ARTiST: Groove Armada
TiTLE: Soundboy Rock
LABEL: Columbia
GENRE: Dance
TiME: 69:17 min
SiZE:  97,3 MB
BiTRATE: VBRkbps
RiP DATE: May-03-2007
RELEASE DATE: May-07-2007
WEBSiTE: www.groovearmada.com

Track List:

01. Hasta Luego Mr. Fab                        01:00
02. Get Down                                   03:52
03. The Things We Could Share                  03:57
04. Save Our Soul                              04:22
05. What's Your Version                        03:47
06. Paris                                      05:36
07. Love Sweet Sound                           04:35
08. The Girls Say                              04:02
09. Lightsonic                                 06:54
10. Soundboy Rock                              03:53
11. Drop That Thing                            03:04
12. Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)              04:09
13. From The Rooftops                          04:49
14. See What You Get                           04:33
15. What's Your Version (Reprise)              02:40
16. Feel The Same                              03:56
17. Hands Up                                   04:08

Release Notes:

Note: Some tracks on this album don't have silence
inbetween them, just sounds effects. But not all do, 
so not a mixed cd. Best to use seperate tracks. Still 
doesn't affect flow of album.

'Soundboy Rock' is a focused collection of 15 songs
each flowing into the next like the best kind of
homemade mix-tape. Initially they worked separately
on the tunes for their fifth studio album - Cato in
Spain, in the studio he's dubbed The Sweatbox,
Findlay in the space he calls The Tom Tom Club in
the basement of his house in Hackney. Musical files
were emailed back and forth, the ideas fairly flying
out of the pair; 19 tracks, mostly instrumentals,
were quickly racked up.
Last August Cato went to New York to record
contributions from a dreamteam of rappers and
vocalists. Soul queen Angie Stone sat at the piano
with the Groove Armada man, chain-smoking and
exhaling lyrics over the punchy rhythms of 'Feel The
Same As You'. Later, once Cato was back in Europe,
Rhymefest - signed to Mark Ronson's label - would
add whipsmart hip hop block-party vibes to the
pneumatic funk of 'The Girls Say'.
Back in London, Findlay was working with Mutya Buena
and hit songwriter Karen Poole. Cato had come across
the former Sugarbabe singer via a Chicago-based
website from which he sources a lot of his vinyl; he
had no idea who she was. Pool, meanwhile, had been
put forward as a possible collaborator by Groove
Armada's new A&R man. The result: 'Song 4 Mutya', a
huge, jump-around pop tune, sure to dominate
dancefloors and airwaves all summer.
Back in Spain, Cato invited MAD - the voice on
Superstylin', their live MC, present and correct on
every Groove Armada album to date - to jam over some
records. He came up with the phrase 'Soundboy Rock';
Cato figured it sounded like "a classic reggae
chorus". So out came Cato's bass (for 'a proper
reggae rumbling bassline'), and in came Hard-Fi's
Richard Archer on melodica. Cue the title track,
packing a laidback reggae wallop in the middle of
the album.
And onwards and upwards rolled the Soundboy buzz...
Tony Allen, formerly of Fela Kuti's band and
currently featuring in The Good, The Bad And The
Queen with Damon Albarn, agreed to chip in, as did
Candi Staton. Her gutsy vocal and Allen's bewitching
drumming, as well as rolling piano chords and stabs
of strings, combine to dazzling effect on the
Philly-esque soul classicism of 'Paris'. Candi pops
up again on the dancefloor dynamite of 'Love Sweet
Sound'.
After many months and miles and emailed mega-files,
Findlay joined Cato in Barcelona for six intense
weeks of 20-hour days at the end of 2006. More
collaborators kept joining the eclectic party: Simon
Lord from Simian Mobile Disco added vocals to 'The
Things That We Could Share', and Alan Donohoe from
The Rakes did the same to the wonderful 'See What
You Get' . Welsh-dwelling American Jeb Loy Nichols
supplies croony folk-vibes to 'What's Your
Version?', while Findlay's Sugardaddy collaborator
Tim Hutton supplies the chorus. Buzzed-about
newcomer Jack McManus - now with his own record deal
- brings spacey vocal ambience to the bleepy
textures of 'From The Rooftops' (imagine Erik Satie
soundtracking 2001: A Space Odyssey).
But before all that comes 'Get Down'. The first
single from 'Soundboy Rock' features the uniquely
chewy vocals of Stush, a female MC from London, and
a soaring disco-carnival vibe. Its energy and its
enthusiasm and its sheer shake-your-tailfeather
bounce typify Groove Armada's Year Zero approach to
their new album.

hmv.co.uk