Classic Rockers (Island RRCD 52)
This collection brings together a somewhat mixed bag of Augustus Pablo productions (including his own instrumental and other people's vocal tunes) from the late 70s and early 80s (with, confusingly, some late 80s/90s copyright credits, but these are obviously false from the artists and style of the tunes). It gets off to a good start with Jacob Miller's justifiably famous "Baby I Love You So", whose relatively slight lovers lyric is massively overshadowed by its massive roots riddim and inspired melodica backing. Its dub, "King Tubby Meets The Rockers Uptown" (which gave its title to Pablo's most famous dub/instrumental album), is even heavier, a masterpiece of Tubby's style reverb, echo and haunting chopped-up bits of vocal and melodica solo - one of the definitive classic 70s dub tracks.
"Isn't It Time To See" by the group Tetrack (often mis-credited as "T.E. Track") is another strong roots tune following the same vocal-over-melodica formula, with a heavy sufferers lyric complemented perfectly by Pablo's impassioned backing. "Isn't it time to see... that you can't run away from reality". The next track, "Jah In The Hills", is Pablo in full transcendent solo style, his inimitably haunting and urgent sound showcased nicely by both his soaring melodica and the warm, deep bass and dubbed-out percussion characteristic of his productions.
"Can't Keep A Good Man Down", a cover of a Dennis Brown tune by The Immortals, has similarly nice production, but the somewhat staid and formulaic vocal fails to do the lyric justice: possibly an example of a lyric and/or melody not entirely suited to the Pablo rockers style. Paul Blackman's "Earth Wind And Fire" (nothing to do with the funk band) is, however, an undisputed, if somewhat understated, classic - an almost ecstatic vocal with a typically spiritual message floating above a deep downtempo bassline counterpointed by piano chords and then dubbed into echo oblivion.
Leroy Sibbles's "Love Don't Come Easy" is a recut of a song he originally recorded at Studio 1 with the Heptones, and is mellow and likeable but fairly unremarkable, picking up somewhat when the melodica comes in; however, more truly heavy roots soon follows...
Earl Sixteen's "Changing World" is another highlight, his impassioned vocal sounding both pleading and, in the great roots fashion that Pablo was such a master of, simultaneously celebratory and foreboding of apocalyptic revelation. "It's a new day dawning, and it's a new feeling", for real. Junior Delgado keeps up the mood with "Blackman's Heart", his strident yet emotion-laden voice, perfectly suited to this plea for justice and freedom, building to a magnificent, almost-yelling crescendo along with Pablo's uptempo melodica backing.
Hugh Mundell completes a trinity of transcendent roots tunes with "Jah Says The Time Has Now Come", on which Pablo swaps melodica for his other speciality, piano, with which he conjures up a dark, swirling righteous mood; the "Blessed Youth" is on top form lyrically, both declaring the time for revolutionary unity and chanting vengeance down on "all who have their hands stained with blood". All three of these tunes typify Pablo's deep roots approach at the start of the transition to the dancehall era.
Two Delroy Williams tunes and their dubs follow: firstly "You Never Know", a lovers lyric which, along with its perhaps overly simple and synth-reliant backing, lacks conviction in comparison to the previous uncompromising works of righteousness. Its dub also adds little besides echo, making it a strange choice for inclusion on this compilation. "Stop The Fighting" is somewhat better, if not reaching the heights of some of the other tunes here, with a very uptempo (for Pablo) riddim and a strong anti-violence lyric: its dub, however, is also fairly unremarkable (the melodica master seemingly choosing instead to play synth keyboards on this brace of productions).
The set closes with two more melodica instrumentals, both in the "Far East" style inspired by Pablo's affinity for Chinese and Japanese music, although very different in mood. The almost childish simplicity of "Suki Yaki" comes across as sweetly eccentric rather than lazy, and its mood is one of Pablo's most uncomplicatedly joyful, while "Eastern Promise" is a much darker and more complex tune, with plenty of righteous urgency but still an improvisatory, playful feel.
This selection could have done with leaving out the fairly uninspired lovers tracks to fit in some more of Pablo's deeply spiritual rootsier productions (for instance, Sister Frica's truly wild and out-there "One In The Spirit", or some more of his works with Junior Delgado or Hugh Mundell): however, there are enough heavy slices of rockers vibes here for it to deserve its title. Its biggest problem, however, is that it's on Island, meaning that on an average home hi-fi it's almost impossible to get the bass beyond barely audible without turning the overall volume up to distortion levels (although this CD isn't as bad for this as some earlier Island reissues). As an introduction, however, it's decent, but leaves the discerning listener wanting more...
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