The past years have certainly been a colourful and tremendously rewarding journey for Hughes and Mackay, whose production talents have been called in for remix assignments for Bob Marley, Bebel Gilberto and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and who have headlined major festivals such as the Big Chill. The general consensus has been that the smooth, organic and truly multicultural style of the duo constitutes perfect food for mindtravelling and for building musical bridges from Europe to Asia. The opener to “3 Cities”, “Egypt by Air”, meanwhile, suprises with an aggressively pumping bass line and insistent rhythmic motion pushing a hypnotic string motive. Pieces like “Journey”, meanwhile, combine softly pounding drum loops with romantic Piano work, sensual flute melodies and warm layers of orchestral harmonies – a reference to the Bombay Dub Orchestra’s interest in India’s soundtrack industry.

Some of the recording sessions took place at the most unusual times of day: “The string players that we recorded with worked extraordinary hours”, the band remembers, “They were recording from 7am until 2pm with AR Rahman and then we would record with them from 3pm until 9pm. By this time as you can imagine they were pretty tired but it never showed. The players were amazing, especially considering we never worked with most of them before.” While many solo contributions were taped at their source, additional recording sessions took place at the Rockfield studios – home to classic albums by some of the more daring pop bands of the past decades.

Because all of these international associations, the Bombay Dub Orchestra insist that, in their mind, London’s hotpodge of cultures best sums up the essence of “3 Cities”.

Homepage: Bombay Dub Orchestra
Homepage: Six Degrees Records