V.A. Bubble Chamber

Cover by Abdul Qadim Haqq, 56 Page Bubble Chamber booklet included! Gentrified Underground presents an interdisciplinary project tackling the sonic fiction & afrofuturism of Drexciya. Thought as an extension to the Bubble Chamber exhibition happening at Mikro & Up State Zürich, GU releases a 2x12 vinyl compilation and a booklet with contributions by Abdul Qadim Haqq, Charlie Mills, Chukwumaa, Dominiqueh White, Gentrified Underground, Maïté Chéniere and tracks by Xor Gate (Gerald Donald), Shawescape Renegade, DJ Dijital, Plant43, The Exaltics, Kuldaboli, Iko, Tom Ware, Luz1e and Sansibar. The goal of this compilation is to showcase the reach and influence which Drexciya had on generations of electronic music producers while linking them together with compositorial predecessors from the early 80s. The musical timeline of the compilation starts from 1982 and reaches its contemporary end in 2019. The 56 pages booklet contains unseen and unreleased Drexciyan drafts by Abdul Qadim Haqq, an interview between him and GU, contemporary art contributions by chukwumaa, Dominiqueh White and Maïté Chéniere and an academic essay by Charlie Mills. “More than twenty years after their first release, the sonic fictions produced by Drexciya, the Detroit based electronic duo founded by James Stinson and Gerald Donald at the start of the 1990s, continues to enthral contemporary cultural practitioners. By reimagining the Transatlantic Slave Trade as a fiction of enforced mutation, the Drexciya mythos opened, and continues to open, a speculative space for the reimagining of the posthuman condition, and for questions of becoming, origin and mutation in relation to capitalism, finance and futurity.” - Kodwo Eshun