Maral

Los Angeles’s Maral has spent the past half-decade quietly honing an approach that meshes the latest in experimental electronic contortions, a range of pulverized dub effects, and samples from her library of Iranian folk, pop and classical musics. She's collaborated with Lee "Scratch" Perry, Panda Bear and Penny Rimbaud of Crass and remixed artists like Black Dice, Anika, Automatic and more. She has released two critically acclaimed records on Leaving Records. 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. "At her best, Maral is an alchemist, making disparate samples sing, like Shadow and Dilla before her." - Resident Advisor "A display of righteous fury that's equivalent to warming your hands over a pile of burning passports" - Pitchfork "This is one of those records that invites endless play, revealing new aspects on each spin to close listeners" - Bandcamp