Fresh-Out-the-Box!

Reggae: Keith Rowe Interview April 26, 2007

A great article with the Reggae singer Keith Rowe who sang on some top early reggae songs, then moved to America where he was in the army for 20 years. This piece about Lee Scratch Perry’s Black Ark studios gives a good insight into the way things worked there and why the sounds that came out of it have such a uniquely human vibe:

What was your impressions of the scene at the Ark? That milieu compared to the military strictness and discipline of your new life and here’s a totally loose attitude to things, heavy ganja smoke everywhere, and…

Yeah! (Laughs) It’s different but it’s not like I wasn’t around ganja. I mean, there was a guy who…a rastaman who lived in front of me. Basically (he) had a little ganja farm. I mean, I tried it too! (laughs) But the studio itself and what Scratch gave me as an artist was this roots sound, man. The floor of the studio was dirt, y’know (laughs).

From most accounts it didn’t exactly look like what you should expect a studio to look like?

It wasn’t anything a studio would look like! It was the “anti-establishment studio”! Unusual, because I certainly wasn’t accustomed to that kind of studio. I mean, coming from Federal – and the studios up in the States. I remember I recorded at a place called… Gosh! Been a long time… But anyway, a nice studio in Brooklyn. So, I went from Federal to the studio I recorded at…this other American studio…and then go back to Scratch, y’know what I mean? (Laughs) So, it’s totally nothing like I’ve ever experienced. But, man! The vibe coming out of that place, it’s just… You went in and if you the person were inhibited by crap, you would leave the crap at the door. It wouldn’t matter any more, because nobody cared! It’s just the vibe. It’s that kinda attitude, y’know? And I really felt…probably one of my best sessions, ever!

Upsetter Station – Keith Rowe: Living His Life

Street Use: Jazz on Bones: X-Ray Sound Recordings April 13, 2007

Owing to the lack of recordings of Western music available in the USSR, people had to rely on records coming through Eastern Europe, where controls on records were less strict, or on the tiny influx of records from beyond the iron curtain. Such restrictions meant the number of recordings would remain small and precious. But enterprising young people with technical skills learned to duplicate records with a converted phonograph that would “press” a record using a very unusual material for the purpose; discarded x-ray plates.

Street Use: Jazz on Bones: X-Ray Sound Recordings

Highway hi-fi – A turntable in your car

Undaunted by the failure of its original Highway Hi-Fi, its promoter cooperated with one of America’s leading electronics firms in a project involving the application of a more conventional phonograph to automobiles. The new phonograph is a 45-rpm automatic record changer of special design (Fig. 911) to enable it to be used in the family car.

Read more on ook – highway hi-fi