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hiatus in Perry's extraordinary creative skills, effectively ended an era during which much of
Jamaica's most innovative sounds had captured the world of music. However, it has been related by several Perry family members that the studio in fact caught fire in 1983 after an ill-fated attempt to rebuild it, the result of an electrical accident. More often than not, Perry has claimed that he personally destroyed the Black Ark due to "unclean spirits" - an allusion to some of the undesirable people who were constantly at the Black Ark in later years. There are also stories that Perry was being
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who wanted a cut of the record profits. Perry himself stated in an interview with clashmusic.com regarding the fire, "Too much stress in
Jamaica, all the time. Everybody want money, everybody want paid. Everyone got problem and want me to solve their problem. Nobody gave me anything, people just took
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The studio must be like a living thing, a life itself. The machine must be live and intelligent. Then I put my mind into the machine and the machine perform reality. Invisible thought waves — you put them into the machine by sending them through the controls and the knobs or you jack it into the jack
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In 1979, following years of increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior, Lee "Scratch" Perry, armed with a magic marker, covered every available surface of the Black Ark with impenetrable writings before allegedly burning it to the ground. This event, with the loss of the studio's unique sound and a
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smoke onto his tapes while recording, bury unprotected tapes in the soil outside of his studio, and surround himself with burning candles and incense, whose wax and dust remnants were allowed to infest his electronic recording equipment. He would also spray tapes with a variety of fluids, including
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From a technological standpoint, the Black Ark was at the low end in comparison to the international music recording standards of its day. The studio's legendary reputation stems from the innovative production techniques employed by Perry to create sounds that baffled his contemporaries, and which
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to further his distinctive sound. Many of his songs are layered with a variety of subtle effects created from broken glass, ghastly sighs and screeches, crying babies, falling rain and cow noises. While it was thought that Perry recorded the "mooing" noises from actual cows, it was actually the
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album; I remember myself and Val
Douglas, we laid some tracks there, Eric Gale overdubbed stuff on there, but I honestly don’t remember what happened to it." Lee Perry and his studio were also formative in creating the highly innovative reggae subgenre called
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everything. Everybody take this, and take that. So the atmosphere in the Black Ark studio was changing; it wasn’t like it used to be. Then I decided to make a sacrifice as the energy wasn’t good anymore." Shortly thereafter, he moved to London and then
156:. Paul Douglas mentions, "Scratch had a particular sound and everybody was fascinated by his sound. He had this way of putting things together; it was just his sound and it influenced a lot of people. I’ve even gone to the Black Ark with
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urine, blood and whisky, ostensibly to enhance their spiritual properties. Later commentators have drawn a direct relationship between the decay of Perry's facility and the unique sounds he was able to create from his studio equipment.
169:, in which the producer/engineer becomes the focus of the music, manipulating a pre-recorded track and creating something entirely new using the mixing console as nothing less than an instrument. Perry worked with
58:. Despite the rudimentary set-up and dated equipment, it was nonetheless the breeding ground for some of Jamaica's most innovative sounds and recording techniques in the latter half of the 1970s.
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through a tin foil laced cardboard tube that produced the cow-like noises. These and other notable recording techniques helped define the Black Ark sound, as well as Lee Perry's creative legacy.
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Perry was known for his eccentric and superstitious behavior during production sessions. He would often "bless" his recording equipment with mystical invocations, blow
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panel. The jack panel is the brain itself, so you got to patch up the brain and make the brain a living man, that the brain can take what you sending into it and live.
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at the base of a palm tree and thumped it rhythmically to produce a mystifying bass drum effect and his drum booth at the Black Ark was for a time surrounded with
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machine, with such precise timing and in such a way that the resulting sound would destroy the competition from
Jamaica's other top producers using the latest
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have continued to be a source of amazement to later generations of music producers. An example of Perry's inventive style was his ability to
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Perry referred to this particular invention as a way to record what he called "the living
African heartbeat." Veal, p. 160.
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Continuum
Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Volume 1: Media, industry and society
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layers of sound effects and instrumentation on each recording track of a basic
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Contemporary Black
Biography. Profiles from the international Black community
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Artists who were produced and/or recorded at the Black Ark include
407:. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press. pp. 160–162.
16:"The Black Ark" redirects here. For the album by Noah Howard, see
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Perry has described his relationship to the studio thus:
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Dub: Soundscapes and
Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae
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Shepherd, John; David Horn; Dave Laing; Paul Oliver;
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The
Upsetter: The Life and Music of Lee Scratch Perry
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People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry
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People Funny Boy: The Genius of Lee "Scratch" Perry
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580:Buildings and structures in Kingston, Jamaica
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487:Art, Technology, Consciousness: Mind @ Large
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295:
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181:had recorded there between 1972 and 1979.
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265:Kingston: A Cultural and Literary History
490:. Bristol, UK: Intellect. p. 120.
310:. London: Continuum. pp. 648–649.
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528:. London: Omnibus Press. p. 83.
340:. London: Omnibus. pp. 175–176.
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361:Kenner, Rob (February 2002).
62:Innovative musical techniques
575:Recording studios in Jamaica
116:Musicians and the Black Ark
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484:Ascott, Roy, ed. (2000).
446:Phelps, Shirelle (1999).
401:Veal, Michael E. (2007).
570:Former recording studios
522:"The Return of Django"
454:. Detroit, MI.: Gale.
262:Howard, David (2004).
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268:. Kingston, Jamaica:
18:The Black Ark (album)
520:Katz, David (2006).
82:. Perry once buried
48:Lee "Scratch" Perry
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474:Katz, pp. 283-284.
91:baritone voice of
497:978-1-84150-041-6
461:978-0-7876-1275-7
414:978-0-8195-6572-3
347:978-1-84609-443-9
317:978-0-8264-6321-0
279:978-1-902669-37-3
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26:Black Ark Studios
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216:. Directed by
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363:"Boom Shots"
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146:The Heptones
126:Junior Byles
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88:chicken wire
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332:Katz, David
302:Peter Wicke
201:Switzerland
192:blackmailed
84:microphones
559:Categories
373:(2): 122.
270:Ian Randle
249:References
130:The Congos
122:Bob Marley
379:1070-4701
196:gangsters
171:The Clash
160:for that
158:Eric Gale
138:Max Romeo
46:producer
32:Black Ark
541:30 March
334:(2006).
304:(2003).
154:Jah Lion
77:16-track
52:Kingston
34:was the
212:2011 -
185:The end
73:4-track
69:overdub
56:Jamaica
565:Reggae
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162:Negril
40:reggae
229:Notes
207:Films
179:Wings
100:ganja
543:2019
530:ISBN
492:ISBN
456:ISBN
409:ISBN
375:ISSN
367:Vibe
342:ISBN
312:ISBN
274:ISBN
220:and
173:and
152:and
42:and
30:The
194:by
167:dub
44:dub
38:of
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