/
DE

Lee Perry & Friends Vinyl, CD & Tape 3 Items

Vinyl, CD & Tape 3 Organic Grooves 1 Reggae & Dancehall 2
Hide Filter & Categories Show Filter & Categories
Filter Results
Format
Format
Vinyl
LP
10"
Close
Artist
Artist
2Pac
A Certain Ratio
A Tribe Called Quest
ABBA
AC/DC
Adamo
Adrian Younge & Ali Shaheed Muhammad
Aerosmith
Aesop Rock
Al Di Meola
Al Green
Al Jarreau
Alex Puddu
Alice Cooper
America
Amon Amarth
Amorphis
Anathema
Andy Williams
Ane Brun
Angel Olsen
Animal Collective
Anthony B
Aphex Twin
Arch Enemy
Arctic Monkeys
Aretha Franklin
Ariana Grande
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers
Arthur Russell
ASC
Ashford & Simpson
Atmosphere
B.B. King
Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band
Bad Brains
BAP
Barrington Levy
Barry Manilow
Barry White
Bay City Rollers
Beastie Boys
Beck
Bee Gees
Beenie Man
Behemoth
Belle & Sebastian
Benny The Butcher
Berurier Noir
Biffy Clyro
Bill Evans
Bill Withers
Billie Holiday
Billy Joel
Billy Preston
Björk
Black Sabbath
Blu
Blur
Bob Dylan
Bob James
Bob Marley
Bob Marley & The Wailers
Bobby Womack
Bonobo
Boo Williams
Boris Brejcha
Bounty Killer
Boz Scaggs
Brian Eno
Bright Eyes
Broadcast
Brothers Johnson
Bruce Springsteen
Buddy Guy
Buju Banton
Calibre
Can
Capcom Sound Team
Capleton
Carole King
Carpenters
Cat Stevens
Charles Mingus
Charlie Parker
Chemical Brothers
Chet Baker
Chic
Chicago
Chick Corea
Chris Farlowe
Chuck Berry
Chuck Mangione
Coil
Colosseum
Commodores
Conway The Machine
Count Basie Orchestra
Cream
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Crimeapple
Cypress Hill
Daft Punk
Danko Jones
Danzig
Darkthrone
Daryl Hall & John Oates
David Bowie
De La Soul
Dead Kennedys
Deep Purple
Deerhoof
Def Leppard
Degiheugi
Deichkind
Dennis Brown
Depeche Mode
Destruction
Dexter Gordon
Diana Krall
Diana Ross
Die Drei ???
Die Fantastischen Vier
Dinah Washington
Dinosaur Jr
Dio
Dionne Warwick
Dire Straits
Dismember
Dizzy Gillespie
DJ Koze
DMX
Donald Byrd
Donna Summer
Dream Theater
Drive-By Truckers
Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington And His Orchestra
Duran Duran
Durand Jones & The Indications
Duster
Eagles
Earl Klugh
Earth, Wind & Fire
Eels
El Michels Affair
Elbow
Elephant Man
Ella Fitzgerald
Elton John
Elvis Costello
Elvis Presley
Eminem
Ennio Morricone
Epica
Erasure
Eric Clapton
Erroll Garner
Etta James
Eumir Deodato
Eva Cassidy
Fairport Convention
Father John Misty
Fela Kuti
Fela Kuti & The Africa 70
Fleetwood Mac
Flying Lotus
Foo Fighters
Foreigner
Four Tops
Francis Lai
Frank Sinatra
Frank Zappa
Freddie Hubbard
Fucked Up
Funkadelic
General Degree
Genesis
George Benson
George Duke
George Harrison
Ghost
Gil Scott-Heron
