Shy Girl In Dub - Green Vinyl

Following the release of Hollie Cook's fifth studio album, Shy Girl, and her return to Mr Bongo 15 years after her debut, the album's producer Ben McKone reconstructs the recordings into a newly cut dubwise release. Crafted on an analogue mixing desk, Ben strips back the productions in vintage dub reggae style. He weaves in delays, echoes, and reverb to push Hollie's trademark sound into a hypnotising, rhythm and bass-heavy, electronic realm. Rich in the tradition of reggae albums from the late '60s onwards, Hollie wanted to reimagine Shy Girl through a dub-focused lens. Evidently, only one person seemed the perfect fit to do so: Ben McKone of the General Roots, who was the producer of Shy Girl and featured heavily across the album as a co-writer and instrumentalist. Someone who had sat with Shy Girl for so long and knew the record inside out. Having found a studio that could accommodate his creative process, Ben got to work experimenting with the stems and effects. He brings the rhythms back to the mixing desk, using it like it's own instrument to give the tracks that heavy, spatial, dubwise treatment. Taking influence from past pioneers, everything happening on the album was improvised live, with some mixes taking up to 25 attempts to get right from start to finish. As Ben mentions, "I love the freedom and human element of dub mixing and find the limitations of some older productions very inspiring too". Paring the songs back, yet dialling up that bass-weight pressure, Ben creates space for chosen elements and instruments to do the talking. Bringing the drums and bass to the fore, he utilises classic echoes, reverb, and effects, as Hollie's vocals drift in and out of the mix. The album opens with 'Shy Dub', a sound system focussed reimagination of the original album's title track, heavy on the tape delay with snippets of Hollie reverberating across the drums and bass. Other highlights include 'Rockaway Dub', melding the floaty, feel-good lovers rock flavour of the track with a low-end leaning, one-drop groove, and 'We Share Dub', a mysticising dub interpretation of Hollie's celestial Skip Mahoney & The Casuals cover. As the final touch, Ben's first choice engineer, Josh Hahn, was drafted in on mastering duties. Josh has blessed the tracks with an old-school quality, depth, and roots vibe, mastering from tape in the original time-honoured fashion. This commitment to detail and authenticity completes an album that feels timeless whilst also being full of fresh life and energy. One that would have been equally at home shaking the foundations of Blues parties gone by, as it is sound system sessions of today.