AUGUSTUS PABLO DISCOGRAPHY

REGGAE ON CD

THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE:

 

(BORN HORACE SWABY, 1953, St ANDREWS, JAMAICA; MELODICA AND KEYBOARD PLAYER / PRODUCER) WHEN AUGUSTUS PABLO'S ALBUM KING TUBBY MEETS THE ROCKERS UPTOWN HIT IN NORTH LONDON IN THE MID-1970'S,IT WAS AS IF A LIGHT HAD BEEN TURNED ON. OF COURSE, WE ALL KNEW WHO PABLO WAS AND HAD BEEN HIP TO DUB VERSIONS FOR YEARS - HIS EARLIER ALBUM ITAL DUB HAD BEEN REQUIRED LISTENING AND THUS TOOK CARE OF BOTH COUNTS. BUT THIS WAS DIFFERENT. RIGHT FROM A TITLE THAT WAS ABOUT THE COOLEST THING WE'D EVER HEARD. AS TUBBY'S SHEER DUB MADNESS MESHED WITH THE 'SOMEWHERE EAST OF JAVA' SOUND PABLO HAD BEEN PERFECTING OVER THE PREVIOUS FEW YEARS, YOU WERE OFFERED THE SORT OF SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE THAT USUALLY INVOLVES CONTROLLED SUBSTANCES. IT WAS ONE OF THE FEW DUB SESSIONS THAT WOULD WORK AT A DANCE WITH A NON-ROOTS CROWD - AND WORK ON A LEVEL THAT, BACK THEN, WOULD LEAVE PEOPLE MOMENTARILY LOST FOR WORDS. THE TUNES CAME AT YOU WITH A POWER YOU COULDN'T IGNORE, BUT THAT WAS STANDARD FOR TUBBY'S ADVENTURES IN SOUND. WHAT WAS HAPPENING HERE WAS SOMETHING THAT TOUCHED US ON A LEVEL THAT TOOK US BACK TO AFRICA. BEFORE THE SLAVE SHIPS LANDED. CONTAINED WITHIN THAT FORTY MINUTES OR SO WERE ALL THE REASONS FOR REGGAE. THE LOGICAL CONCLUSION TO WHAT PRINCE BUSTER HAD BEEN DOING FIFTEEN YEARS PREVIOUSLY WHEN HE GOT COUNT OSSIE INVOLVED IN ' OH CAROLINA'. AND TO THINK AUGUSTUS PABLO MADE HIS MARK PLAYING A MELODICA, AN INSTRUMENT WITH LESS CREDIBILITY THAN A STYLOPHONE. OR PERHAPS THAT'S WHY HE HAD TO TRY A BIT HARDER. PABLO HIT HIS MARK ALMOST IMMEDIATELY. WHICH, WHEN YOU LOOK AT HIS HISTORY, IS HARDLY SURPRISING. HE'D TAUGHT HIMSELF PIANO AT THE AGE THIRTEEN AND MASTERED THE MELODICA AND ORGAN WHILE STILL AT SCHOOL. AS A SIXTEEN YEAR-OLD, HE AND HIS OLDER BROTHER OPERATED THEIR ROCKERS SOUND SYSTEM AND HAD A REPUTATION FOR PUSHING THEIR CROWDS TO THE LIMITS AS THEIR TONE CONTROL EXPERIMENTATION YIELDED ASTONISHING RESULTS. WHEN PABLO CUT HIS FIRST RECORDS IN 1969 AND 1970 HE COMBINED THIS KEYBOARD WIZARDRY AND A TASTE OF ADVENTURE TO CREATE THE WISTFUL 'EAST OF THE RIVER NILE' SOUND. HIS WOOZY MELODICA FLOATED ON TOP OF A HIGH-STEPPING DRUM 'N' BASS THAT SPARKED ITSELF OFF WITH SKIPPING, RICOCHETTING PERCUSSIONS, FLYING CYMBAL AND POWERFUL HORN STABS. IT HAD A SWING ALL OF ITS OWN RIGHT FROM THE START, AND, IN RECOGNITION OF THE SWABYS' SOUND SYSTEM, BECAME KNOWN AS 'ROCKERS STYLE'.       