Gladys Knight And The Pips
Gorillaz
Graham Parker
Grant Green
Grateful Dead
Green Day
Gregory Isaacs
Grover Washington, Jr.
Guided By Voices
Half Pint
Hank Mobley
Harry Belafonte
Helloween
Herb Alpert
Herbie Hancock
Herbie Mann
Howlin' Wolf
Iain Matthews
IDLES
Iggy Pop
Ike & Tina Turner
INXS
Iron Maiden
J Dilla
Ja, Panik
Jack White
James Brown
Jane Weaver
Janis Joplin
Jay-Z
Jean-Louis Murat
Jean-Luc Ponty
Jean-Michel Jarre
Jeff Beck
Jethro Tull
Jimi Hendrix
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Smith
Joao Gilberto
Joe Hisaishi
Joe Sample
John Coltrane
John Denver
John Holt
John Lee Hooker
John Lennon
John Mayall
John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers
John Prine
John Williams
Johnny Cash
Johnny Hallyday
Johnny Osbourne
Jon Hopkins
Joni Mitchell
Josephine Foster
Joy Division
Judas Priest
Julie London
Junior Kelly
Kanye West
Karma To Burn
Katatonia
Kate Bush
Keith Jarrett
Kendrick Lamar
King Crimson
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard
Kiss
Kool & The Gang
Kraftwerk
Kreator
Kylie Minogue
Lambchop
Laurent Garnier
Led Zeppelin
Lee Morgan
Lee Perry & Friends
Lee Ritenour
Leo Kottke
Leonard Cohen
Lester Young
Levon Vincent
Lightnin' Hopkins
Linda Ronstadt
Linkin Park
Long Distance Calling
Lou Rawls
Lou Reed
Louis Armstrong
Luciano
Ludovico Einaudi
Luther Vandross
M. Ward
Mac Miller
Mad Cobra
Madlib
Madonna
Main Source
Makaya McCraven
Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Manhattans
Manic Street Preachers
Manilla Road
Mariah Carey
Marillion
Markus Suckut
Marvin Gaye
Mastodon
Max Richter
Mayhem
Maynard Ferguson
Melba Moore
Melvins
Metallica
Michael Jackson
Mike Oldfield
Miles Davis
Millie Jackson
Mina
Moby
Mogwai
Mono
Mötley Crüe
Motörhead
Mr. G
Mr. Vegas
Muddy Waters
Muff Potter
Muslimgauze
Nada Surf
Nancy Wilson
Nas
Nat King Cole
Natalie Cole
Nazareth
Nebula
Neil Young
Neil Young & Crazy Horse
New Order
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Nils Frahm
Nina Simone
Nirvana
Norah Jones
Oasis
Oddisee
Olivia Newton-John
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Opeth
Orlando Voorn
Ornette Coleman
Oscar Peterson
Otis Redding
Ozric Tentacles
Ozzy Osbourne
Paradise Lost
Patti LaBelle
Paul McCartney
Paul Simon
Paul Weller
Pearl Jam
Pere Ubu
Peter Gabriel
Pharoah Sanders
Piero Umiliani
Pink Floyd
Pixies
PJ Harvey
Placebo
Pointer Sisters
Porcupine Tree
Post Malone
Primal Fear
Primal Scream
Prince
Public Enemy
Queen
Queens Of The Stone Age
Quincy Jones
R.E.M.
Radiohead
Ramsey Lewis
Ray Charles
Ray Parker Jr.
Ray, Goodman & Brown
Recognize Ali
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Rick James
Rico Friebe
Rico Puestel
Ringo Starr
Roberta Flack
