Gavsborg - 1 Hour Service (2023)

Mad debut album of wild dancehall variants from Equiknoxx’s Gavsborg, running loosey goosey skews on space cadet soul, acid bashment, and cosmic Caribbean funk.

Chasing up his 2022 EP with Equiknoxx bandmate Jord for Jon k & Elle Andrews’ MAL, Gavsborg flips expectations at every turn on ‘1 Hour Service’ with an abundance of expressive keyboard chops alloyed to lysergic slants on contemporary and ancient dancehall modes. It’s psychedelic as fuck especially the hypnagogic, 11 minute electro-dub loops on ‘The Sexton in the Winter’, or what sounds like Dennis Weise (Dr. Wize) jamming with Paul DeMarinis on ‘Disgorge Your Colonized Sample Packs’. To be fair, this sorta oddness shouldn’t be any surprise to anyone who’s followed the brilliantly offbeat shape of Equiknoxx releases thus far, but still, this one really pushes the prism in practically unprecedented ways for Jamaican music in the digickal era.

Of course, dancehall’s pendulous tresillo torque is fundamental to proceedings, as with the gooey acid bogle of opener ‘She Sings Something’ and ‘Live at Patch Point Berlin’, or skewed all glassy and cuboid in ‘A Dancing Crustacean at the Bus Station’ ft. Tóke, and the woozy Count Ossie emulation ‘Cité Soleil’, but the hour long session is really distinguished by Gav’s more spangled moments. The first sign comes in the metallic chipmunk chorale of ’Tucker from Sucker’, and surfaces in the smudged chromatic chords of his cosmic reggae soul ace ‘Coming to You Grey’ ft. Shanique Marie, or spurting jazz funk like Dr. Wize via Herbie Hancock in ‘Pam Pam Pam Pam Pam - Five Pams’ and the weird soul of ‘Artificial Love’, with twists of simmered down drill in ‘The Jamaican Pesto Manifesto’, and ‘Mighty God of Daniel’ that keep everyone guessing ’til the end.