Groove Armada
Rating: 8
Vertigo (Jive Electro/Zomba)
Groove Armada is Andy Cato and Tom Findlay, two DJs from England who have the musical chops to
play the instruments that they may or may not be sampling. The purist in me would like to believe
that that is the reason why Vertigo, the team's first full-length CD, is so satisfying.
Then again, who cares?
Vertigo nicely moves among many of the threads in today's dance culture world. The party
begins with "Chicago," a bouncy instrumental sporting a James Brown-funk guitar lick,
and continues with the jazz-driven "Whatever, Whenever," featuring rapping by M.A.D.
The DJs slow things down for the cocktail hour with "Dusk, You & Me" and "At
The River."
Clearly, though, this album makes it statement with two self-assured Big Beat tracks: "If
Everybody Looked The Same" and "I See You Baby." Both are out-of-the-box dance
floor staples that thumb their noses at the trendies smarting from Urb-culture's peek inside the
mainstream curtain. "I See You Baby," complete with the bonus Fat Boy Slim mix, would
probably be consumed by Madison Avenue by now if it weren't for the naughty, incessant
refrain: "I see you baby/Shaking that ass/Shaking that ass." Sly Stone would
be proud.
-- Burton Glass
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