Lee Perry & The Upsetters Cloak And Dagger

Lee Perry first came to prominence working with
Coxsone Dodd’s fabled Studio One. This is where
Scratch earned the nickname with the wildly
popular Jamaican hit record and dance craze
“Chicken Scratch.” After a fall out with Dodd, Perry
moved on to a stint with Joe Gibb’s Amalgamated.
Again in a dispute over compensation Perry moved
on to form his own label, Upsetter and established
his house band, the Upsetters.
By 1973 Perry had also established Black Ark, a
recording studio of his own that functioned as an
effective fertilizer throughout what was Jamaica's
most innovative period for sounds and recording
techniques. In that year, as Perry and Black Ark
entered a period of heavy dub output, Scratch
recorded Cloak And Dagger. This early dub outing
is a testament to Perry’s lo-fi mastery as
he utilized his TEAC four-track, Soundcraft board,
tape delays, phasers, reverb and any other
ambient sounds he could get this hands on as an
instrument rather than just to record instruments.
Get On Down celebrates a piece of reggae history
and one of Lee Perry’s crowning achievements with
this reissue of Cloak And Dagger, presented here
as originally issued in Jamaica in 1973.