Rockabye Baby!
Rockets
Rod Stewart
Roxy Music
Sade
Saga
Sam Cooke
Santana
Sarah Vaughan
Sault
Savatage
Saxon
Scorpions
Sepultura
Shakatak
Sharon Van Etten
Sheena Easton
Sido
Simon & Garfunkel
Sizzla
Skid Row
Skinshape
Slayer
Sleater-Kinney
Smokey Robinson
Sonic Youth
Sonny Rollins
Sons Of Apollo
Soul Jazz Records presents
Sparks
Spinners
Spiritualized
Spragga Benz
Spyro Gyra
Stanley Clarke
Stanley Turrentine
Stereolab
Steve Hackett
Steve Miller Band
Steven Wilson
Stevie Wonder
Suede
Sufjan Stevens
Sun Ra
Talking Heads
Tangerine Dream
Tank
Tarja
Taylor Swift
Teddy Pendergrass
The Band
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
The Bill Evans Trio
The Black Keys
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Clash
The Crusaders
The Cult
The Cure
The Damned
The Dave Brubeck Quartet
The Divine Comedy
The Doobie Brothers
The Doors
The Fall
The Future Sound Of London
The Grateful Dead
The Isley Brothers
The Jacksons
The Kinks
The Manhattan Transfer
The Meteors
The Miracles
The Modern Jazz Quartet
The Monkees
The Moody Blues
The National
The Nolans
The Notorious B.I.G.
The O'Jays
The Oscar Peterson Trio
The Rolling Stones
The Roots
The Smashing Pumpkins
The Stylistics
The Supremes
The Temptations
The Three Degrees
The Unknown Artist
The Ventures
The Weeknd
The Who
Thelonious Monk
Theo Parrish
Thin Lizzy
Third World
Thunder
Tina Turner
Tom Waits
Toto
Travis
Tyler The Creator
U2
Udo Lindenberg
Ufo
Unknown Artist
Uriah Heep
V.A.
V.A.
Van Morrison
War
Warlord
Wayne Shorter
Weather Report
Wendell Harrison
Wes Montgomery
Whitesnake
Whitney Houston
Willie Nelson
Wings
Wu-Tang Clan
Yes
Your Old Droog
Yungblud
Close
Label
Label
Music On Vinyl
Pressure Sounds
Close
Country
Country
EU
UK
Close
Price
Price
15 – 30 €
30 – 50 €
Close
Back In Stock
Back In Stock
60 Days
90 Days
180 Days
365 Days
Close
Lee Perry & Friends
Lee Perry & Friends - Disco Jam
Lee Perry & Friends
Disco Jam
10" | UK (Pressure Sounds)
17,99 €*
Release: UK
Genre: Reggae & Dancehall
Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins
6 tracks including two new wigged out re-dubs from Paolo Baldini 'Dubfiles', demonstrating the effect of dropping an echo chamber down a sink-hole. Upsetter magic at its finest. Comes in a grey house bag.
Lee Perry & Friends - Black Art From The Black Ark
Lee Perry & Friends
Black Art From The Black Ark
2LP | UK (Pressure Sounds)
27,99 €*
Release: UK
Genre: Reggae & Dancehall
Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins
A tumultuous selection of recordings from Black Ark, Perry's legendary studio and hotbed of creation. Rare 12" versions, unreleased mixes and featuring a stellar line-up, including:

