WorldSound

SKY-I vs. No Dough Dub - "Send Them" ft. Micah Dubreuil

Lyrics by Emilien Deschamps

Produced & Arranged by Scott Dough

Engineered & Co-Produced by Kyle Lesley

["Dub Fi Gwan" riddim]

Sky-I, immersion in Jah light

Recorded at the Playground studio A in San Francisco, "Send Them" overlaps multiple styles but if I had to categorize the song I'd describe it as a Nu-Roots/Dub track, voiced by Sky-I. From an inspirational standpoint we reached way back. Borrowing from the forefather of dub, Osbourne "King Tubby" Ruddock, the "Dub Fi Gwan" (1975) riddim's low-fi dub soundscape and esoteric train beat contrasted nicely with the conscious world music singer's positive vibes.

The vocal tracking session with Sky-I went about as smoothly as you could have hoped, dude's a consummate professional, came in polished; and in a little under three hours we had tracked the lead vocal, multiple harmonies and assembled a comp that ended up being pretty close to the final version. Full marks to Kyle Lesley for his efficiency (which did not come at the cost of cutting any corners) and co-producing enthusiasm during this recording. 



Micah Dubreuil of Con Brio           photo credit gerund.shalzers.com

Session got real heavy when Micah Dubreuil of Con Brio made a cameo appearance on the Hammond M-3 and added some sweet decorative touches via the melodica. Con Brio are chock full of awesomness and much like their entire lineup, Micah is an extraordinarily talented cat. Lately in the studio, I find that as much as I want to watch some of these heavies, most of the time I won't let myself; it's akin to not talking to a pitcher during a no-hitter (as if a glance from me is going to derail some badass from properly shredding.) So I just kick back and listen, as it should be.

Kyle Lesley - Dub Practicioner

In addition to being a supremely talented audio engineer and diverse musician, Kyle Lesley can now add 'dub practitioner' to his already impressive resume. VersaKyle's dub guitar stylings were the proverbial icing on the cake. Mmmmm...cake.

I had been tinkering with what was initially intended to be a Tubby tribute instrumental but thought there was a fair amount of room in there for someone like Sky-I to do his thing. Hope we did the dub justice, King.

The single is due for commercial release 7/7/11.