''Ground Control'' is the fourth studio album by English drum and bass band

Rudimental Rudimental are a British drum and bass band, signed to Asylum Records, Atlantic Records and Black Butter Records. The band consists of Piers Aggett, Kesi Dryden and Leon "Locksmith" Rolle. They were nominated for a Mercury Prize in 2013, and w ...

, released on 3 September 2021 through

Asylum Records Asylum Records is an American record label, founded in 1971 by David Geffen and partner Elliot Roberts. It was taken over by Warner Communications (now the Warner Music Group) in 1972, and later merged with Elektra Records to become Elektra/Asylu ...

. It is the Rudimental’s final album to feature Amir Amor who left the band in October 2022.

Background and composition

In an interview with

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

and Rudimental member Piers Aggett, he talked about the writing process of ''Ground Control'' whilst in lockdown during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

and stated that the album material started surfacing even before their third album ''

Toast to Our Differences ''Toast to our Differences'' is the third studio album by English drum and bass band Rudimental, released on 25 January 2019 through Asylum Records. The album was originally planned to be released in September 2018, but was delayed to include mor ...

'' was released. Aggett said, "COVID was actually a bit of a blessing for us. Normally we tour all the time, certainly all summer, and it gave us a summer at home for the first time in a long time. We made the whole album in lockdown. A lot of the songs were actually written in 2018." He elaborated, "We went to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and we did a bunch of writing out there. Lots of the songs are from those sessions. That’s the way we tend to work, we go on a trip, we write a lot and then it takes us a long while to actually work on the songs and finish them. The pandemic made us productive because suddenly there wasn't a gig at the weekend and we could really focus." The album was described by the band as referencing from their earlier material but infused with more

soul In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...

. Upon the release of the album, the band stated that the record is intended to be seen as a two-sided album - "side A touches on our roots, the pirate radio stations and influences we grew up with, and side B flows deeper into soul and darker textures and atmospheres."

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co- producer * signifies an additional producer * signifies a vocal producer

Personnel

Rudimental * Piers Aggett – drum programming (1–4, 8–11, 13–16), synthesizer (1–5, 7–11, 13–16), programming (5, 6), keyboards (12), bass synthesizer (16) * Amir Amor – drum programming (1–5, 8–11, 13–16), guitar (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10–12, 14), bass (2, 4, 13, 15), programming (7), synthesizer (7, 9), keyboards (12, 16), percussion (16) * Kesi Dryden – drum programming (1–5, 8, 10, 11, 13–16), synthesizer (2–5, 7–11, 13, 15, 16), programming (7), synthesizer programming (9), bass synthesizer (16) * Leon Rolle – drum programming (1, 11, 14–16), keyboards, percussion (1–5, 8–11, 13–16); programming (7, 12), synthesizer (7) Additional musicians * Connor Bellis – programming (1), drum programming (4) * Beth Aggett – backing vocals (2, 5, 8) * Anne-Marie – backing vocals (2), vocals (9, 14) * John Ryan – guitar (2) * Kareen Lomax – vocals (2) * Morgan – backing vocals (3), vocals (14) * Taurean Antoine-Chagar – saxophone (3, 14) * Harry Brown – trombone (3) * Mark Crown – trumpet (3, 12, 14) * Nørskov – vocals (3, 13) *

Hardy Caprio Hardy Tayyib-Bah (born 23 May 1996), known professionally as Hardy Caprio, is a British rapper and singer. By 2020, Hardy has released a string of successful releases, broken into The Official UK Top 20, and amassed over 270 million streams onli ...

– vocals (4) * Gigi Wens – vocals (4) * Ian Burdge – cello (5) *

MJ Cole Matthew James Firth Coleman, better known by his stage name MJ Cole, is an English garage DJ, record producer and remixer. Career Born in London, England, in his youth, Cole was classically trained on the oboe and piano, and won scholarships ...

– drum programming,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

(5) * Sally Herbert – string arrangement, violin (5) * Josh Barry – vocals (5) *

S1mba Leonard Simbarashe Rwodzi (born 12 April 1999), known professionally as S1mba, is a Zimbabwean-born British singer-songwriter and rapper. He rose to prominence with his single "Rover" featuring DTG, which reached number 3 on the UK Singles Cha ...

– backing vocals (7) * Renell Shaw – guitar (7, 12), backing vocals, bass (16) * Jay Weathers – programming (7) * Max Abrahams – drum programming (8, 16) * Sam Newbold – saxophone (8, 13) *

Ella Henderson Gabriella Michelle Henderson (born 12 January 1996), known as Ella Henderson, is an English singer. She competed in the ninth series of ''The X Factor UK'' in 2012, finishing in sixth place despite being a strong favourite to win. She signed ...

– vocals (8) * Oliver Dene Jones – drum programming, synthesizer (9) * Hamzaa – backing vocals (10), vocals (16) * Sam Knowles – synthesizer (10), keyboards (12), drum programming (14, 15) *

Maverick Sabre Michael Stafford (born 12 July 1990), better known as Maverick Sabre, is an Irish singer, songwriter, and rapper. Early life Sabre was born in Hackney, London. At age four, he moved with his family to New Ross, County Wexford, where he grew u ...

– vocals (10) *

Kojey Radical Kwadwo Adu Genfi Amponsah (born 4 January 1993), known professionally as Kojey Radical, is a British music artist, creative director and mixed media visual artist. His style has been described as a mix of grime-y hip hop, alternative rap and ...

– vocals (10) * Redlight – drum programming, synthesizer (11) * The Game – vocals (11) * BackRoad Gee – vocals (11) *

D Double E Darren Dixon (born 19 January 1980), known professionally as D Double E, is a British grime MC, DJ and record producer from Forest Gate, East London. He performs both as a solo artist and as a member of the grime duo Newham Generals. Career D ...

– vocals (11) *

Tove Lo Ebba Tove Elsa Nilsson (born 29 October 1987), known professionally as Tove Lo (), is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She has been called "Sweden's darkest pop export" by ''Rolling Stone.'' She is known for her raw, grunge-influenced take o ...

– backing vocals (13) * Keeya Keys – backing vocals (13) *

Lowkey Kareem Dennis (born 23 May 1986), better known by his stage name Lowkey, is a British rapper and activist from London. He first became known through a series of mixtapes he released before he was 18, before taking a hiatus from the music bus ...

– vocals (15) * RV – vocals (15) * Natalie Maddix – choir direction, vocal arrangement (16) * Oliver George Nobes Hutchinson – organ (16) * Liza Jennings – vocal arrangement (16) * House Gospel Choir – vocals (16) Technical * Kevin Grainger – mastering * Greg Freeman – mixing * Connor Bellis –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

(all tracks), additional vocal recording (15) * George Murphy – engineering, additional vocal recording (16) * Ryan Fletcher – additional vocal recording (3)

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2021 albums Asylum Records albums Rudimental albums Major Tom's albums