2023-09-24 22:10:39
In a country whose literature focused on the musical field is based mainly on the translation of foreign titles and, little by little, on works about the Spanish musical reality, the launch of Treasure Island is quite an anomaly. Subtitled History of Jamaican music of the 20th century (Caligrama Ediciones), this enormous volume of 550 pages and 76 chapters, covers the fertile and overflowing musical garden of Jamaica between the 50s and 90s. But it is not the translation of any work Anglo-Saxon: it is a titanic company led by a handful of music lovers from Catalonia, Euskadi and the Valencian Community, the three enclaves of the peninsula that have historically shown the most interest in reggae.
“The book has come forward thanks to the enthusiasm of people who have investigated on their own with hardly any means,” emphasizes Jordi López (alias Ragnampaisser), the ideologist of a project that began to take shape at the end of the 20th century. The objective of the book was to refute many of the clichés that the genre carried in Spain: “That there is nothing beyond Bob Marley, that all music sounds the same and that everything is peace, love and beach, when Jamaica has been one of the most violent countries in the world,” Ragnampaisser counters. To do this, there is nothing better than contextualizing the country socially and politically, analyzing its countless subgenres and explaining the numerous particularities of a music industry that has functioned at full capacity without ever adhering to Western standards.
For decades, the success of Jamaican artists has been determined in sound systems and dance floors, not in the offices of record labels. A very short run of singles was made, they were distributed among the DJs and if the single was successful among the public that went to dance on the weekends, it was pressed and distributed commercially. The one that did not set, nor was pressed. On the other hand, in Jamaica the producers were often as famous or more famous than the singers. And there were hardly any bands like in the world of rock; The singers recorded with the musicians who were in the studio that day. All of this led to Jamaica being “the country with the highest percentage of people involved in music. There, whoever does not touch, produces; who does not produce, record or play; and whoever wants to sing… try,” Ragnampaisser highlights.
Limiting the productive flow of the island was the great challenge of its authors. Ragnampaisser, Iñaki Yarritu, Dr. Dekker, Carlos Monty form a kind of council of wise men of Jamaican culture in Spain since they met back in the 80s thanks to the first stores specialized in Jamaican music that opened in Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia . Ragnampaisser, an occasional singer and owner of one of those record stores, is the concert promoter who organized the first Spanish tours of reggae artists. Yarritu created the Basque Dub Foundation, one of the most vibrant musical projects that have emerged on the peninsula. Monty was director of AfroXpress magazine and David Vilches (aka Dr. Dekker) has published in countless magazines. They are the four pillars that, with the reinforcement of other satellite collaborators such as Luis Lapuente, Lord Dick, Josu Olarte and Fandos Martínez, once took on the challenge of organizing and displaying the vast Jamaican legacy.
The book is divided into four parts that more or less coincide with the last four decades of the 20th century: the ska and rocksteady of the 60s, the reggae of the 70s, the dub explosion of the 80s and the digital evolution of the 90s. all, the technical or interpretative particularities of each genre are described with dazzling thoroughness (voice textures, ways of hitting the drums…) and the trail is followed, looking for needles in all the haystacks, until finding the song that defines them. : the first ska beat, the first clearly rocker drum pattern, the first Africanist rhythmic references, the first song recorded with a drum machine… There is an entire chapter dedicated to the British lovers rock sound, an exclusive subchapter for the vocals in falsetto, a list of all the women who recorded with Lee Perry… And each genre, singer and producer that deserves its own chapter includes a recommended and commented discography.
The completist obsession of Treasure Island is scary. There are paragraphs with references to twenty different singles. There are chapters where a hundred artists are mentioned. Possibly, altogether there are 30,000 different references: to albums, instrumentalists, singles, producers, arrangers, record stores, models of recording tables, studio addresses… “Each line of this book has forced us to get up from the chair and go “Go for the disk to check the data,” insists Ragnampaisser. Even more noble is that when unclear aspects are addressed, the book states that there are versions found without taking sides or, failing that, it specifies that it is an unverified rumor.