Drums: Mikey ‘Boo’ Richards, Lowell ‘Sly’ Dunbar
Bass: Boris Gardiner, Radcliffe ‘Dougie’ Bryan
Guitar: Earl ‘Chinna’ Smith, Ernest Ranglin, Robert ‘Billy’ Johnson, Lynford ‘Hux’ Brown
Keyboards: Winston Wright, Robbie Lynn, Keith Sterling
Percussion: Noel ‘Scully’ Simms, Lee Perry

A quick internet search brings up some extraordinary footage of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry producing a session at the Black Ark. Taken from the film ‘Roots, Rock, Reggae’, directed by Jeremy Marre, the sequence shows Junior Murvin collaborating with members of the Congos and the Heptones on a song improvised on the spot for the film crew. Before the vocals are recorded, the Upsetters lay down the backing track. The musical director of the session is the afro-haired bass player, Boris Gardiner; unusually, it is he who counts in the band to start each take. After a long conversation with Boris a few years back, I asked Lee about his contribution to the Black Ark sound.

Lee Perry: ‘Boris Gardiner was a good person, just a humble person, and he’s the best person I ever met in the music business so far. Boris is a very top musician, and with him you could put anything together, him do “Police And Thieves” and all that. You just tell him what you want and him can do it. A very great person.’

Boris is probably best remembered today for his huge international hit from 1986, the schmaltzy ‘I Want To Wake Up With You’. Yet in the 60s and 70s he was one of Jamaica’s top bass players and arrangers, having an international hit with ‘Elizabethan Reggae’, and creating a run of classic tunes at Studio One.

Boris Gardiner: ‘I did at least seventy or eighty songs at Studio One, all in this one short period between January and April 1968. And we used to work four days per week, and we did four rhythms per day for 30 pounds a week – it was good money. I played on songs like “Feel Like Jumping”, “Nanny Goat”, “Baby Why” by the Cables, the whole “Heptones On Top” album, and “Party Time”. Lee Perry used to be at Studio One same time as me, kind of working around, so he know me from there. So he came and roped me into the group when the Black Ark studio was in progress. He built it right there at the back of his home. So Scratch called me and asked me to come and do some sessions around his studio. I was always ahead of my time as I can see it, in the music in Jamaica. So the songs that I made you always hear chord progressions and changes. Sometimes I think it’s as if I was born in the wrong country, because I just couldn’t do a two chord tune – heheh! To me it need more than two chords to give it some excitement, like it need some changes or something.’

After years of moving between Jamaica’s competing facilities, Perry had decided to build his own studio at the back of his house in Washington Gardens.

Lee Perry: ‘The Black Ark make over a pile of shit – my pile and me put it under the Black Ark. I make the Black Ark over my shit piss, so the bass always go “Poo Poo Poo Poo”! Errol Thompson put the machines in there, and make the patch panel. So the studio was all waiting, but only me could operate it. I didn’t have the Soundcraft mixer then, I did buy a lickle thing you call a Alice mixer. We didn’t have anything professional, but the sound was in my head and I was going to get down what I hear in my head. And it’s like a toy, a toy affair, that’s the way music is. You see like when you buy a kid’s toy, well you bring a joy to them, so is that way I see music. I don’t see music like how other people see it, I see it just like a toy.’

Unusually, Lee decided to do everything himself, both producing and engineering. The film clip shows Lee fully relaxed as he simultaneously directs the musicians and adjusts his recording machines.

Boris Gardiner: ‘To me Scratch always knew what he wanted. Out of all of them Scratch was a true producer, because he would be in the studio and he would listen and say change this or I don’t like that, and he was his own engineer also, so he was always around there listening. So he knew what he wanted and how to try and get it from the start, unlike Coxsone Dodd or Duke Reid, who knew what they liked or didn’t like only after they heard it. Scratch was in there with everybody, so he is really doing a full production as a true producer.’

Lee Perry: ‘I used to do them all by myself. Anybody in my studio could sit down in the visitor’s chair and look, but me do everything – me have a chair that can move from here to there, a chair that have wheels. So I could be turning in any area or any direction, so I could have my hand over here and my hand over there. Heh heh.’

And at a time when 8 and 16 track recording had become the norm in most high end studios, Lee recorded everything to a semi-professional TEAC 4 track recorder, which he can be seen casually adjusting with a screwdriver in the film clip. He explained that since he would end up mixing down to a stereo (or two track) master, more tracks would just be a distraction.

