Lee “Scratch” Perry was not only a world-changing producer — he was also a very able bandleader. The Upsetters were his studio band, and in their early years they backed up Bob Marley and the Wailers. Eventually their bass-and-drums duo, Aston and Carlton Barrett, would join the Wailers full time and help to shape the sound of modern reggae. While they were Upsetters, though, they made piles and piles of funky, tensile instrumental rock steady, reggae, and dub albums. Blackboard Jungle is one of their best efforts, and one of the first albums ever dedicated entirely to the dub version. Perry isn’t playing an instrument, but he shapes (often aggressively) every aspect of the album’s sound.

– Rick Anderson

Originally pressed to 300 copies and only released in Jamaica, 1972’s 14 Dub Blackboard Jungle is often claimed to be the first dub album. While that’s not strictly the case (both Coxsone Dodd and Herman Chin Loy beat Lee Perry to the punch), it’s the album that mapped out dub’s true sonic possibilities for decades to come. 50 years later, Perry’s head-spinning twin channel stereo mix, ear-pummelling low end and revolutionary use of echo still sounds light years ahead of its time. If Scratch never put another record out after this, his reputation as one of music’s true visionaries would still be intact.

– Chris Catchpole