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THE CONTROL ROOM

Studios that built the sound

Federal, Studio One, Treasure Isle, Channel One, Black Ark — the rooms where the music was invented.

44 records · grows as the archive grows

studio · Well supportedA-Class / Fashion Records Studio (Clapham Junction)

Chris Lane's 'A-Class' dub-cutting facility, upgraded in 1982 into a four-track studio in the basement of the Dub Vendor shop at Clapham Junction by Fashion Records (John MacGillivray and Lane); a primarily dubplate-cutting-turned-recording room pivotal to UK MC/lovers-rock culture (Smiley Culture, Papa Face, Macka B) (Wikipedia 'Fashion Records'; United Reggae interview; Wikipedia 'Dub Vendor').

studio · ProbableAnchor Recording Studio

Anchor Recording Studio is tied to Gussie Clarke's Music Works/Anchor production infrastructure, a late-1980s and 1990s environment associated with cleaner digital production, international reggae releases and dancehall's shift toward more tightly managed studio systems.

studio · Well supportedAquarius Studio

Herman Chin Loy's Kingston studio and label in Half Way Tree, an early-1970s hub where his Aquarius Dub (1973) helped establish dub as an album form. The operation grew from the family's Aquarius record shop, one of uptown Kingston's main record counters.

studio · Well supportedAriwa Sounds

Neil "Mad Professor" Fraser's London studio and label, founded in 1979 — the most productive British dub operation, and the room where UK dub found a voice distinct from Jamaica's. Ariwa recorded lovers rock and roots alongside Fraser's own dub series, and later hosted collaborations that carried dub technique to new audiences.

studio · ProbableArrows Recording Studio

Arrows Recording Studio appears across dancehall and dubplate-era discographies as a Kingston voicing and recording room, part of the practical studio network selectors and producers used for specials, versions and fast-moving single releases.

studio · Well supportedBerry Street Studio (Clerkenwell)

Central-London recording studio established 1970 in Clerkenwell; in the 1980s it was run by British reggae producer Dennis Bovell and became a key room for British and Jamaican dub and reggae, used by Adrian Sherwood for Singers & Players and Dub Syndicate (Wikipedia 'Berry Street Studio'; Discogs 'Berry Street Studio').

studio · ProbableBig Ship Recording Studio

Recording studio and production base associated with the McGregor family, where Stephen 'Di Genius' McGregor built the digital dancehall riddims that defined the late 2000s.

studio · Well supportedBig Yard

The studio and production camp associated with Shaggy and producer Robert Livingston, the base from which the Boombastic and Hot Shot era of internationally chart-topping Jamaican pop was run. Its records put dancehall voices over productions built for American radio without losing the accent.

studio · Well supportedBlack Ark

Lee "Scratch" Perry's studio behind his home at Washington Gardens, Kingston, built in 1973 and running until its destruction by fire in 1979. Working with modest four-track equipment, Perry produced a sound nobody has convincingly reproduced — layered, saturated, drenched in echo and unexpected noise — on records for Max Romeo, Junior Murvin, the Congos and The Heptones, and on his own productions. The Black Ark years are the strongest argument that the studio itself, and not only the players, is an instrument in Jamaican music.

studio · ProbableBlack Scorpio Studio

Studio opened in the early 1980s on Molynes Road in the Drewsland area of Kingston by sound-system operator Maurice 'Jack Scorpio' Johnson, recording Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Frankie Paul, Beenie Man and many dancehall acts (Wikipedia 'Black Scorpio'; Backayard Magazine; Jamaica Gleaner).

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