GROOVE ARMADA - GROOVE ARMADA 10 YEAR STORY: FROM THE VAULTS 1997-2007

"Stick to the Andy Cato half of the deal and Groove Armada deliver an intoxicating and languid journey into sound here. "

review by Mike Bond
reviews
COLUMBIA RECORDS
TRACKLISTING
CD1 - Uptempo: Chosen & Mixed by Tom Findlay Eazy (GA’s Deep Shelf revisit) Love Sweet Sound Save my Soul (Live Acid remix) Lightsonic (Re-rub) Song 4 Mutya I See You Baby (Original) Chicago Feel The Same As You (Japanese version) Cuba by Black Island (GA remix) Get Down (Alternative club edit) Final Shakedown Lovebox (Interlude) Drop that Panel Superstylin'
CD2 - Downtempo: Chosen & Mixed by Andy Cato Remember Think Twice Blue Skies Edge Hill Tuning In (Re-edit) Lazy Moon Dusk You and Me Little By Little (Edit) Paris Language Lab Burning Disaster (GA mix) Drifted (Re-edit) What’s Your Version Hands Of Time At The River (Presence Mix)

A double CD that digs into Groove Armada's back catalogue and unearths some of the bands rarer material, 10 YEAR STORY: FROM THE VAULTS 1997-2007 acts as a decent retrospective of the dance duos first decade.
Taking the form of two separate mix sets, CD1 is compiled by Tom Findlay and is subtitled UPTEMPO.  Its this collection that's certainly the weaker of the two, the material showcasing Groove Armada's more pedestrian and by-the-numbers side.  The likes of LOVE SWEET SOUND and LIGHTSONIC are typical trance like affairs that feel like faceless dance filler, the house anthemics of CUBA a very dated affair reminiscent of Guru Josh or early Massive Attack.
It's on the Andy Cato DOWNTEMPO half of the record that things move more towards the sublime, Groove Armada always a better experience when dealing in the languid and chilled out.  REMEMBER is a lush ambient wash of gentle piano and swooning female vocals reminiscent of Zero 7 whilst THINK TWICE and INSIDE MY MIND are equally gorgeous sounding slices of laid back grooves.  Andy Cato's mix hardly puts a foot wrong, track after track of the sublime are blended together here, LITTLE BY LITTLE and LANGUAGE LAB in particular standing out as swooning highlights whilst the closing AT THE RIVER (PRESENCE MIX) takes their best song and gives it an inspired dub based makeover.
10 YEAR STORY: FROM THE VAULTS 1997-2007, is a definite mixed bag, one half of derivative, cliched trance and house and another of sublime, swooning gorgeousness.  Stick to the Andy Cato half of the deal and Groove Armada deliver an intoxicating and languid journey into sound here.

