On the level

>> Groove Armada retreat to move forward

By KRISTA

 "I was really into [the band] Level 42," Groove Armada's Andy Cato tells me. "I bought an album of theirs called The Early Tapes, and I would play the bass along with it. I used to rush home after school and practice the whole album. They were a complete revelation to me."

 Picture if you will a very tall, lanky school-aged boy in his room, bass hiked up to his armpits to emulate Level 42's (much shorter and stockier) bassist Mark King, slapping along in time to the band's unique brand of future-muzak fusion-jazz pop. It's a bizarre vision, and one that I can't believe the 6'7" Cato has allowed me to entertain. However, all that practicing in front of his mirror certainly paid off, and the evidence is in Groove Armada's work.

 Cato met his now-partner Tom Findlay six years ago in London, and together they started up the short-lived Skinnymalinky label, as well as a club night they called Groove Armada, where the duo played a blend of disco, funk, jazz, house--and probably a little Level 42. They met a few music types, like house producers the Idjut Boys and Tummy Touch Records' Tim Love Lee, on whose label Groove Armada released their first independent album, Northern Star.

 "We were ready to put the album together, but we could never get anything done because every time Tom and I got in the studio together, the phone would be ringing or people would be stopping by." So, they took a basic studio up to a cottage in the sticks and vowed to stay until the job was done. "The house was four or five miles from the closest minor road and there was no phone. We were pretty isolated, but it was so inspiring that we decided we'd keep doing it." When the time came to record Vertigo, their first release on a major label, Tom and Andy went back into isolation.

 Groove Armada's sound, a rich, textured combination of authentic jazz, rare groove and Balearic beats, is now so in demand that between gigs around Europe and at their residency at new London mega-club Fabric, Andy and Tom scarcely have time for themselves. "For the minute, music is all-consuming," Cato admits, "but both Tom and I play in a weekend football league, and we've been known to fly back early from a gig just to make a game." :

 

With Judge Jules at Sona on Saturday, March 11, 1am, $25