Review

An inclusive and far-reaching vision of the possibilities of instrumental reggae
By 1978, reggae keyboardist Horace "Augustus Pablo" Swaby had moved on from the explosive dub deconstructions of his breakthrough album, King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown. East of the River Nile, written and produced completely by Pablo, instead offered an inclusive and far-reaching vision of the possibilities of instrumental reggae. The album unfurls scrolls of sound imprinted with Pablo's trademark "Far East" style, drifting plaintively in minor keys; it seems to play with time itself. The bubbling shuffle of the title track (presented here in three different versions) harks back to Jackie Mittoo's soul-era Jamaican funk excursions. The looping Black Ark-isms of "Unfinished Melody" bear the influence of Pablo's sometime collaborator, Lee "Scratch" Perry. "Africa (1983)" is a scintillating dub version of his futurist roots hit for teen wunderkind Hugh Mundell. "Sounds From Levi" and "Chapter 2" float in the kind of electric-blue liquid space that electro, techno and drum 'n' bass artists would still be striving for decades later.