Augustus Pablo
East of the River Nile

THE REVIEW

From the series; wonders from Jamaica.

One day, Horace Swaby, a sixteen-year-old boy, entered a Kingston record store wielding a toy instrument, which wasn't really a toy.

The owner of that store, one of the top producers of Jamaican music, became curious and, as fate would have it, the next day that boy found himself recording a single.

Horace Swaby, who immediately became Augustus Pablo, went on to become a pioneer along with names like King Tubby and Lee Perry, in the invention of dub, a subgenre of reggae, which he would interpret in a mystical and melancholic way, creating from scratch an inexhaustible and wavering minor musical idiom, the so-called far east sound.

From the series wonders from Jamaica, as we were saying...

Although, to tell the truth, when I think of Augustus, what comes to mind are things that have little or nothing to do with Jamaica.

Like: the organ of a folk ballad, or a childish tune. But that’s my quirk of seeking out obscure connections. And, being a quirk, let's drop it right away, perhaps keeping only the idea of something small, not to say insignificant.

Then if you don't love small or insignificant things, forget about Augustus.

In any case, here we are talking about that magical three-letter word...and that word means nothing more than a cheap musical trick, namely echo and reverb…

And suspension…

And things that, in a momentary defeat of gravity and thanks to a stripped-down rhythm and slender melodies, linger in the air a moment longer than they should.

Ah, from my point of view few music have the same hypnotic power as this strange and sweet super-essential psychedelia obtained by revolving around a sort of least common denominator of sound.

In this record then Augustus adds an extra layer of enchantment and a strange bewitching softness made of very fragile grace and humble joy.

Humble, yes...

Humble was the instrument, that breath keyboard called melodica…

And humble the musician, a man of few words struck by Jah.

Someone who married echo and reverb to sounds so fragile, always on the verge of dissolving, that the very fact they didn’t dissolve transformed them instantly into good and healing energy.

This is music that does good. So much so that there’s not even a need for words, Augustus almost never sings...

And anyway, in summary, the greatness of the record is that, while remaining within a well-defined genre, it manages to convey in a simple and so to speak natural way a sensation of naive transcendence. And what moves you most is how this result is achieved with absolute simplicity of means, with a small instrument halfway between a flute and a keyboard and little tunes that don't even dream of raising their heads for a moment.

So listen and close your eyes...then open them again...who knows, maybe the things around you will appear different...

Augustus Pablo, who passed away in the late nineties, was a giant of Jamaican music. He recorded many albums, also frequently playing in those of others.

If I chose “East of the river nile” it is only because it was the first I heard...and, believe me, I remember that moment well.