THE SPECIALIST
AUGUSTUS PABLO
Ancient Harmonies VP RECORDS
8/10
Four key albums from reggae’s melodica maestro repackaged
SOMEWHERE between a pump organ and a harmonica, the melodica is a strange and often derided instrument. Invented by Hohner in the 1950s, Steve Reich conferred a degree of respectability by composing for it and Damon Albarn overcame initial ridicule to make the instrument’s eerie wheeze an integral part of the sound of Gorillaz. Yet nobody has used the melodica more effectively than Augustus Pablo, whose dubby soundscapes have made his name almost synonymous with the instrument.
Born in Jamaica in 1954, he started out playing the church organ at Kingston College School, where the West Indian Test bowler Michael Holding was a classmate. He became fascinated by the melodica after a schoolgirl lent him her instrument. To most it was little more than a toy, but Pablo saw a wealth of sonic possibilities.
By the age of 15 he was using it in the Kingston studios, where his spooky melodica solos in mournful, minor-key mode became known as “the far east sound”. By 1972 he had.
