The Congos - Heart Of The Congos

The Congos - Heart Of The Congos
Label: Blood And Fire, 1996
Record date: 1977
Album style: Black Art, Dub, Lee Library, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Roots, Reggae, Vocals

No reggae album more obscure than the Congos' Heart of the Congos is as rich, and no richer album is as obscure. The Congos were just a duo, airborne falsetto Cedric Myton and tenor Roydel Johnson, who got together in 1976 and approached old acquaintance Lee 'Scratch' Perry about recording an album at his Black Ark Studio. This was in a two-year period when Black Ark (along with King Tubby's) offered the most exciting, unpredictable facilities on the island and attracted top hands like guitarist Ernest Ranglin, organist Winston Wright, and percussionist Noel "Skully" Simms. During the sessions, unrepeatable chemistry resulted in Perry's finest production of a vocal group and a body of songs more vivid than anything else by the Congos. Oddly, Island Records passed on The Heart of the Congos. Perry put it out under his own Black Ark insignia. Then the Congos released in themselves. The British Go-Feet label reissued it in 1980. It has popped up several other times, each edition muddy sounding, incomplete, or both. The handsome Blood and Fire reissue package gathers every snippet; vocal renditions and their dubs, extra Perry-Congos numbers and a second CD of 12-inch remixes. This is a full-length revival meeting in the Promised Land of the Rasta faithful, though nonbelievers can still revel in its fervent activist force. Perry knots electronic and handmade beats with consummate ease while Ranglin and Wright deliver unobtrusive solos that etch like slow acid. The album swims in hazy tones, shot through with mammoth bass rumbles and slow sweet moans from background singers, most often the silky Meditations. The sound that bursts out immediately is Cedric Myton's falsetto. On "Can't Come In" and "Solid Foundation" he seems to breathe the same air as Curtis Mayfield. Roy Johnson puts the vocal dignity and assurance he learned as a member of of all-Rasta bands into his tenor work on tunes like 'Open up the Gate'. The snaps and rumbles that power 'Congoman' make it a party natural, as does the jocular mood of 'At The Feast" Passover plus ganja). Poetically twisted Biblical metaphors add mystery to 'La La Bam-Bam' and especially 'Ark of the Covenant', which fuses that ark and Noah's into a militant salvation granted to 'Even the ants / Safe in a Noah sugar pan.' Still, compassion for humans shines on Heart of the Congos. The mysterious images of 'Fisherman' flow around and around from Jah Rasta/Jesus as a fisher of men, to a provider of spiritual food, to a symbol of the congregation voyaging to redemption. All that is certain is that those who would save their souls must row to reach higher ground. No one sings the parable better than the Congos. ~bloodandfire.com

Tracklist:
Disk 1:
1. Fisherman
2. Congoman
3. Open Up The Gate
4. Children Crying
5. La La Bam Bam
6. Can't Come In
7. Sodom And Gomorrow
8. The Wrong Thing
9. Ark Of The Covenant
10. Solid Foundation
11. At The Feast
12. Nicodemus

Disk 2:
1. Congoman (12" Mix)
2. Congoman Chant
3. Bring The Mackaback
4. Noah Sugar Pan
5. Solid Foundation (Disco Cork Mix)

Producer: Lee Perry
Mixing Engineer: Lee Perry
Vocals: The Congos, Cedric Myton, Congo Ashanti Roy
Backing Vocals: Gregory Isaacs, Earl Morgan, Barry Llewellyn, Candy McKenzie, The Meditations, Watty Burnett
Drums: Sly Dunbar, Mikey Boo Richards, Paul Douglas
Bass: Boris Gardiner, Geoffrey Chung
Lead Guitar: Ernest Ranglin
Rhythm Guitar: Robert Johnson
Organ: Winston Wright
Piano: Keith Sterling
Percussion: Skully, Sticky, Lee Perry
Studio: Black Ark (Kingston, JA)

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The Heptones - Unreleased Night Food & Rare Black Ark Sessions

The Heptones - Unreleased Night Food & Rare Black Ark Sessions
Label - Aural*x
Recorded - 1976-77
Style - Ska, Dub, Rare, Reggae, Lee Library, Black Ark

