DYNAMIC SOUNDS
Byron Lee turned the former WIRL operation into one of the Caribbean’s best-equipped recording centers. Jamaican sessions met international artists here without the room losing its place in the island’s own industry.
Byron Lee bought West Indies Recording Limited in 1968, renamed the business Dynamic Sounds and expanded the Bell Road operation. By 1969 a state-of-the-art studio was operating on the premises, alongside Lee’s wider distribution business. Dynamic became unusual in Jamaica because major overseas artists recorded there alongside Jamaican musicians and producers. Paul Simon cut “Mother and Child Reunion” with Jamaican players there, while The Rolling Stones and others also used the facilities. The studio’s equipment mattered directly to dub history too: when Dynamic upgraded its console in 1972, King Tubby acquired the older MCI desk that became central to his classic dub mixes.