Soundboy Rock

Time has no effect on Groove Armada's potential

UK electronic band Groove Armada consists of two professional DJ's Andy Cato and Tom Findlay. The duo earned good reputation in their early years. They've been constantly releasing albums and steadily climbing up the career stairs but than suddenly stumbled and remained silent up to the present moment. For the most of the people Groove Armada still associates with a big dance club hit of 2000 I See You Baby, which was lately remixed by Fatboy Slim and became famous all over the world. This was a breakthrough indeed but it was too long ago to discuss it in 2007. However, Groove Armada deserves much more respect and attention at least because they made Lovebox – a really powerful disco/house album yet unfortunately underrated by big audience. But it was their recent disc and it was released five years ago and five years is a long, long period in music, especially in the world of electronica. A lot has changed but it actually doesn't disturbs Groove Armada, they know what they are capable of and they are not going to let somebody else have their royal chill-out status. So here they are again with their fifth brand new studio album Soundboy Rock.

Soundboy Rock is composed of completely diverse compositions

Despite being away for some time Groove Armada sound quite competitive, the have everything to make their tracks dance irresistible. Soundboy Rock offers a pretty divers set of potential hits, which vary from robust hip-hop and house to smooth reggae. The album's first hit Get Down is a bouncy, charging with dance feel track. It sounds huge and deep, and female MC's restless attack make it especially hot. The Things That We Could Share keeps the things going in the same vein, though its disco and synth funk inspired elements chills the music a little. The heat comes back with such tracks as Love Sweet Sound or Drop That Thing, actually these are the strongest dance pieces here and though they are quite different they will definitely make the club crowd trample the floor. Sometimes Groove Armada dispose their rock and jazz music inclinations, this is especially clear on such songs like What's Your Version, Paris and See What You Get. A track called Soundboy Rock turned out to be a pure reggae composition; the only things that make this slow song different from classic songs of Jamaica style are deep bass line and echoing effects laid on drums and vocals. The Album's leading single number two is Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control), a track that is doomed to receive a commercial push. It features vocals of ex-Sugar Babes Mutya Buena.

Soundboy Rock is quite capable to bring everybody's interest back to Groove Armada

Besides its hot dance songs there is a number of slow ambient tracks that sound great separately but don't quite fit the general mood laid by the first songs, they suddenly strike you dumb and then leave as if nothing happened. Groove Armada were always famous for their divers musical tastes but it seems like they went too far with that at this time. The persistent switching between up tempo beats and chill-out songs is not the best idea to make a coherent album. The problem is not that a slow song follows a fast one; the thing is that all the tracks are very different by their moods and can't comprise one stylistically even entity. It's not that bad though, the compositions as such are great and catchy and it evokes no doubts that the overwhelming majority of these songs will be dragged apart for compilations, chill-out collections and radio broadcasts. In a word, Groove Armada have proven one more time their electronic music competence. And though Soundboy Rock is not an album devoid of disadvantages, the energy of its songs is quite capable to bring everybody's interest back to Groove Armada.