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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
167:. 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.
180:, 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
69:. 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
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27:"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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591:Buildings and structures in Kingston, Jamaica
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498:Art, Technology, Consciousness: Mind @ Large
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192:had recorded there between 1972 and 1979.
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276:Kingston: A Cultural and Literary History
501:. Bristol, UK: Intellect. p. 120.
321:. London: Continuum. pp. 648–649.
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539:. London: Omnibus Press. p. 83.
351:. London: Omnibus. pp. 175–176.
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372:Kenner, Rob (February 2002).
73:Innovative musical techniques
586:Recording studios in Jamaica
127:Musicians and the Black Ark
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495:Ascott, Roy, ed. (2000).
457:Phelps, Shirelle (1999).
412:Veal, Michael E. (2007).
581:Former recording studios
533:"The Return of Django"
465:. Detroit, MI.: Gale.
273:Howard, David (2004).
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279:. Kingston, Jamaica:
29:The Black Ark (album)
531:Katz, David (2006).
93:. Perry once buried
59:Lee "Scratch" Perry
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485:Katz, pp. 283-284.
102:baritone voice of
508:978-1-84150-041-6
472:978-0-7876-1275-7
425:978-0-8195-6572-3
358:978-1-84609-443-9
328:978-0-8264-6321-0
290:978-1-902669-37-3
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374:"Boom Shots"
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99:chicken wire
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343:Katz, David
313:Peter Wicke
212:Switzerland
203:blackmailed
95:microphones
570:Categories
384:(2): 122.
281:Ian Randle
260:References
141:The Congos
133:Bob Marley
390:1070-4701
207:gangsters
182:The Clash
171:for that
169:Eric Gale
149:Max Romeo
57:producer
43:Black Ark
552:30 March
345:(2006).
315:(2003).
165:Jah Lion
88:16-track
63:Kingston
45:was the
223:2011 -
196:The end
84:4-track
80:overdub
67:Jamaica
576:Reggae
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173:Negril
51:reggae
240:Notes
218:Films
190:Wings
111:ganja
554:2019
541:ISBN
503:ISBN
467:ISBN
420:ISBN
386:ISSN
378:Vibe
353:ISBN
323:ISBN
285:ISBN
231:and
184:and
163:and
53:and
41:The
205:by
178:dub
55:dub
49:of
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