(review from rasputinmusic)
After their five-year contract with Coxsone was up, the Heptones went freelance and recorded at an array of other studios, but it was their classics "Country Boy" and "Book of Rules" for Harry J that endured. Though it's touted with the mystical Black Ark label, most of this album was recorded at Harry J's studios. On the verge of success, the Heptones were booked to tour the UK with the Wailers and Toots and the Maytals in 1973 but Leroy Sibbles got married and emigrated to Canada leaving Barry and Earl high and dry. Two years later he got back with them to record Night Food for UK-based Island records. This high profile issue recut their previous Studio One and Harry J hits and added a dreamy version of Holland-Dozier-Holland's "Baby I need your loving." After Night Food, Island had the ideas of sending the trio into the Black Ark and having Lee Perry, then at the height of his creativity, work his metaphysical magic on them. Party Time was their most challenging and complex album since On Top (Studio One). It includes a sublime version of Dylan's biblical "I shall be released." (Disclaimer: this is the only time you will hear me use "sublime" and "Dylan" in the same sentence.) The Heptones in fact were friends of Perry and added backing vocals to seven of his greatest works. Earl Morgan recalled:

"We go there one night and he doing an album with Max Romeo and he say ‘Come do some work,’ so we do War Inna Babylon. Just start hum a little thing behind ‘it sipple out there.’ We harmony Junior Murvin's Police and Thieves, Columbia Colly with Jah Lloyd, we do the Congos album..."

With Sibbles back in town the trio appeared on the "ethereal dub masterpiece" Super Ape. This new CD then presents the out-takes of both albums. The Night Food session, recorded 30 years ago at Harry J and backed by the Wailers band, without overdubs, has a pleasingly big booming sound. Sibbles' lyrics are to the fore and each song has a dub plate companion. The songs alternate between mushy romanticism ("Crying over you") and politically conscious ones ("Mr President"). These outtakes, taken alone, may not have spurred many buyers, but as lagniappe we get the extended mixes of four of the Black Ark sides which are familiar but again different as they have Ranking King, an obscure deejay (with a dubby name!), toasting on them in different mixes from those Scratch previously issued. The cuts are a bit choppy when he slices into another take with, say, nyabingi drumming, but any new Black Ark material from this era is a revelation. They are like lost Mozart sonatas. However Ranking King is not too original, and how can you top a lyric like "Mystery Babylon's" "When the wine is in the wit, Rasta don't drink wine"? It's Shakespearean! The new mix of "Sorrows" quotes George Harrison's "Something in the way she moves." This is not necessarily a good thing, but an unmistakable hook! "Mystery Babylon" and "Party Time" are classic songs, worth hearing over and over again. Aside from the cover, the package is handsome & informative, and there are wonderful photos by Adrian Boot, but above all some of Jamaica's finest artists return in their peak in clean and clear sound.-- Alastair Johnston

Tracklist:
1. The Heptones - Poverty In The Ghetto
2. Wailers All Stars - Salt Dub
3. The Heptones - Warden
4. Wailers All Stars - Warden Dub
5. The Heptones - Garden Of Life
6. Wailers All Stars - Shake Up Dub
7. The Heptones - Richard Khoury
8. Wailers All Stars - They Say Dub
9. The Heptones - Living Up On A Hill
10. Wailers All Stars - Hill And Dub
11. The Heptones - Party Time (Extended Mix)
12. The Heptones - Come Into My World (Extended Mix)
13. The Heptones & Ranking King - Mystery Babylon (Extended Mix)
14. The Heptones & Ranking King - Sorrows (Extended Mix)

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Black Ark

"The Black Ark
The Black Ark was the recording studio of legendary reggae and dub producer Lee "Scratch" Perry, located in the yard of his family's home in the Washington Gardens neighborhood of Kingston, Jamaica. Although the studio itself was somewhat rudimentary in its set-up and particularly basic with regard to some of the dated equipment employed by Perry, it was nonetheless the breeding ground for some of Jamaica's (and arguably the world's) most innovative sounds and recording techniques in the latter half of the 1970s.

