Dub Inc bring Grammy Award-winning Jamaican artist Kabaka Pyramid onto “Break the Silence”, the latest single from their ninth album Atlas, in a direct call to speak up when injustice and division shape public life.
The Saint-Étienne six-piece – led by Aurélien “Komlan” Zohou and Hakim “Bouchkour” Méridja on vocals – have spent two decades building a socially conscious reggae discography. On “Break the Silence” they share the microphone with the Jamaican artist, whose album The Kalling won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album in 2023, forming a link between long-running French reggae and one of the most articulate voices currently working in Kingston’s roots revival.
Atlas was recorded at the band’s new Greenlab studio in Saint-Étienne following the cancellation of their previous tour on health grounds. That enforced break from the road gave the band time to reconfigure their sonic approach across twelve tracks addressing what they term “societal themes which are full of meaning“. The album widens their established reggae frame considerably: accordion enters to reference cumbia, mandola and oud parts draw on North African and Middle Eastern harmonic traditions, and electric guitar occasionally pulls arrangements toward rock structures. The record moves between electronic production choices and fully acoustic band settings, with guest contributions from New Caledonian singer Marcus Gad alongside longtime collaborators Alaoua Idir on oud and Antony Gatta on percussion. Guido Craveiro – now on his fourth collaboration with the band – mixed the album and produced “Atlas dub“, a full reworking of the title track that closes the record.
“Break the Silence” addresses responsibility head-on. Kabaka Pyramid’s verse meets Komlan and Bouchkour’s call to “put aside all that divides us, in order to preserve what unites us” and the track frames speaking out as non-negotiable when facing what the group describe as “a world in crisis”. The title already states the demand: silence is complicity, and Atlas positions itself as a record where social pressure and optimism sit side by side without softening either.
Stream and listen to the single HERE