Groundation - Young Tree (1999) {Jim Fox 2002 Remaster}

Young Tree (Young Tree, 1999)

While it hasn't necessarily shown itself commercially, there has been surge in American roots reggae during the 1990s and into the 21st century. U.S.-based Caribbean emigrants aside, indigenous Americans like John Brown's Body, 10 Ft. Ganja Plant, and Soldiers of Jah Army have helped spearhead an underground return to the old school roots sound that has flown below a radar dominated by dancehall artists like Shaggy (zoinks!). Add to that list of overlooked talent the group Groundation. Having released several albums over the past 5 years, they have built up an ever-growing fan base drawn to their rich, authentic roots reggae rhythms. Listening to Young Tree, which has been termed the first reggae "concept album" (although some consider The Wailers' Catch a Fire as such) -- revolving around said young tree, i.e., the Tree of Life -- you'd be hard-pressed to tell that they're not a veteran Jamaican act instead of a bunch of California kids who formed in 1998 at Sonoma State College. The most immediately striking aspect of Groundation's sound is lead singer Harrison Stafford's impassioned wailing. With his raspy yet melodic flow, he seems to channel Bob Marley, combined with HR's energy and a little bit of his own righteous, thoughtful, conceptual lyrics. After listening to this album, I had to search out a photo of him to verify that he was indeed just some white American . . . not that there's anything wrong with that. The power behind Groundation doesn't stop there, however; their music is enthralling and at times quite inventive, incorporating elements of jazz (the founding members of the group studied jazz in college) in tunes like the awesome "Dream," which travels seamlessly from jazz to reggae and back to jazz. Even when they don't overtly throw in jazz, the entire Young Tree experience has a cool, expansive jazzy feel, as tracks tend to be long (often 6 or 7 minutes), spacious works with extensive instrumental spans that lend an improvisational "jamming" sound to it all. From explosive start to staid finish, Young Tree is easily one of the best American reggae albums you'll ever hear. There is little that any roots fan -- in America or anywhere else -- can find lacking here. Fans of melodic, live-band roots acts like the more well-known John Brown's Body should certainly check out tunes like "Long Long Ago," "Confusing Situation," "Glory to the Kings," and "Groundation Chant." Fantastic stuff.

Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 1 from 15. November 2010

EAC extraction logfile from 13. May 2011, 16:02

Groundation / Young Tree

Used drive : PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-105 Adapter: 1 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 690
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : No
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : Yes
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Illustrate\dBpoweramp\encoder\flac\bin\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "COMMENT=%e" %j--picture="%i"%j %s -o %d


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
---------------------------------------------------------
1 | 0:00.00 | 6:50.70 | 0 | 30819
2 | 6:50.70 | 7:11.12 | 30820 | 63156
3 | 14:02.07 | 4:53.47 | 63157 | 85178
4 | 18:55.54 | 4:15.44 | 85179 | 104347
5 | 23:11.23 | 5:28.41 | 104348 | 128988
6 | 28:39.64 | 5:39.11 | 128989 | 154424
7 | 34:19.00 | 5:55.70 | 154425 | 181119
8 | 40:14.70 | 5:29.70 | 181120 | 205864
9 | 45:44.65 | 6:49.49 | 205865 | 236588
10 | 52:34.39 | 6:52.53 | 236589 | 267541


Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename C:\Documents and Settings\Fred\Bureau\Young Tree\Groundation - Young Tree.wav

Peak level 99.4 %
Extraction speed 0.4 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Copy CRC 8F193080
Copy OK

No errors occurred


AccurateRip summary

Track 1 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [1D8EBD55], AccurateRip returned [638A3CB1]
Track 2 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [7D6AA0B5], AccurateRip returned [228CB205]
Track 3 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [782CBF55], AccurateRip returned [6070A496]
Track 4 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [962EBC3B], AccurateRip returned [2691436B]
Track 5 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [1938E8C0], AccurateRip returned [9AB68424]
Track 6 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [B6A3641B], AccurateRip returned [A978DD4D]
Track 7 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [9A1DE671], AccurateRip returned [7C1B139C]
Track 8 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [DB7BC279], AccurateRip returned [447CFE85]
Track 9 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [6613DA82], AccurateRip returned [9A916BB1]
Track 10 cannot be verified as accurate (confidence 2) [3D1C2AF3], AccurateRip returned [65800A82]

No tracks could be verified as accurate
You may have a different pressing from the one(s) in the database

End of status report

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Analyzed: Groundation / Young Tree (2002 Remaster)
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DR Peak RMS Duration Track
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DR10 -0.15 dB -11.48 dB 6:50 01-Long, Long, Ago
DR11 -0.05 dB -13.92 dB 7:11 02-Glory to the Kings
DR10 -0.05 dB -11.57 dB 4:53 03-Confusing Situation
DR10 -0.05 dB -11.92 dB 4:15 04-Congress Man
DR9 -0.05 dB -12.47 dB 5:28 05-Craven Fe' Dead
DR11 -0.05 dB -13.79 dB 5:39 06-Dream
DR12 -0.05 dB -14.08 dB 5:55 07-Young Tree
DR11 -0.05 dB -12.88 dB 5:29 08-Vibes Alive
DR10 -0.06 dB -12.27 dB 6:49 09-Groundation Chant
DR13 -0.13 dB -14.65 dB 6:52 10-Grounding Dub
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Number of tracks: 10
Maximum peak difference (-0.05 dB - -0.15 dB): 0.10 dB
Album Totals:

Left Right

Peak Value: -0.05 dB --- -0.05 dB
Avg RMS: -12.61 dB --- -13.05 dB
DR channel: 10.00 dB --- 10.54 dB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Official DR value (Album Mode): 10
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