Innovative musical techniques
An example of Lee Perry's inventive style was his ability to overdub layers of sound effects and instrumentation on each recording track of a basic 4-track 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 16-track mixing consoles. Perry once buried microphones at the base of a palm tree and thumped it rhythmically to produce a mystifying bass drum effect; his drum booth at the Black Ark was for a time surrounded with chicken wire 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, and a mooing cow children's toy. These and other notable recording techniques helped define the Black Ark sound, as well as Lee Perry's creative legacy.

Musicians and the Black Ark
In addition to providing pioneering sounds for such reggae stars as Bob Marley and The Wailers, Junior Byles, and Max Romeo, Lee Perry and his studio were formative in creating the highly innovative reggae sub-genre called Dub, in which the producer/engineer becomes the focus of the music, manipulating a pre-recorded track and creating something entirely new using his or her mixing console as nothing less than an instrument.

The end
In 1979, following years of increasingly bizarre and erratic behavior, Lee "Scratch" Perry allegedly set fire to The Black Ark studio, effectively ending an era during which much of Jamaica's most delightfully creative 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." -Wikipedia

Lee Perry and The Upsetters - Musical Bones

Lee Perry and The Upsetters - Musical Bones (Justice League 1972-75)

Playlist :
1. Coco Macca
2. Fly Away
3. The Message
4. Licky Licky
5. Labbrish
6. Quinge Up
7. Raw Chaw
8. 5 Cardiff Crescent
9. Four Of A Kind
10. Voodoo Man
11. Nah Go Run
12. Mek It Soon
13. Bredda's Dub
14. Matches Lane Affair
15. A Wise Dub

Producer : Lee Perry
Engineer : Lee Perry
Backing Band : The Upsetters
Drums : Ben Bow & Mikey Boo Richards
Bass : Boris Gardiner
Lead Guitar : Chinna & Geoffrey Chung
Organ : Winston Wright
Trombone : Vin Gordon
Horns : Bobby Ellis & Dirty Harry
Percussions : Skully & Lee Perry
Studios : Black Ark (Kingston, JA)

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Lee Perry and The Upsetters - Return of Wax

Lee Perry and The Upsetters - Return of Wax (Justice League 1975)

Playlist:
1. Last Blood
2. Deathly Hands
3. Kung Fu Warrior
4. Dragon Slayer
5. Judgement Day
6. One Armed Boxer
7. Big Boss
8. Fists Of Vengeance
9. Samurai Swordsman
10. Final Weapon
11. Delroy Butler - Experience (Bonus track)
12. Keith Rowe - Living My Life (Bonus track)

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Lee Scratch Perry - Rastafari Liveth in the Hearts of Everyone Itinually

Lee Scratch Perry - Rastafari Liveth in the Hearts of Everyone Itinually
(Justice League 1974-79)

Playlist :
1. Peter & Paul Lewis - Ethiopian Land
2. The Upsetters - Dub Land
3. Watty Burnett & Tony - Rise & Shine
4. The Upsetters - Shining Dub
5. Watty Burnett - What A War
6. The Upsetters - What A Dub
7. Junior Delgado & Big Youth - 23rd Psalm
8. Clive Hylton - Judgement Day
9. The Upsetters - Well Judged Dub
10. Mystic - Forward With Jah Orthodox
11. The Upsetters - Orthodox Dub
12. The Bluebells - Come Along
13. The Upsetters - Dub Along
14. Evan Jones - 4 And 20 Dreadlocks
15. The Upsetters - Dreadlocks Dub
16. Devon Irons - When Jah Comes
17. The Upsetters - When Jah Dubs

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Lee Scratch Perry - Black Arkives

Lee Scratch Perry - Black Arkives (Justice League 1973-75)

Playlist :
1. Leo Graham - Jump It
2. Sam Carty - Life Is A Flower
3. The Imposters - Have Some Fun
4. Dillinger - Cane River Rock
5. Sam Carty - I Don't Mind
6. The Upsetters - Jamaican Theme
7. The Imposters - Nature Man
8. The Upsetters - Vampire (Horns)
9. The Gladiators - Time
10. The Upsetters - Dub In Time
11. Eric Donaldson - Stand Up
12. The Upsetters - Dub Fe Yu Right
13. Brent Dowe - Down Here In Babylon
14. The Upsetters - If The Cap Fits
15. Divine Brothers - Perception
16. The Upsetters - Perceptive Dub

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