Turn up the dial to appreciate this one.ĭespite low rumblings in debate, Perry is often attributed with producing the first pure dub album. “Cloak & Dagger Horns Dub Plate Pressure” rounds out disc one, described in the liner notes as, “a typical rough and raw mix specially cut to be played at the Dancehall on what were then over grown PA style amplifiers, where Hi-Fi niceties were list, at very high volume”. “Jungle Lion” is a solid instrumental mix, the stellar track on the album, riding on pure energy and intense rhythms. “Table Turning” features organ and xylophone, grinding and grating against each other in unbridled form. The three bonus tracks tagged on the end of the first disc are classic gems. ” The experimental factor alone makes it worthy of listening, but if there’s a complaint to be made about the album, it’s the disparity with which the tracks move from one to another. Working with his legendary backing crew, the Upsetters, Perry produced some of his greatest hits during the 1970s, including “The Return of Django”, “Clint Eastwood”, and “The Vampire”, a track to publicly ream out Island Records head Chris Blackwell for signing Bob Marley to the label and leaving Perry with virtually nothing on the table.Ĭloak & Dagger, the earliest of the trio on this collection, is part dub and part instrumental, opening with the popular and much sampled introduction “Greetings Music Lovers. The centre of its universe is the grounding heavy drum ‘n’ bass line pulsating under the mixing console that results in multiple layers of sounds, echoes, and reverbs of off-beat guitar chords and fragments of vocals. Rest assured that not only is Dub-Triptych kosher stuff, it also fills an important listening void in this early chapter of Perry’s artistic life.ĭub is housed under the umbrella genre “reggae” and its origin hails from the “dub plates” that were cut as instrumental B-sides to the singles of that era. Given the lack of quality control over Perry’s massive oeuvre, not to mention his pseudonyms, it is understandable that fans have been conditioned to approach “new” releases with a hefty pinch of caution. The other two albums are already available on CD, but their selling point in this collection is the high standard of production.

The former is available for the first time on CD, as are three previously unreleased bonus tracks. These originally saw very limited release, circa 200 copies for Cloak & Dagger and 300 for Black Board Jungle Dub. Aptly-named, Dub-Triptych comprises the three albums by Lee Perry that arguably put the stake in the ground announcing the birth of dub: Cloak and Dagger, Black Board Jungle Dub, and Revolution Dub, all recorded between 19 at Perry’s infamous Black Ark studio in Jamaica.

Between a rock and a dubplate album