VA - Dry Acid : Lee Perry Productions 1968 – 1969 (Trojan)

Lee "Scratch" Perry's mid- to late-1970s productions at his Black Ark studio have been much lauded and admired, and justly so, but his work from a decade earlier, before that studio was built, is no less striking, albeit in different manner. The tracks collected on Dry Acid come from 1968 and 1969, when Scratch was still scrambling around to record in studios like Randy's, and they exhibit a wonderfully rough and ragged funkiness, with crisp, hard rhythms and often goofy, offhand lyrics that sparkle with vitality and freshness. 

Among the many highlights on this fine Trojan compilation are two unrelated songs by the Ethiopians (a duo at the time, of Leonard Dillon and Stephen Taylor), "Not Me" and "Cut Down," both voiced over the same chugging rhythm. Ernest Wilson's buoyant "Freedom Train" also shines, as does Pat Kelly's interesting cover of James Carr's "Dark End of the Street." There are also several (frequently loopy) instrumentals by Perry's house band at the time, the Upsetters, who bring a distinctly Jamaican version of R&B to the table in tracks like "For a Few Dollars More." 

Countless legal and not so legal anthologies of Perry's work are available on the market, drawn from all stages of his long history, and quality can vary considerably from disc to disc, but Dry Acid is all killer and holds up wonderfully.

Tracklist:

1 –Denzil Laing Beware Of The Vampire 01:53
2 –Val Bennett Barbara 01:52
3 –The Upsetters Prison Sentence 02:16
4 –The Ethiopians Not Me 02:31
5 –The Ethiopians Cut Down 01:55
6 –The Mellotones Uncle Desmond 02:35
7 –The Inspirations Down In The Park 02:30
8 –The Inspirations Love Oh Love 02:00
9 –Eric "Monty" Morris Can't Get No Peace 02:34
10 –The Upsetters For A Few Dollars More 02:13
11 –The West Indians Strange Whisperings 02:47
12 –The Upsetters A Taste Of Killing 02:26
13 –Carl Dawkins Hard To Handle 02:41
14 –The Upsetters My Mob 01:57
15 –Ernest Wilson Freedom Train 02:08
16 –Pat Kelly Dark End Of The Street 03:16
17 –Pat Kelly Since You Are Gone 02:39
18 –The Upsetters Return Of The Ugly 02:52
19 –David Isaacs Till I Can't 03:03
20 –Peter Tosh & U-Roy Rightful Ruler 02:28
21 –The Upsetters I Caught You 03:15
22 –Eric Donaldson Never Get Away 02:19
23 –Busty Brown A Broken Heart 02:29
24 –Count Sticky & The Upsetters Dry Acid 02:54
25 –The Reggae Boys Selassie 02:51
26 –The Mellotones Facts Of Life 02:23

VA - Dry Acid : Lee Perry Productions 1968 – 1969 (Trojan)

(320 kbps, cover art included)