DJ’s
Headliner: Tom Findlay
One half of Groove Armada
...blinding
psychedelic hip-hop blues... joyous filthy ramalama funk... boiling dub-hop
rock ’n’ roll grooves... calypso-ska hysteria on a Saturday Night Congo round
the perimeter of the entire planet Earth...
"This is definitely," says Tom Findlay, in considerable understatement, "the least noodly record we’ve ever made. It’s a funk album, really. With proper songs."
Noodles out, beef in; Groove Armada 2002 are now unrecognisable from the chiefs-of-chill who brought us the spectral trombone classic ’At The River’, way back in the different dimension of ’99, from their breakthrough 2nd LP, ’Vertigo’, an album which, three years on, still sells consistently. Building upwards and outwards from last year’s ’Superstylin’ single, the No. 12 chart entry dance-floor bedlam opus, (from the tellingly-titled ’Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub’), fourth LP ’Lovebox’ is a party-hard, soul-funk, song-based stunner, less Dance Album Of The Year, more Album Of The Year, no limits, their laid-back label of olde as redundant a concept as the compilation landslide which drowned the world in dreariness.
"We’ve done laid-back," notes Andy Cato, "when we did ’Northern Star’ (debut LP, ’97, Tummy Touch) there weren’t those albums about, there wasn’t ’Lounge 45’ and ’Ibiza 597’ and it’s all become boring. With our new stuff, there’s still some laid-back, lovely songs, but things like ’Madder’, it’s as much indie skate-board as it is dance music, ’Tuning In’ is more Rolling Stones than Judge Jules."
"That chill-out stuff is just terrible," chirps Tom, "God knows how many compilations At The River’s been on now but it must be literally 200. We’d never think ’right, we’re Groove Armada and we do this, let’s make another six records like At The River’, ’cos that’s just tedious, isn’t it?".
One year on from ’Goodbye Country’ (made, in actual fact, in the Cotswold country-side), ’Lovebox’ erupted from their tiny, chaotic, windowless London studio, a claustrophobic cupboard which, over four months this summer reached persistently "boiling" temperatures, giving ’Lovebox’, says Andy, "that jungle-fever intensity". Sculpted via the instrumentation of their 8-strong live band (and the multi-instrumentalist Andy "doing a bit of a Prince"), it’s the nearest sound yet to the live-show cavalcade which sees round-the-block queues and tent-flap blockades across the global summer festivals.
Tom: "We play in the States and have 10,000 Americans jumping up and down,
play in Germany, same thing, Holland, same thing, Britain, electric,
Australia, absolute mayhem..."
Andy: "When we play live it’s a mosh-pit. On and off the stage. When we get on the bus we put on ’Abbey Road’, not fucking whale noises..."
The voices on ’Lovebox’ are definitely human, guests from the multi-cultural spectrum of hip-hop-soul including Neneh Cherry on the gorgeous ’Think Twice’, "a genuinely lovely human being", Red Rat on both elevational blues-funk first single ’Purple Haze’ and the irresistible ragga-beat stormer ’The Final Shakedown’, MC M.A.D (voice of ’Superstylin’) reappears on the dub-hop funk-rock ’Madder’ plus actual-genius ska classic ’But I Feel Good’, the legendary Richie Havens on the mighty ’Hands Of Time’, Sunshine Anderson soars through the sublime orchestral disco of ’Easy’, Tim Hutton elevates the celestial sweep of ’Tuning In’ and Kriminal grins through the hip-hop sex-funk of ’Groove Is On’.
"Kriminal, he’s a good laugh," says Andy, "really quite odd! You think he’s gonna be this big burly bloke and in fact he’s quite a bookish-looking guy with glasses, very sensitive. He went to (Club) ’333’ one night without us, was talking to the ladies and he came in the next day saying ’man, you got so much love, man, every time I say Groove Armada the ladies go crazy man!’ Well I’m glad it worked for him..."
Groove Armada have now sold around 1.2 million albums, "legal copies, of course". This is the band who Brazil chose to soundtrack their most popular TV soap opera, "all about drug addicts" (with ’Superstylin’ and ’My Friend’), the sort of stealth-pop entity who’s songs you know without realising it’s actually them.
Andy: "Yeah, there’s a sleeping giant appeal."
Tom: "We’re like the Wolverhampton Wanderers of dance music. But we’re gonna make it one day..."
Tom Findlay, 30, a Cambridge-born musician, DJ, club promoter, ex-PR for
Nike and football loopy, met Andy Cato, 30, a Yorkshire-born musician,
DJ,
trombone specialist, creator of the ’Skinnymalinky’ house label and, at 6’ 8"
officially The Second Tallest Man In Pop, met through mutual friends in London
in ’94, fusing their talents and enthusiasm to create the ’Captain sensual at
the Helm Of The Groove Armada’ clubnight, specialists in jazz, disco, house
and funk. Debut LP, ’Northern Star’, recorded in the Yorkshire
wilderness, featured ’At The River’, it’s Doris Day-esque vocal sample lifted
from a track found in a local village shop ("a lucky, magical piece of
sampling"), which led to a deal with Pepper, an imprint of Jive Records, then
re-released on ’Vertigo’ to classic, universal acclaim. Today they
remain a bona-fide band, a DJ duo and club promoters with their new bi-monthly
’Lovebox’ nights across London, delighted that the Superclubs and the
over-paid DJ have finally "been rumbled, why pay forty quid to hear a so
called superstar DJ do what you can do in your bedroom? People wanna get
back to some intimacy".
"It’s exposing yourself to stuff," brims Tom, "and just opening your ears up and exploring beauty in everything musical. This has definitely been our most white music listening period, a lot of Beatles, Nick Drake, more rocky and songy. If you really love music it’s a never ending quest, just keep listening and listening. You’re never gonna hear everything that’s great in your lifetime but you might as well try."
Today’s buoyant Armada have a brand new vim and a surging confidence, ’Lovebox’ acetate tracks already championed across Britain by Jon Carter, Darren Emerson and "Big Norm", their faith in themselves reborn after a spell of disillusion with the corporate music media, flat-line drone-pop radio and the passionless nature of The Industry itself.
"Six months ago we were probably at our lowest ebb," says Tom, who becomes
a first-time father next February, "just getting dragged down by all the crap
and probably forgetting the reasons why we went into this in the first place,
and we’ve totally rediscovered that zest with this record."
"One of those ones," notes Andy, "where either you say ’oh fuck it’ or you say ’right, we’re gonna come out of this fighting’ and put something down which you think is brilliant and then whatever happens you’ve gone off on a high."
Tom: "We thought it was madness, doing this record so fast, ’what the hell are we getting ourselves into?’ but it’s been the best thing we’ve done in ages. Wanting to work late and loving it, which by the end of ’Goodbye Country’ we didn’t. It took too long. Sat in a small room for too long."
Andy: "And this is a record I wanna put on. ’Cos usually I finish something and I’ve had enough of it. I actually haven’t got a copy at the minute and I’m really annoyed, ’cos I keep getting home and thinking ’I really wanna hear that song and that song...’"
Tom: "At the end of the day, we’re a British band, there’s a live band, it’s multi-cultural, we represent what’s good about Britain. And there’s not many good British bands around anymore, everything on radio is American shit and everything on TV is American shit so why not just be confident about it? It should be something to celebrate."
Celebration times indeed. Come on...