THIS IS AUGUSTUS PABLO WAS RECORDED IN 1970 (ALTHOUGH IT WASN'T RELEASED IN THE THE UK UNTIL 1974) AND IS REGARDED AS ONE OF THE CLASSIC INSTRUMENTAL REGGAE ALBUMS OF ALL TIME. BUT PABLO SOON BECAME UNHAPPY WITH HIS TREATMENT (OR PAYMENT) FROM OTHER LABELS AND IN 1972 SET UP HIS OWN ROCKERS INTERNATIONAL LABEL AND RECORD SHOP, SO HE WAS THEN FREE TO DO PRETTY MUCH HE WANTED. WHICH INVOLVED HOOKING UP WITH KING TUBBY - THE ONE EVENT THAT, AS MUCH AS ANYTHING ELSE, TURNED AUGUSTUS PABLO INTO THE ROOTS REGGAE ICON HE IS.TUBBY'S MIXES BROUGHT ANOTHER DIMENSION TO ARRANGEMENTS AND PRODUCTIONS THAT WERE ALREADY TAKING NOTIONS OF TIME AND SPACE, AS WELL AS TONE AND TEMPO, INTO AREAS UNKNOWN TO REGGAE. BY THE MIDDLE OF THE DECADE THEIR COLLABORATIONS WERE BEING APPLIED TO HIS PRODUCTIONS ON A STRING OF ARTISTS - JACOB MILLER, HUGH MUNDELL, TETRACK TO NAME BUT THREE - RESULTING IN SOME SUPERB AND SUPERBLY VARIED ROOTS MUSIC. ALTHOUGH IT GOT REALLY SUBLIME WHEN THEY WERE DECONSTRUTING AN AUGUSTUS PABLO INSTRUMENTAL. IN SPITE OF THE TONE OF THIS WORK BEING DREAD FROM THE ROOTS, IT WAS NEVER LESS THAN OBVIOUS HOW MUCH PABLO AND KING TUBBY WERE PLAIN ENYOYING WHAT THEY WERE DOING. WHICH BRINGS US NEATLY BACK TO 'KING TUBBY MEETS THE ROCKERS FROM UPTOWN', THE SINGLE. A TUNE OF SUCH UNRESTRAINED JOY, PLAYFULNESS AND CELEBRATION, IT COULDN'T BE ANYTHING OTHER THAN RIGHTEOUS. AND IF EVERYTHING WAS AS EXPLANATORILY TITLED THEN BUYING RECORDS WOULD BE A WHOLE LOT EASIER. PABLO ACTUALLY CAME TO TERMS WITH DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND THE MID-1980'S SHIFT IN REGGAE MUSIC FAR BETTER THAN MANY MIGHT IMAGINE - HIS PRODUCTIONS ON ROCKERS INTERNATIONAL HAVE REMAINED A REGULAR FIXTURE IN THE JAMAICAN CHARTS, AND INCLUDE THAT BRILLIANT JUNIOR DELGADO ALBUM RAGGAMUFFIN YEAR (1990). IN SPITE OF THAT, THOUGH, THE LATE 1980S AND EARLY 1990S WEREN'T PARTICULARLY KIND TO HIM. ILL-HEALTH AS MUCH AS CHANGING FASHION MEANT HE WAS NOWHERE NEAR AS ACTIVE AS HE WAS DURING THE 1970S. HOWEVER, THE ROOTS REVIVAL OF THE MID-1990S HAS - ENTIRELY UNDERSTANDABLY - PUT PABLO BACK IN FAVOUR. HIS BACK CATALOGUE IS WIDELY AVAILABLE ON