But, beyond the profusion of data, and a desire that is more encyclopedic than literary, more completist than essayistic, there is also an effort to contextualize Jamaican music and attribute to it the value it deserves. Here we talk about everything from the conquest of the island by the Europeans to the importance of British sound systems as spaces of meeting and cohesion for the Jamaican community that migrated to the United Kingdom. The magnitude of Bob Marley as a great international icon is recognized, of course, but the dimension of numerous artists from the 80s and 90s who now only appeal to the local public (with their messages, with their slang…) and who They will be as influential for the country’s youth as the king of reggae, although they are viewed with suspicion from Europe. It also explains how, in the 70s, numerous singers and producers hired thugs to pressure at gunpoint the announcers who did not broadcast their recordings, and contextualizes the homophobia expressed by many Jamaican singers in the dancehall scene of the 90s.
In Spain there are hardly any books on Jamaican music beyond a handful of biographies about Bob Marley. However, it is a key country in the sound future of the 20th century. There, key techniques have been developed for recent musical evolution, such as remixing or vocal improvisation over recorded rhythms. It is a country that has exported tremendously popular and highly experimental music; often, avoiding the disinterest of the stations. A very poor country but that found on the dance floor and in the meetings around the loudspeakers a space of real democracy outside the impositions of the media. It is difficult to imagine how the music of this planet would have evolved if Jamaica had not existed. Even reggaeton has its origins in this Caribbean island, repository of so many treasures.
Time passes at a different pace in Jamaica. Anyone who has listened to Lee Perry’s lengthy productions, anyone who has suffered tachycardia listening to the first raggamuffin samples, or anyone who has lost track of time immersing themselves in the pristine harmonies of the Heptones will know this. A phrase illustrates the willingness to solve any challenge in a matter of seconds: “Jamaicans, always ready!” (Jamaicans, always ready). But the Caribbean flow can also strand a plan for months. General disorder and instant inspiration are two sides of the same coin. In this sense, Treasure Island is triply Jamaican. Not only because of its content and the lack of intensive style correction but also because of its eventful history.
The book began to be written in 1996, when the Internet was a strange hole and the only way to obtain documentation was to read specialized magazines, study the album credits with a magnifying glass and ask the few musicians who set foot in Spain, tape recorder in hand. Some texts were written by hand and sent by post and then typed. Initially, the project was going to be launched from Rockdelux magazine. Five years later, the book still had not taken shape because some collaborators continued writing their texts forever. A first version of the book was delivered in 2002, but by then Rockdelux had already lost all interest in the project. Among other reasons, because the manuscript tripled the agreed volume: it was 2,000 pages!
The project was so shelved that when an attempt was made to restart it, there was no way to open the document because the version of the computer program in which it had been archived was old. Until 2006 the material could not be decrypted, but the attempts made to find a publisher in the following years were unsuccessful. Treasure Island, like the one in RL Stevenson’s book, became one of those legends that no one knew if there was any truth to them. The treasure remained buried for many more years until the pandemic arrived. And with so much time to reflect, regret unfulfilled life goals and return to unfinished projects, it was time to return to that old dream.
Finally, it was the Jamaican music festival Rototom Sunsplash that gave definitive support to the book. But although Treasure Island was released in 2023, it must be read as a book written 20 years ago. Not only because it barely touches on the musical production of the new millennium, but because its writing has not even been updated beyond indicating with notes at the end of the chapter whether the reviewed artists have died. When it is said, for example, that Sizzla Kalonji’s last album is from 2002, one should not think that it has not been recorded for two decades. It might seem pointless to recommend reading an encyclopedia written two decades ago today, but in a way, so much waiting now works in your favor. Treasure Island can be enjoyed as a guide book while the Internet allows you to listen to many of the songs it mentions.
The book, more than ever, is a treasure map. And the reader, the pirate who will search the ocean of music aggregators in search of the pieces that he most wants to listen to. The authors themselves have created several lists on Spotify with more than 400 titles. Like any long-awaited reward, Treasure Island will overwhelm the music lover and drive the collector stumped. But, above all, it will allow its heroic drivers to rest. A great weight has been lifted off their shoulders. One kilo and 600 grams of book. Tremendous loot.
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