Augustus Pablo: Classic Rockers

One of dub reggae's outstanding producers was Augustus Pablo - the man who introduced the distinctive melodica sound that went on to feature on so many dub recordings. He loved echo too, along with a far-Eastern influenced vibe and you get plenty of that here. He was also jointly responsible, along with King Tubby, for a cut that many claim launched dub genre in King Tubby's Meet the Rockers Uptown (I disagree on that claim, actually, many dub cuts were around from the early seventies before that track's 1976 release). Anyway, that's splitting hairs. There is no doubt of Pablo's dub pre-eminence. 

As with so much dub material, albums credited to Augustus Pablo, or King Tubby, or many others contain tracks played and sung by others but produced or contributed to by the titular artist. Musicians involved include reggae luminaries such as Carlton Barrett, Aston Barrett, Leroy Sibbles, Robbie Shakespeare and Earl Chinna Smith. So, with that in mind, here is what we get here on this Island Records compilation -

Jacob Miller - Baby I Love You So 
Augustus Pablo - King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown (Baby I Love You So rhythm)
T.E. Track (Tetrak) - Isn't It Time To See 
Augustus Pablo - Jah In The Hills (instrumental)
The Immortals - Can't Keep A Good Man Down 
Paul Blackman - Earth Wind And Fire (Run Revolution A Come rhythm)
Leroy Sibbles - Love Won't Come Easy 
Earl Sixteen - Changing World 
Junior Delgado - Blackman's Heart 
Hugh Mundell - Jah Says The Time Has Now Come
Delroy Williams - You Never Know
Rockers All Stars - You Never Know Dub 
Delroy Williams - Stop The Fighting 
Rockers All Stars - Stop The Fighting Dub 
Augustus Pablo - Suki Yaki 
Augustus Pablo - Eastern Promise 

The sound is really good too - warm, bassy, but not speaker-vibrating as some dub can be. I have to say it is subtle and most impressive - one of the best reggae masterings I have heard. Love it. That deep, solid but unintrusive bass is a thing of beauty.

The best tracks are the rootsier ones - the first ten, particularly Blackman's Heart, Changing World and Jah In The Hills. This section of the CD is the haunting, atmospheric essence of Pablo. The last six tracks date from the eighties and, although bassy and dubby in places, they definitely exhibit typically eighties characteristics - a smoother, easy-listening, reggae-lite sound of the sort Aswad put out at the same time. They are ok - pretty good, in fact - but they are not what one would buy an Augustus Pablo CD for. Stick with the first ten tracks initially. You will notice the difference.

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