Augustus Pablo

Billy Polo: Audio Engineer As Archaeologist

by Lawrence Peryer
June 20, 2026

Today, we're putting The Tonearm's needle on Billy Polo, in-house audio and mastering engineer, at iconic Jamaican music label VP Records. Billy has spent years restoring and remastering some of the most important recordings in reggae and dancehall history. Works from Peter Tosh, Dennis Brown, King Jammy, Sly and Robbie, and dozens more. Billy works with the original analog tapes, often in rough shape, and brings them back for today's and tomorrow's listeners. We talk about ...

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Extended Analysis

Augustus Pablo: The Mystic World of Augustus Pablo - The Rockers Story

by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
January 23, 2009

Augustus Pablo The Mystic World of Augustus Pablo - The Rockers Story Shanachie 2008

Jorge Luis Borges wrote The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim in 1936. On first reading, it's a book review of a detective novel by an obscure Indian lawyer. Except that there was no such book; the “review" is itself a work of fiction. Borges would point out the efficiency of his method: why go to the trouble of writing six hundred pages ...