Stations

Groove Armada set sail
on a tour of the Americas

® Groove Armada, Saturday, June 3 at Sonar (66 Water
St.) 683-6695. Doors: 8 p.m. Cover $15, door only.

John Goodman
This Week Editor jgoodman@nsnews.com

BY the time Tom Findlay hooked up with Andy
Cato he was already deep into the DJ life.

Findlay, 27, had begun hosting nights in Cambridge as a
teenager before moving to Manchester and running his own
club. “I basically played "70s stuff — my interest was always
in playing funk music.” Over time he branched out to
embrace other styles and with Cato has developed a sound
which blurs the lines between playing records and making

“records,

“We're not quite at that level where we're sitting down at
a piano with manuscript paper but it’s sort of half-way
between the two of those. Since we’ve been doing music
together we’ve always started with one core element and
built our own stuff around that. A lot of time we'll start
with a sample and a four-bar loop and we'll layer more and
more stuff and in the end we'll take the sample out because
the tune’s just taken on a life of it’s own.”

The duo never choose the obvious route and work their

PAUL ST. PIERRE: 15
GREAT PURSUIT: 17
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: 18

Win dinner for two
on the Pacific Starlight
Dinner Train: Page 15

LONDON’S Groove Armada (Andy Cato and Tom Findlay) bring their unique blend of house, funk and jazz
to Sonar tomorrow night on the first date of a North American tour.

magic using a wide range of musical sources. Over the
course of a few years Groove Armada have travelled far out-
side the concept of typical club music production. Their lat-
est CD Vertigo (new to these shores but released last sum-
mer in the UK) contains a unique soundscape of house, funk
and jazz that moves in many different directions.

Thar’s the plan according to Findlay. Tracks alternate
between the house/funk of their hit “I See You Baby” to
moody jazz numbers like “Ac the River”. “Music doesn’t
just have to be about verses and choruses and bridges — it
caa be about atmosphere. There's certain tracks where
there’s no identifiable structure it’s just one long groove.
That’s what we're trying to do now with the live stuff — get
that whole kind of mood thing going.”

On the Sonar date, Groove Armada will perform as a duo
but for their show in Seattle they will be joined by a nine-
piece band for the rest of the tour. “There’s about 87,000
things that conceivably go wrong in one evening and a lot of
them do — the experience is much more intense — if it goes
well it’s much more rewarding than DJing could ever be.”

After they finish the tour in New York on june 17
Groove Armada will return to London to record the next:
album and play festival dates throughout the summer.
“We've been doing a lot of remixing the last couple of
months which is great but it’s creatively sapping — because a
loc of the time we get these tunes and they're not really ask-

See Duo Page 16

WIN A COPY OF THE NEW DANCEHALL COMPILATION REGGAE HITS VOL. 1 — SEE PAGE 16

SKATE

a

PLAY SUMMER (

Muli-Sport Activities Boys & Girls ages 6-10

Half or Full Gay Activitios incede:
© Skating © Broomball ¢ Indoor Soccer © Floor Hock ming * end more!
If there is more than one child in a Samily registering there is a 10% discount on the second child’s fee
and a 20% discount on the 3rd child’s fee... :

FAMILY NIGHT WEDNESDAYS _
Every Wednesday night in Joly 5:30-8:00pm “.

$75. «Reservations recommended

4 weeks

in Joly te checes from!

CALL FOR.
MORE INFO
; ORA {at Rerkdey) Nerth Vancouver

i Re: ioms ae BROCHURE
familly of 4 chadac Chate Admntcetn: ar ; The Best Family Value... &
per famciiy : wanes Sie Admission, Dry Floor Activities, Skate ond Heke Rentals “Aut The me Fon!