Lee Perry: ‘It was not a professional tape recorder, I was using those TEAC 4 track set that they was trying like experiment to see what would happen. Well, I have it all set up. The first thing I’d think about, all right, is you have to mix everything back down to the 2 track stereo or 1 track mono. Then you can press it and release it. So I knew what I wanted at the end, and I balance it just like that in the studio with the instruments. Sometime when you put only four or five instrument in the studio, you have a better, cleaner record, you can hear what everybody play. And if you have maybe eight musician in the studio, it’s more like a confusion, because everybody wants to play a different thing, yunno. If you is the producer and you can tell them what you want to hear it will be better. So I can put the bass and drum together on one track because me know exactly what me need. If you don’t know, then you need more tracks so you can balance it later. So for the backing, I would just do the two tracks: the bass and drum and percussion track, that is one; and the guitar, organ and piano on another track, that is two. So you still have two more tracks if you want to do vocal, that would be three. And if you want to do horns or a harmony vocal, you can do that on the fourth track. To me it’s a waste of time, a waste of energy with a 24 track machine, waste of current and waste of money. Because it all have to come down to one or two tracks in the end.’

The early Black Ark sound was stripped down and minimal, often with only one or two musicians playing keyboard or guitar. Lee would also use extreme EQ to emphasize the bass and tops, and his hi-hat sound is instantly recognisable from the earliest days of the Ark.

Lee Perry: ‘Well, I used to have an equaliser for the bass drum, and it’s like for heaviness on the beat, and then I had another equaliser for the cymbal, to give it that “Ssshhh ssshhh”. So we have different machine to send different instrument through that they can sound different. I managed to change the vibration of the music, because the music was just local music produced by rum drinkers and cannibals. So me turn on the music to a higher range.’

Boris Gardiner: ‘I think I always use a DI box to record bass at the Black Ark. Because bass want to fade into the other instruments’ microphone, so we often plug it straight into the board and then Perry sets the EQ on the board and take it straight. Then we built a drum booth so the drums really sound separate too – it give him more control.’

As the Black Ark evolved, Lee developed a richer collage of sound, built around three primary effects: the Mu-tron Bi-Phase phaser, a spring reverb and a Roland Space Echo.

Boris Gardiner: ‘One thing about Scratch was that he always used his effects – that was his sound. He always phase the ska guitar, but you don’t always know he’s recording it like that until he play it back. So until he play it back you have no idea what it will sound like.’

Lee Perry: ‘I did have a phaser that I buy, and then when I’m in the studio, in the machine room, and phasing them, the musicians don’t hear it, what I am doing, until them come in the studio, and them hear the phasing. So we did it all live. And the musicians they won’t even know what goes on! While the musicians are playing, I am doing the phasing. I take the musician from the earth into space, and bring them back before they could realize, and put them back on the planet earth. The phaser was making things different, like giving you a vision of space and creating a different brain, a phasing brain. So that’s where I take the music out of the local system and take it into space. The Space Echo also have something to do with the brain. You send out telepathic message and it return to you, so that’s how the Roland Space Echo chamber come in – what you send comes back to you. And while you know you send the telegrams out, you are waiting for what is the reply of the telegrams coming back. So that’s why the Space Echo go and come, rewinding the brain and forward winding the brain. I was also using a spring echo chamber, but just for drum, for the clash of the drum. And everything just fit in, like the thing I want to do it just come to me and come from nowhere, and then it appear and it happen.’

Boris Gardiner: ‘He loved to do things that nobody had done before, him always try a new thing. And he was a good writer too you know. Perry bring in a drum machine sometimes and we use that on some songs for the Congos and everyone. Well I actually like playing with a drum machine cos a drum machine is always steady. Most drummers they either push forward or pull back – they call it the human touch, but I call it out of time! Hahaha. “Row Fisherman Row” was really the great hit with the Congos, but that is all real drums and percussion, it’s just that Perry makes it sound almost like a machine with his echoes on the percussion. I played on “Police and Thieves” and that was a big hit too, maybe it was Sly Dunbar on that. One day Bob Marley came to him with a song on a tape and said “boy Perry, I don’t really like the bass and drum on this song here, if you can do anything to it then just change it and see if we can get something better”. Well Perry had only 4 track tape at his studio, but this was a 24 track tape that Bob bring. So Perry called me and Mikey Boo and took us down to Joe Gibbs studio and started playing the rhythm and all that on the 24 track. So I was on bass and Mikey Boo was on drums and we listen and we listen, and then we dub it back over to make new drum and bass. Well that song became “Punky Reggae Party”, so that shows you how Bob trusted Perry.’

