Name: Ground Groove
Brand: Maral

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

LR232

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2023-06-16

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0669158571321

Total Cap

Black LP

Artist

Maral

Genre GB

Electronic

Label GB

Leaving Records

Leaving Records is a homegrown experimental record label started by L.A. experimental musician MatthewDavid and visual artist Jesselisa Moretti. With a distribution partnership with Stones Throw Records, Leaving Records has become a prominent force in the music industry.
Known for their unique and innovative approach to music, Leaving Records showcases a diverse range of artists who push the boundaries of traditional genres. From ambient soundscapes to electronic beats, their catalog offers an eclectic mix that appeals to both avid music enthusiasts and casual listeners.
With an emphasis on artistic expression and creativity, Leaving Records aims to provide a platform for emerging talent while also supporting established musicians. Their dedication to nurturing talent and fostering collaboration sets them apart from other labels in the industry.

Ground Groove, the third full-length release from the LA-based, Iranian-American producer and DJ, Maral, begins with an invocation: the sprawling, achingly heavy Feedback Jam opens the floodgates of history. Conventional (linear) spacetime collapses, crushed beneath the track’s lumbering 4/4 heartbeat and successive waves of distortion. As each wave recedes, samples trickle forward in the mix — seeking, perhaps, to fill the void. Voices and instruments rise and fall in uncanny reverse. Overlapping, implied melodies flicker into focus, then flit away. Feedback Jam is at once an initiation ritual, and a thesis statement for the record that follows.

Drawing upon a vast personal archive of Iranian folk, classical, and pop recordings (some sourced from mixtapes made by her parents in the eighties/nineties), Maral presents, on Ground Groove, a further refinement of the signature “folk club” sound she developed as a live DJ— a sound she would later codify on Mahur Club (2019) and Push (2020). By collecting, dissecting, and re/presenting sonic fragments from Iran, Maral practices a kind of dance-floor ethnomusicology. The subject of her inquiry: Iranian culture and contexts, throughout history and in the present. But, crucially, this inquiry is instantiated within and throughout the body of the listener, whether this listener is dancing in the club, or riding the train, nodding along with headphones on.

Ground Groove

Music GB