Grievous Angel Vs Bill Withers: No sunshine

There’s been some discussion recently about the possibility of a softer, more melodic dubstep emerging – even a “coffee table” version of dubstep. There’s something to be said for this approach – a 4hero or Massive Attack style of dubstep – though it’s fraught with danger.

Anyway, this isn’t it. 🙂

I’m going a different way towards softness – taking a dub, and dubstep, approach to acoustic soul rather than my beloved reggae. In this instance, I’ve taken Bill Withers’ solid gold classic “Ain’t No Sunshine” and made it into a bit of a dread monster. This is famously a song that invites re-working, it’s bare two minutes and minimal structure inviting musicians to toy with its plaintive yet brooding melody; The Temptations turned it into a vast, long psychedelic soul epic, for example. Personally, I was haunted by the sound of Withers’ voice intoning the “No Sunshine” refrain over dubstep bass; it was an earworm I couldn’t escape, an earworm of a track that didn’t yet exist. Clearly I had no choice but to make it.

Let me know what you think.

Grievous Angel Vs Bill Withers: No Sunshine. 5:49. MP3. http://www.grievousangel.net/NoSunshine.mp3