CD; HE'S TOURING AS MUCH AS HE'S PHYSICALLY ABLE TO - PABLO SHOWS IN LONDON ARE ALWAYS INSTANTLY SOLD OUT, IN SPITE OF NO PUBLICITY AT ALL, AND GIVE UP INSTRUMENTAL ROOTS REGGAE MUSIC LIKE DANCEHALL NEVER HAPPENED; AND HE'S RECORDING BOTH HIMSELF AND OTHER ARTISTS IN AN ORIGINAL ROCKERS STYLE. IT'S SUCH A PITY TUBBY ISN'T THERE TO KICK OFF WITH HIM ANY MORE. THERE ARE CURRENTLY ABOUT FIFTY AUGUSTUS PABLO CDS ON OFFER, BOTH UK-RELEASED AND EASILY AVAILABLE IMPORT. WHAT FOLLOWS IS A SELECTION OF THE MOST VITAL, WHICH IS AS GOOD A STARTING PLACE AS ANY. REVIEWS ARE BRIEF, QUITE SIMPLY BECAUSE THERE IS A PABLO AND PABLO / KING TUBBY VIBE - THE ROCKERS INTERNATIONAL SOUND - THAT IS TOTALLY UNIQUE AND DRIPS OFF EVERY RECORDING WITH HIS NAME ON. AS WAS DISCUSSED ABOVE. ALTHOUGH IN NO WAY DO THEY 'ALL SOUND THE SAME': IF YOU LIKE ONE, THE CHANSES ARE YOU'LL LIKE THE REST. AND PROBABLY VICE VERSA.   KING TUBBY MEETS THE ROCKERS FROM UPTOWN; SANACHIE MESSCD1007 IF, FOR SOME STRANGE REASON, YOU ONLY SEE THE NEED TO OWN ONE AUGUSTUS PABLO CD THEN IT HAS TO BE THIS ONE. IT'S WORTH FAR MORE THAN THE TWELVE QUID OR WHATEVER IT COSTS, JUST FOR THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING ABLE TO PLAY THE TITLE TRACK WHENEVER YOU WANT TO. OF COURSE THERE'S SO MUCH MORE TO IT THAN THAT. THE OPENING CUT, F'RINSTANCE - 'KEEP ON DUBBING' IS A CASCADE OF DIFFERENT KEYBOARDS, LAYERED ON TOP OF EACH OTHER AND A DRUM 'N BASS TRACK THAT DOESN'T QUIT. THEY ARE THEN PASSED ON TO KING TUBBY TO WEAVE IT INTO A ROCKERS TAPESTRY THAT SOUNDS ALL THE MORE STARTLING TWENTY YEARS LATER. OR WHAT ABOUT 'STOP THEM JAH', WHICH PULLS IN THE FULL HORN SECTION TO TAKE THE LEAD. THEN THERE'S EIGHT OTHER ROCKERS INTERNATIONAL GEMS - ALL APPROACHING THEIR TASK WITH AN ENORMOUS ARRAY OF KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS DRIVING THE RHYTHM INSTEAD OF THE TRADITIONAL GUITAR. MOST OF THE TUNES ARE EITHER THE MOST SPECTACULAR REMIXES OF HIS PREVIOUS HITS OR RECUTS OF OLD STUDIO ONE RHYTHMS, AS PABLO ALWAYS LIKED THE NATURAL SWING FOUND IN SO MUCH ROCK STEADY. BUT IN ALL OF THEM YOU CAN LITERALLY HEAR HOW MUCH FUN THESE TWO MUSICAL GIANTS WERE HAVING AS THEY MANIPULATED THE CONTROL BOARD. I COULD GO ON ABOUT THEM, FOREVER, BUT WHILE YOU'RE READING YOU'RE WASTING TIME WHEN YOU COULD BE ON YOUR WAY TO THE RECORD SHOP.