken several thousand dollars and a whole lot of time to track down all of the songs included here. Perry produced hundreds of different artists at his now legendary (and defunct) Black Ark studio, including Junior Murvin, Max Romeo, The Congos, and more. His unique production techniques included banging on garbage cans, recording a running faucet, and using found sounds well before it was fashionable. This approach to production yielded a trove of work that still sounds as inventive today as it did upon release.
Tags: Arkology, Bob Marley, Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Masterpiece, reggae
21 December 2007 at 12:34 am |
I couldn have said it better. Maria
12 September 2008 at 12:26 am |
[...] himself to a new generation of fans. Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry produced some of the finest reggae music of the 70’s in his Black Ark Studio, but when that studio burned to the ground in 1979, Perry [...]