Roots Archives Forum

Hey folks,
I've purchased this disc on LP, CD and even cassette, and it has always sounded unlistenable. Extremely muddy, and the lyrics were almost incomprehensible because of the muddiness. I fully understand the Black Ark sound, and what to expect with Lee Perry and Black Ark productions, but these were was just not playable.
Should I try again, or is there a general problem with this release that you guys are familiar with?
Thanks for reading.

I have the CD and the sound is clear, not that muddy....not the best sound, but definitely the worst in my collection

I have it on CD and it sounds great to me.

I have it also on CD. The sound is good but I have to pump the volume. It is mixed very low..but If I turn up the volume it's good. I always feel that the black ark sound is a little bit of lower quality. But thats the price Perry had to pay for having that special sound

I think I downloaded my copy from the Itunes store from memory. It does sound muddy but by no means unlistenable, I always thought it was one of Perry's more restrained mixes. It seems to bubble and brood to me. I don't recall having any issues with hearing the lyrics, although I haven't listerned to it in six months.

For me its up there with the first mix of Heart of the Congos and Ital corner as my favorite Perry albums

Edit... or rather tried to edit but can't so please forgive my double post (hey or delete it its your forum)

I just re-listened to my copy (double checked it was an Itunes purchase so we’re talking mp3 here) Julian is right you do have to turn the volume right up and get it to that sweet point where the music is loud enough but the hiss doesn’t overwhelm you. As for the lyrics, it was as I remembered I could hear every word perfectly. All that said I doubt there is ever going to be a crystal clear sound quality release of this album, but I like it that way, you get more of a feeling that you were at a groundation sat outside. There’s one track where in the intro you can hear someone coughing like their draw of herb caught in their throat, and it makes you feel like your right there with them as they recorded. Great album. Sadly without hearing your prior releases of it, I have no idea if the sound quality has been improved.

for more on this
http://www.roots-archives.com/forum/rea ... 5#msg-7265

Just turn the treble up. Its much more clearer.

This so called "muddiness" is due to excessive use of delay echo.

Simply put, the album needs a full reissue with cleaned up mastering and the inclusion of ALL of it's tracks. If you bought the Live & Learn CD you are missing the albums best tracks. These were included on the very first Jah Life LP but have been absent on all subsequent editions. I doubt this will happen though, as it would be too much trouble for such little sales (sad but true).