Mykal Rose and Subatomic Sound System and Hollie Cook drop Happy Is The Man Who Finds Wisdom

Reggae superstar Mykal Rose, original voice of the Grammy Award-winning Jamaican group Black Uhuru, steps into the future with Lee "Scratch" Perry's former band, NYC dub specialists Subatomic Sound System and London lover's rock queen Hollie Cook on the brand new single “Happy is the Man Who Finds Wisdom,” serving up a more meditative vibe on this third single from the trio's upcoming collaborative full-length album, Rockin’ Like A Champion, slated for release July 26 via joint venture between Dubshot Records and Controlled Substance Sound Labs. The 15-track album is available to pre-save and pre-order today.

LISTEN TO "HAPPY IS THE MAN WHO FINDS WISDOM"

PRE-SAVE/ORDER ROCKIN' LIKE A CHAMPION

With all the stress and struggle in the world right now, people need a different vibe to make it through,” says Rose. “This music can give them a spiritual healing.”

Mykal’s voice is inherently powerful, but in this song he surprisingly contrasts that strength with quiet moments, starting with his line “Mankind must live in unity today” and then hypnotically drawing the listener into the trance of his repeating mantra:

Open the door sesame

Happy is the man who finds wisdom

Hollie Cook’s angelic harmonies further enhance the spiritual energy of the song. Subatomic’s percussionist Larry McDonald (recently inducted into the Jamaican Music Hall of Fame for his work with The Skatalites) lays down congas, shakers, and even flexatone. Troy Shaka Simms weaves a spell with soprano and alto saxophones. Emch fills it out with melodica, guitars, organs, bass, drums, 808s, and effects, mixing it all up into an ital stew.

Musically mystical, Subatomic’s production style flourishes on the trance-inducing riddim, highlighting their approach to classic analog sounds in the higher frequencies while drawing on more futuristic techniques inspired by their immersion in NYC hip hop, electronic music, and sound system culture to extend bass frequencies to the lower octaves for deeper resonance and a wider spectrum. In this case, the upper frequencies are reminiscent of horns from classic 1960s Ethio-jazz recordings; drums, guitars, percussion, organs, tape echoes, phasers and spring reverbs from 1970s Jamaican dub productions; lo-fi snare drums from 90s golden era NYC hip hop production. Meanwhile the bass and kick drum live deep in sine wave, sub-bass frequencies, steady pulsing like the sound of a mother’s heartbeat to a baby in the womb or an 808 thumping in a car trunk three blocks away, heard through your open apartment window on a hot summer night in Brooklyn.

“Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry always told us that to make great music, it had to be spiritual, not just the lyrics but the vibe” says Emch. “By the time this song releases, Subatomic’s percussionist Larry McDonald will be 87 years young. I was thinking about the times he described playing drums with Count Ossie in the earliest nyabinghi sessions held on Wareika Hill in Jamaica. The vibe of those mystic drum and saxophone recordings channeling the ancestors and the whole vibe of Scratch when he and Larry first connected back at the inception of reggae in the early 70s that led up to the Black Ark studio era, all that was on our minds for translating that vibe to the ears of a new generation and blended with the influences of life in New York City.”

The dub mix goes deep into ASMR territory with very sparse moments that highlight the sweet intimacy of Hollie Cook’s backing harmonies interspersed in a call and response style with Mykal, as dub echoes of instruments go rippling off over the deep swell of the bass. It’s a perfect soundtrack to hold a meds while hearing wind rustle through the palm trees and watching the last ray of sun slipping below the horizon of the Caribbean Sea. One of Subatomic’s last projects with Scratch was doing dub mixes for Hawaiian singer Jack Johnson’s “In Between Dub” album. The quiet calm of this dub mix harkens back to that project as well as a nod to Hollie Cook’s recent “Happy Hour in Dub” album.

About the collaboration:

"I always want to do my ting different," says the prolific Rose. "With Black Uhuru and with Sly & Robbie we try to reach beyond reggae, draw everything in to create a universal music. The first song me ever record was with Scratch (Lee Perry) at Black Ark when I was just a teenager. Scratch different for sure! And I see the work Scratch do with Subatomic different too, same way for this generation, reaching beyond."

Born of time-tested relationships that date back decades, the “Put Down the Gun” single and forthcoming full-length album Rockin’ Like a Champion, are the results of a slowly evolving history where three distinct artists, each with their own unique background, converge in a meaningful intersection of generations, styles, and cultures: artists from Kingston, NYC, and London, each with a story that has led them to create an album and also perform together as a band. Summer tour plans are in the works, with more dates to be announced soon.

Hollie Cook was first introduced to Emch in 2010 through mutual friend Ari Up from the pioneering 70s all female punk band The Slits, with whom Cook had joined in their final incarnation before Ari Up's death in 2010. Subatomic and The Slits had been collaborating on several tunes with Lee "Scratch" Perry and dub mixing for The Slits at the time. Emch and Cook kept the connection through the years until the multi-talented producer eventually recruited the singer to add her lilting vocals as a counterweight to Mykal's powerful delivery -- which has earned him the nickname "Ruff" Rose -- on the current project.

"I feel honored to be in any collaboration with Mykal Rose," gushed Cook. "I really appreciate Emch’s vision of how I fit into this new project. Doing background and harmony is my favorite! I’m so thankful to be doing it in this context with these people. I always vibed on vocal harmonies," of which, she cites Motown, especially The Temptations, The Supremes, but also The Beach Boys, The Shirelles, Shangrilas, and The Marvellettes as the most influential. "I was into punk, but I never saw myself as a singer in that style. If it wasn't for me joining The Slits to sing harmony and the connection they made between punk and reggae back in the 70s, I may not have ended up singing reggae at all."

MYKAL ROSE & SUBATOMIC SOUND SYSTEM TOUR DATES:

June 29 Jackson Hole, WY @ – Mykal Rose Subatomic Sound System w/ Stephen Marley on the top of the mountain

MYKAL ROSE TOUR DATES:

July 13 Atlantic City, NJ @ Summer Concert Stage at Island Water Park - Showboat Resort