by Cyclone Wehner

One of this year's hottest tickets, the Groove Armada enterprise evolved out of a London nightclub run by muso-turned-DJs Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. The happy-go-lucky duo took some equipment with them for a holiday in the UK's romantic Yorkshire Dales. A fortnight later Groove Armada had finished their 1998 debut album, "Northern Star", which subsequently came out under their friend Tim "Love" Lee's indie imprint, Tummy Touch. Much to their astonishment, the LP blew up.

At the time Cato had already forged out a rep for himself with the house-based label, Skinnymalinky, and various production gigs, whereas Findlay was still a novice to recording. 'The original deal was, "I'll teach you how studios work and you teach me how to play better football,"' Andy remembers with a wry laugh. 'So he's now got his own studio and he's starting to do a few things and I'm slighter better at football. So things have kinda worked out.' They certainly have. The British dance media seized on Northern Star (especially the balmy tune "At The River"). Soon after, Groove Armada found themselves fielding calls from flashy A&R types. And, now, the two house music boffins have completed a new album, "Vertigo", for the ultra-credible Jive Electro.

On "Vertigo" Groove Armada create a housey vibe that is jazzy, funky, soulful and disco-fied. It encompasses the funky, guitar-licked Chicago, altruistic house anthem "If Everybody Looked The Same" and feisty "I See You Baby" (starring New York's outrageous Gramma Funk). It's no wonder Groove Armada's eclectic sound has been dubbed 'Nu-Balearic'. Last summer the duo brought their chilled-out sensibilities to the blessed isle of Ibiza when they were invited to DJ at (of all places) the hedonistic Manumission Hotel.

Among the duo's most famous fans is the entertaining British media personality Zoe Ball, who has heralded Groove singles "At The River" and "If Everybody Looked The Same" on her Radio One breakfast show. Lately Ms Ball even asked the groovesters to play at her celebrity marriage to some dude known as Norman Cook. This must surely represent the ultimate validation of Groove Armada's coolness. No doubt Jive's press officers can't believe their fortune.

So how does Cato feel their major label debut compares to their first effort? 'Well, at the time of the first one, I was making a living from house music and my partner Tom was doing a bit of PR and journalism and stuff. We were running a club together and we took the studio away to a cottage in the middle of the countryside just for a laugh, really. And over the course of that week we did the whole of the first album. It was very lighthearted, just a bit of fun. We just got quite intensely into the music when we got up there. So we put it out on a friend's label, no big deal, and all of a sudden all the press started happening. It just all came out of nowhere. So this time the album is a bit more considered. We took about six months working on it, not every day but bit by bit. And we also tried to get rid of a lot of the sampling on the first album. There were a lot of samples on there because it was for a small label, whereas on this one all the core music and all the grooves are played by us except for just a couple of vocal samples that we've used. So I think it's a much more sophisticated, mature-sounding album than the first.'

Happily enough, Groove Armada decided to once more showcase the sensual, downtempo groove "At The River" on the new album because of Northern Star's limited release. (In fact, one of the terms of their Jive contract was that they delete their debut.) 'That is just the tune that a lot of people picked up on and, to be honest, that's probably the tune that got us our deal with Jive. You know, a lot of press people seemed to get into us through that track. And it's just one of those tunes where my girlfriend liked it, my mum liked it ... It's just got quite broad appeal and we're both quite proud of it, so we thought, "Let's put it on this album again so we get it to a few more people."'

In spite of their indie grassroots, Groove Armada elected to sign to a major label subsidiary in order to fund their ambitious recording plans and full-scale live gigs. So far both albums have been mostly laid down in rural retreats across Britain (the duo travelled to the Lakes District for Vertigo). But, for their third, Groove Armada intend to venture even further afield. 'We wanna do something a bit more elaborate, where we put a studio in a camper van and drive around the west coast of America and down to South America, just working with local buskers and musicians and stuff.' The pair were also keen to acknowledge their backgrounds as live musicians and develop Groove Armada into an organic live entity. 'We wanted to get a whole band together and do proper live dance music: no miming, no DAT tapes and all of that.' Indeed, this year Groove Armada played Glastonbury's Jazz stage with a large band. Andy is grateful that everything is going so smoothly. 'We are fortunate. We've got the best of both worlds, because we've got the backing but there's absolutely no pressure at any point to write a commercial song or do anything we don't want to do. So it's working really well.'

The irony is that Groove Armada will probably get more of a push in countries like Australia because everyone has noted the crossover success of Basement Jaxx. Andy is all too aware of the comparisons. 'We get compared to all sorts of people. The main two are Air and Basement Jaxx, but I can't see the link,' he notes. 'I think I'd be surprised if we had the same immediate worldwide impact that Basement Jaxx seem to have had. I mean, it would be great if we did, but I think their music is a bit more in-your-face and a bit more radio acceptable than our stuff.'

What Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx clearly do share is a profound disillusionment with today's rampantly commercialised house scene. And neither party are afraid to express their sentiments to the dance media. Andy states his case. 'I don't think it has to be in trouble, but it's digging its own grave. It just seems to have got to this stage where there are two basic things going on. One is the kinda Euro-ey trance stuff, which is absolutely disposable and absolutely soulless. And, while you go to these places and there might be 1000 people having a good time, that's because it's quite noisy and because it's Friday, and they've got to!

'The music has lost it all. It doesn't make people wanna dance naturally. There's no funk left in it. There's no soul left in it! And, on the other side, there's the filtered disco thing. And just how many more times can someone go to the 70s record collection and find the next bassline and filter it? It just becomes incredibly tedious. And the other problem in house music is that it's got to the point where it's such a competitive market because so many people have got studios in their bedrooms. As soon as a trend comes out, everyone goes for it. So, like, the Euro-trance thing starts taking off, so everyone starts doing that, and the filtered thing goes, and everyone starts doing that ... When I was DJing house music, I'd get a record every week that would take my breath away, something that I was completely not expecting, and that's what kept it going for so long, I think. It's all just getting very formulaic now.'

"Vertigo" is out through Zomba.