Working Progress by groundsound

groundsound is a message-driven, Afrofuturist partnership between Gavsborg (of Equiknoxx) and Riddim Writer (word artist & cultural analyst). The founding member of the music collective Equiknoxx, Gavsborg has been breaking and disrupting how the world hears Jamaican music for nearly two decades. As a published dub scholar and educator, Riddim Writer has been using her voice to build community and understanding of Caribbean and African diaspora culture. The two first collaborated in 2019 for a single track exploring how African alienation in Jamaica’s hinterlands has survived in both rhythm and memory. There was an easy magic in their synergy, each feeding the other’s aesthetically grassroots musicality. groundsound was born from their mutual desire to make music that would be interactive, social sound art. Their full-length project is here to free-up how listeners hear, think of, and understand Jamaica, its people, its music, and its culture.

With a one-hour album, they deliver a dub, broken beats, futurist dancehall set that will move listeners. They bring an immersive natural landscape to life: wind, whispers, and water are palpable. Vocally, they meditate on the mundane and provoke the political: What is intimacy to an untouchable bleacher? Why is the visa application process so invasive? What is obeah? Can dancehall center queerness? groundsound stirs the body to nod, sway, and bubble to the melody of the message.

"working progress is broken beats meets black space, memory meets magic, and decolonial meets dub. Each track is an invitation to skank, spin, and slip with us through time" - Riddim Writer

Tracklist

1.	Obeah 5 Train with Earth and the Fullness	2:36

2.	Visa	5:45

3.	Put on an Iron Shirt w/ KAT7	5:00

4.	Trod	2:55

5.	Tricky	4:10

6.	Dip, Sashay, Sway	4:22

7.	The Obeah Act	0:22

8.	Myal with Erna Brodber	0:20

9.	Elena	7:40

10.	Dubplate Dub Gate	0:32

11.	Equal Righters	5:02

12.	we had a QUALITY TIME dubbing these drums	11:21

13.	This is a PSA	4:41

14.	Losing My Mind... Decolonial Beat	6:21

15.	Sonic Uprising	7:11

Credits

released February 29, 2024

Cover art by Lee Hodges (UK based visual artist).

Featured Vocalists - Isis Semaj-Hall performs vocals on all tracks except track 8. Gavin Blair (Tracks 2, 9, 10, & 14), Olivia Wilmot (Track 01), Clayton Johnson (Track 3), Tóke (Track 4), Nicole Burt (Tracks 5 & 9), Erna Brodber (Track 8), Mary Ann Shields (Track 13).

Featured Musicians - Gavin Blair plays on all tracks. Olivia Wilmot (Guitar, Track 01), Franklyn Waul (Synthesizer, Track 2), Delroy Hamilton (Bass, Track 3 & 12) Ordean Francis (Drums, Track 3), Demar Gayle (Synthesizer, Track 3), Courtland White, (Guitar, Track 3), Everol Wray (Brass, Track 3), Nicholas Allen (Kumina Drumming, Track 15), Nicholas Grosskoph (Guitar, Track 15).

Mixed by Hendrick Valera (Cali, Colombia) & mastered by Nik Sinna, (Manchester, UK).

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