Lee’s other great innovation was adding layers of sound effects, sometimes live through an open mic, but often pre-recorded onto a cassette tape which he would add to the collage on mixdown. Because these effects – bells, cymbals, animal noises, dialogue from the TV – were not synched to the music, they would add a layer of randomness to the sound.

Lee Perry: ‘You know cassette? I make cassette with sound track, and all those things with cymbal licking, flashing. In my Black Ark studio if you listen the cymbal was high, like “Ssshhh ssshhh”. But I did have them all recording on cassette, and while I was running the track and it was taking the musician from the studio, I was playing the cassette to balance with the drum cymbals and things like that, so them didn’t have to play that because it was already on cassette playing. You could call that sampling. And I have this “Mooooow”, like the cow, running on the cassette, and it go onto the track that I wanted to sound like that. Somebody discover it in a toilet. You know when the toilet paper is finished, and you have the roll, and the hole that come in the middle. Well you put it to your mouth and say “Hoooooo”, and it sound like a cow. You put it to your mouth and you imitating a cow and say “Moooooo”. Heh heh heh. Yeah, sound sampling. Well somebody had to start it, and we was loving to do those things.’

Boris Gardiner: ‘Well the Black Ark did have a strong vibe, but, once everybody all there, most of those guys who smoke really like it, but those who didn’t smoke didn’t really like it, like myself. Scratch is a man who never joke fi draw him herbs, you know? Heheh. But I am not a smoker cos it’s not good for my heart. I have a heart problem called tachycardia, an irregular beat of the heart. So it could be upsetting at times when there’s so much smoking going on.’

By the late 70s the relaxed atmosphere at the Black Ark had soured, as Lee attempted to extricate himself from various outside pressures, and his behaviour became more erratic.

Lee Perry: ‘What happened I did for myself not to be working with jinx and duppy called dread. And those duppies they think that me owe them favour. I open the door, and the duppies them find that me is the door opener, and then the duppies them take shape inna me yard and inna me house, and they were a jinx. Jinx mean bad luck. So to get rid of them, me had to burn down the Black Ark studio fi get rid of jinx.’

Boris Gardiner: ‘Was Scratch crazy? Well some say now that he was just putting on an act. But I think, why did he put it on? After all the problems he was having and that sort of thing, and they were saying that he was getting off his head, and he start to act strange, well I just stopped going. I stopped working there. It wasn’t a good atmosphere – nobody could really enjoy that again. So I called it a day. It is sad after all the good work we did. But when you try to be smart and try to outsmart others, well it don’t work out for long with you. He came and did a show here in Jamaica the other day, but I didn’t really know Lee Perry as a singer. He won the Grammy not long ago, but I find it surprising that he got a Grammy as a performer not a producer. He’s been very lucky: now he is successful in a sense and some people love him cos he’s a character, and they don’t see nobody dressed like that. Hahahah!’

Speaking to Lee in February 2021, via WhatsApp to Jamaica, he sounded relaxed and positive, with more praise for Boris and optimism for the future.

Lee Perry: ‘Boris Gardiner was very good, very great in the brain. He really intelligent in music, and me and him work miracle together! And remember that there was no end to the Black Ark, the Black Ark will be coming back. The Black Ark keep on living and cannot die.’
Lee Perry & Friends - Open The Gate
Lee Perry & Friends
Open The Gate
3LP | 2023 | EU | Original (Music On Vinyl)
41,99 €*
Release: 2023 / EU – Original
Genre: Organic Grooves
Add to Cart Coming Soon Sold out Currently not available Not Enough Coins
Back To Top