Groove Armada
Band form
1996
Boundary Festival - 2016 Preview
By Adam Holden in Music / Festivals on 14 September 2016
With the summer music festival season drawing in, a small park in Brighton is refusing to let go, with the nascent Boundary Festival about to host its inaugural party - a one day event of electronic music and RnB in Stanmer Park.
Working with local nightclubs, Patterns, The Arch and Concorde 2, Boundary Festival is hoping to establish itself as another date in the festival calendar, albeit a late addition in the year. Nonetheless, the festival is attempting to bring some big room artists to a boutique festival just outside the city center of Brighton.
With four stages across Stanmer Park, here are five artists that shouldn't be missed.
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Isle Of Wight Festival - 2015 Live Review
By Jim Pusey in Music Reviews on 16 June 2015
It's perhaps fitting that my prevailing memory of this year's Isle of Wight Festival will be guitars. This was after all the 45th anniversary of Jimi Hendrix's legendary performance on the Island, something that was being widely celebrated by festival organiser John Giddings and his team across the site. Fender, for example, brought some specially designed guitars to the party for artists including You Me At 6 to play, and there was also a world record attempt for the most number of people in one place to be wearing a mask, the face in question was naturally Hendrix himself. Despite that backdrop, it was some of the guitarists who played across the weekend that demonstrated the power of the instrument and reinforced that guitar based rock isn't on its last legs as some have speculated over the past few years.
The first moment that sent a shiver down my spine this year was the Counting Crows though. The guitar line to 'Round Here' sent a wave of excitement across the main arena. It was a strong opening statement in a nine song set that featured the likes of 'Mr Jones', 'Miami', and 'Rain King' into which singer Adam Duritz dropped some Elbow lyrics as a nod of the hat to Guy Garvey. If Counting Crows' guitars weren't haunting enough, it was actually The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach whose riffs were the most powerful and elemental of the day. The dirty Blues grit of Auerbach's playing was like a roll of thunder that saw the heavens open to drench the crowd in torrential rain. While much of the set was dedicated to material culled from 'El Camino' and 'Brothers', rather than recent record 'Turn Blue', the band's graduation to a headlining slot was well deserved and warranted. The final song of the set 'Little Black Submarines', which builds from a delicate solo performance to a dramatic climax, utilised every trick in the book for The Black Keys' expanded touring band. If Patrick Carney's drums and Auerbach's guitars are the perfect union on record, it seems their live shows rightly now have the power to command top billing with the inclusion of bassist Richard Swift and keyboardist John Clement Wood.
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Fleetwood Mac And Blur Sing-A-Longs Are Expected For Isle Of Wight Festival 2015
By Staff Writer in Music / Festivals on 08 June 2015
We preview some of the top acts on the bill this year.
Summer festival season kicks into high gear this weekend with the first big event of the calendar taking place on the south coast. Tens of thousands of people will be heading to Seaclose Park on the Isle of Wight for a bill, which is top heavy on heritage acts that bring with them a sense of nostalgia. While recent years have welcomed the likes of Jay-Z, Calvin Harris and Kings Of Leon to headline, this time round it seems big names with an even bigger back catalogue are being used as the main attraction.
However, many of the headline acts seem to be experiencing a renaissance of sorts. For example, Blur, whose new album 'The Magic Whip', their first since 2003, has won critical acclaim. The former Britpop poster boys will take to the Main Stage on Saturday night in the knowledge that this is one of the first times that UK crowds will get to see this new material given the live treatment. You can expect a set heavy on those new songs, but peppered with all the classic singles, certainly a formula for a memorable festival appearance. It's a similar story for The Prodigy who'll headline the Main Stage on Friday after The Black Keys. Both acts have played the festival in recent years and here they're repeating the joint top billing that was given to Biffy Clyro and Calvin Harris last year. As with Blur, The Prodigy's new album, 'The Day Is My Enemy', has revived interest in the band following an extended period out of the spotlight. Elsewhere, Fleetwood Mac will bring proceedings to a close on Sunday, bolstered by the return of Christine McVie to the band, a set covering Rumours era gems like 'Don't Stop' and 'Songbird' is a strong possibility.
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Late Night Tales - Presents Automatic Soul [Compiled, Re-edited And Mixed By Tom Findlay (Groove Armada)] Album Review
By Andy Peterson in Music Reviews on 15 October 2014
The eighties are an oddly venerated decade, one which started in Britain with post-punk and the New Romantic movement and ended in the lysergic chaos of acid house. In the provinces though most of the time these felt like abstractions; for most people life was still taking place not in London but down at your local Tiffany's, bubbly pint pot in hand and white suit and skinny tie wrapped around the body. These "Normal" lads and lasses had a different soundtrack to their existence, one in part provided by the acts that populate this, the latest in the Late Night Tales series, mixed by Tom Findlay of Groove Armada.
Sometimes rare grooves then, but equally, you can raid your parents collection of Now That's What I Call Music vinyl and you'll find that this was equally one of the pre-eminent chart "Sounds" of the time. The formula was typically straightforward: male or female diva, fret less bass, occasional frostings of incidental guitar and some padded synths, courtesy of the near ubiquitous Nord Electro keyboard. Rapidly gaining Transatlantic appeal, the end product counted as what at the time was classed as sophistication, an airbrushed sort of aphrodisiac for the Soul Glo generation.
Continue reading: Late Night Tales - Presents Automatic Soul [Compiled, Re-edited And Mixed By Tom Findlay (Groove Armada)] Album Review
Richard Curtis' Rom Com 'About Time' Has Soundtrack Announced
Posted on14 August 2013
Groove Armada, White Light Album Review
By Andy Peterson in Music Reviews on 25 October 2010
It's absolutely no exaggeration to say that Black Light, Groove Armada's sixth album proper which was released in January of this year, was nothing less than a revelation. Many - myself included -had long written off Andy Cato and Tom Findlay as a spent creative force, good for providing incidental music for DFS adverts and the occasional festival appearance, but increasingly seeming irrelevant in a world dominated by poppy ex-grimers and the pervasive evil of r n' b.
Groove Armada - I Won't Kneel
I Won't Kneel video from Groove Armada. Groove Armada AKA Andy Cato and Tom Findlay release a new single 'I Won't Kneel' on November 16th 2009 through Work It' Recordings in partnership with Cooking Vinyl available to buy on CD Single / 12" / Digital Track / itunes Single / STD Digital Single. The track also features vocals by SaintSaviour who is currently performing with the band on their UK tour.
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Groove Armada, Drop The Tough EP Review
By Tareck Ghoneim in Music Reviews on 09 March 2009
Review of Groove Armada's EP Drop The Tough.
Groove Armada, Late Night Tales Album Review
By Andy Peterson in Music Reviews on 12 March 2008
Groove Armada
Late Night Tales
Album Review
Groove Armada, Video Interview
Video Interview
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