From the very first note on the set, you know that you're in for something special – as the early title track by Lee Perry has a baby crying sound effect on the intro – just the sort of weird and wild production touch that Perry would help pioneer in Jamaican music! And while Lee's maybe best known for his trippy Black Ark productions of the mid 70s, he's already sounding pretty fantastic here on a host of soulful rocksteady tracks and early reggae numbers – both vocals and instrumentals, and tunes that resonate wonderfully with that mad ear for musical magic that makes Scratch so unique! The set brings together just about every key Lee Perry production from these seminal years – solo singers, groups, and instrumentals – in a stunning lineup that features 53 tracks in all, with work by Burt Walters, The Mellotones, Val Bennet, The Inspirations, Upsetters, Denzil Laing, The Gaylads, David Issacs, Nora Dean, Soul Twins, The Bleechers, and Lee Scratch Perry himself. CD

Some of the greatest work ever recorded by the mighty Lee Perry – a searing selection of 44 seven inch singles – all of which were well-tuned to boom out of Kingston sound systems back in the day! There's a sense of focus here that's wonderful – still all the odd, dubby twists and turns that make Perry's music so great – but honed down into the space of tight cuts that really helped redefine the role of the 45rpm single in Jamaican music! Lee takes the lead on a few cuts, and sits behind the controls of Black Ark on all the others – and titles include "Vibrate Onn (Jamaican mix)" by Augustus Pablo & The Upsetters, "It Hurts So Good" by Susan Cadogan, "Dreader Locks" by Junior Byles & Lee Perry, "Police & Thief" by Junior Murvin, "Ital Corner" by Prince Jazzbo, "Sipple Out Deh (Jamaican mix)" by Max Romeo, "Down Here In Babylon" by Brent Dowe, "Three Blind Mice" by Max Romeo, "Land Of Love" by The Sons Of Light, "Travelling" by Debra Keese & The Black Five, and "Think So" by The Meditations. CD

A host of rare gems from the early years of Lee Perry's legendary Black Ark studios – material recorded by Scratch himself, on some cuts featuring The Upsetters, others some close contemporaries – but all nicely unified here by contributions from Lee at just about every level! As with other Pressure Sounds collections, the approach here is wonderful – way past the entry-level reggae collections you might get elswhere, but also not overwhelmed with trainspotter attention to rareness over quality – as the cuts here are all pretty darn great, and feature many gems from the early reggae years that really show Perry's diversity past his own recordings. The set includes a number of Upsetters version recordings of vocal tunes – and titles include "Set Yourself Up" by The Upsetters, "Brotherly Love" by Henrick Nicholson, "Roots Train (previously unreleased dub plate mix)" by Junior Murvin, "Woman Gotta Have Love (previously unreleased dub plate mix)", "Say A Little Prayer (12" mix)" by Eric Donaldson, "Mr Cravin" by Junior Murvin, "Such Is Life (version)" by The Upsetters, "Nu Fi Run It Down" by Danny Clarke, "Ska Baby" by Bobby Ellis, and "Such Is Life" by Lord Creator. LP, Vinyl record album