True Groove All-Stars release hyper-collage video for ‘Trapped… In The Mess We Made’ title track from new album

“This video is not only the title track from the new album, it’s a visual retrospective of the entire The Mess We Made trilogy,” notes producer/singer/guitarist Tomás Doncker.

“It’s like a hyper-collage that pulls together snippets from the previous videos for songs on the album like ‘Blood and Concrete,’ ‘Skin in The Game,’ ‘Funky Dollar Bill,’ and ‘Some Old Dolls’ intercut with new footage and imagery of the past 200-plus years of inequality and injustice in America. It’s all the info we’ve put out about how we feel; what’s going on, what’s been going on.”

Opening with the colour draining from the American flag to form a pool of blood, stirring visuals are the rule of the day. As Doncker intones “Git yo’ mind right!!” over an incessant trap beat, searing guitar and wall of bass fuzz, images and video footage intercut at a rapid pace. “It very intentionally begins to approach visual overload, but there’s just enough restraint so that each time you watch it more of the images become recognizable. If you begin to pay attention you’ll see images of all the great black revolutionaries. The folks who’ve fought the struggle and showed us the brilliance and resilience to survive and keep moving forward. The jump-cutting evokes a vibe almost akin to a horror film – you’ve even got the screaming ‘Karen’ – because being Black and living in America today is pretty much like living in a horror movie, only it’s all too real.”

 
Photo credit: Dylan Mars Greenberg