BIOGRAPHY
"If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air. Quaint little villages, here and there." The sun-kissed, sea-side reverie of Groove Armada's At The River almost singlehandedly spearheaded the chillout explosion of a few years ago, featuring on approximately 3,456 coffee table compilation CDs. But over the course of their seven year career the Armada duo have demonstrated a much wider repertoire than mere sophisticated lounge trickery, incorporating house, dub, hip-hop and psychedelic soul into their music.
With the distinctly un-hip accolade of Young Jazz Musician of the Year for 1995, and a junior career as trombonist in a Yorkshire colliery brass band, Groove Armada's Andy Cato may never have fashioned a career as an exponent of cool dance grooves. But Andy was saved from a lifetime of trombone recitals at the local village hall by his cousin Digs, who, as a member of the cult house collective DIY, introduced the 6ft 8" Andy to house music. "My whole youth was filled with music in school," recalls Cato, who plays a variety of instruments, including keyboards, and bass guitar. "I was going to go to a music school when I was 17, but thankfully my parents talked me out of it and I stayed in the real world."
Andy took up a DJ residency at the Spectrum in Cambridge before moving to London to establish the label, Skinnymalinky and met up with his future Groove Armada partner, Tom Findlay a fellow DJ, on the club circuit in London.
Tom was a Cambridge exile who'd spent his youth DJ-ing, seeking out obscure funk rarities and picking up skills on bass and trumpet. He relocated to Manchester and promoted a series of successful club nights. While there he honed his talent as a live musician, playing with several local funk outfits. Andy and Tom soon discovered they shared a love of jazz, funk, disco and house tunes. The pair decided to launch a joint club night, Captain Sensual At The Helm Of The Groove Armada before deciding to record their own music under a shortened version of the name which originated from a Kitsch '70's disco club night in Newcastle.
In 1997 Groove Armada's first single At The River was released on London independent label, Tummy Touch Records. Originally a limited 7" release of 500 copies and built around a Patti Page vocal sample, the single caused a storm with the nation's hacks. "Spotters are swapping their grandmothers for copies of it", said the NME.
In 1998 Tummy Touch also released Groove Armada's debut album, Northern Star. Combining the blend of house, big beat, Balearic, funk and live instrumentation that would become their trademark, Northern Star's wide range of references led to praise from dance mags like Mixmag and Jockey Slut as well as the NME.
Later that year Groove Armada signed a record deal with Jive Records and in April 1999 the band released the single, If Everybody Looked The Same. The song reached No.25 in the UK charts. In July 1999 At The River was re-released and reached the Top 20. The single would soon establish the band, unwittingly, as Lords of the chillout, going on to feature on a seemingly endless succession of chillout/relaxation/wallpaper compilations. For their part, the band have always tried to distance themselves from the chillout phenomenon.
"I just think that chill-out seems to have just lost its soul," says Andy. "If you put a few synths on a mellow backing track with a few water noises, it counts as a tune. Well it's not a tune and there's no soul in there. Mellow tunes with a bit of soul are still fine, but not this endless kind of wallpaper."
1999 album Vertigo would really establish the duo in the UK. It reached the Top 20 achieving Gold status with sales of 200,000 copies. The single, I See You Baby which featured vocals from legendary New York MC Gram'ma Funk (and a remix from Norman Cook), was the third single to be taken from the album, it was released in November and also went straight into the Top 20.
Early into the following year Groove Armada were nominated for Best Newcomers at the 2000 BRIT Awards and Best Live Act at the Muzik Magazine awards. They picked up the Best Chillout Album gong for Vertigo at the Ministry Magazine awards. Vertigo went on to establish Groove Armada across the world.
2000 saw Groove Armada moving into new musical areas and solidifying their reputation as one of the UK's most exciting live acts. Northern Star was re-released by Tummy Touch, and Groove Armada compiled the critically acclaimed Back To Mine album series, a compilation of their favourite tracks by other artists released on DMC Records.
In June Groove Armada set off on an ambitious live tour that combined their 9-piece live band, complete with Andy on trombone and DJs, cut-ups and samples. The band played all of the major European summer festivals that year including Glastonbury, Southside, Roskilde, Montreux and V2000.
Groove Armada's third album Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) was released in September 2000. In a further effort to discard the chillout tag, the album saw Tom and Andy trying to expand their horizons, with tracks encompassing psychedelic soul and country-rock and the dancehall dub of Superstylin' with guest musicians including Chic legend legend Nile Rodgers, rapper Jeru The Damaja, and 60's folk singer Richie Havens.
2002's Lovebox album put another nail another coffin in the chillout coffin with an eclectic set that took in funk, house and soul. Richie Havens again made a guest appearance, so did US rap crew Nappy Roots, dancehall DJ Red Rat and US R&B star Sunshine Anderson.
2004 sees the band continue their nightclub residencies clubs across London. They have their own Lovebox weekly sessions in South London and regularly pop up as guest DJs in clubs across the capital. In summer 2004 the duo will play a DJ set at the Homelands dance festival and in February 2004 they released new CD, Doin' It After Dark, the first in a new compilation series of artists mixing their favourite tracks.
With their skilled musicianship, love of live performing and praise from the likes of Madonna (for whom they remixed Music) and Elton John, the accusational tag of "dodgy dancefloor chancers" is unlikely to ever be levelled at Groove Armada.

LINKS

Review date: November 2007