Lee Perry first came to prominence working with Coxsone Dodd’s fabled Studio One. This is where Scratch earned the nickname with the wildly popular Jamaican hit record and dance craze “Chicken Scratch.” After a fall out with Dodd, Perry moved on to a stint with Joe Gibb’s Amalgamated. Again in a dispute over compensation Perry moved on to form his own label, Upsetter and established his house band, the Upsetters.By 1973 Perry had also established Black Ark, a recording studio of his own that functioned as an effective fertilizer throughout what was Jamaica's most innovative period for sounds and recording techniques. In that year, as Perry and Black Arkentered a period of heavy dub output, Scratch recorded Cloak And Dagger. This early dub outing is a testament to Perry’s lo-fi mastery as he utilized his TEAC four-track, Soundcraft board, tape delays, phasers, reverb and any other ambient sounds he could get this hands on as an instrument rather than just to record instruments.Get On Down celebrates a piece of reggae history and one of Lee Perry’s crowning achievements with this reissue of Cloak And Dagger, presented here as originally issued in Jamaica in 1973.
