|
Groove Armada is back with another Electronica album. Masters of that chilled out dance groove,
this album makes attempts to place its stamp on other musical genres. Tom Findlay and Andy Cato are a couple of 30
year olds just doing their own thing, playing with how far they can push
musical boundaries. Known for using
technology to their advantage while still staying true to playing original
instruments, ‘Lovebox’ is the duos fourth official studio release and they
don’t disappoint again.We are treated to a great crack at a variety of styles. The opening track ‘Purple Haze’ just flat out
rocks. With Red Rat and the Nappy Roots
on vocals, this one here rocks out to knock you out. This along with ‘Madder’ brings that Rock
genre to the forefront and just shows further how these guys do push their
envelope. With rapper M.A.D. bringing
absolute strong vocals here, this along with ‘Purple Haze’ are two of the best
tracks off the disc, properly showing how Groove Armada can rock when they want
to.
Disco and Soul also find themselves in this mix. ‘Easy’, featuring Sunshine Anderson’s soulful
singing, brings a full-on Disco vibe.
Jamiroquai fans out there will no doubt dig this track. Stepping over to the Soul side, we got ‘Hands
of Time’ with legend Richie Havens bringing that nice laid-back soul tip on
vocals. The more you listen to this
song, the better it gets. Neneh Cherry
shows up to sing on a couple tracks and does a nice job with the piano driven
‘Think Twice’, which has a nice lull vibe to it. She shares duties alongside rapper Kriminul,
which tries to be smooth with ‘Groove is On’.
Of course a Groove Armada release wouldn’t be complete
without some crazy house and dancehall rave tunes mixed in. With ‘Final Shakedown’ and ‘Lovebox’, the
boys transport us back to some old abandoned warehouse where we can all dance
‘til dawn. ‘Final Shakedown’ has Red Rat
again with more strong vocals, which gets everyone really up on their feet and
moving. The self titled track features a
gospel choir supplying vocals over the rhythms.
One word came to mind while listening to this track: Ultra-sleek. Heck, they even close the set with such a
crazy and happy song. ‘But I Feel Good’
has a sort of zany and loony playfulness to it, with rapper M.A.D doing another
great job with strong vocals. The style
here plays out to what I describe as Reggae-Ska. Really a lot of fun to dance like an idiot
to.
It’s impressive to listen to a couple of guys putting their
own unique Electronica spin on different genres. This is, at the very least, an interesting
listen with intelligent ideas. Music for
the spirit, this album registered a 3.9, which I suppose I’ll bump up to that
clean cut 4 planets.
Track Listing:
01. Purple Haze
02. Groove is On
03. Remember
04. Madder
05. Think Twice...
06. Final Shakedown
07. Hands of Time
08. Tuning In
09. Easy
10. Lovebox
11. But I Feel Good
Shamples Rating:
4 out of 5 Planets
Talk about
Groove Armada - Love Box >>
|