Groove Armada

Like many successful dance acts, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato got their start mixing records at a club; the only difference being that they owned the place, naming it Groove Armada after a well-known discotheque from the '70s. Playing off that theme, the pair started producing tracks under the same name in the mid-'90s, jumping genres with the greatest of ease, from bombastic club anthems like "I See You Baby" and the acid techno-infused R&B of "If Everybody Looked the Same" to the woozy, drum-heavy downtempo of "At the River" and the easy-chair funk of "My Friend." More of the same beat science applies to our Next Steps, as well as a handful of remixes that aim for the stars with mind-expanding grooves.

The patient, mournful piano keys of "Little by Little" and spacey, Air-like melodies of "Remember" (the lead sample of Fairport Convention singer Sandy Denny is striking to say the least) make Groove Armada sound like chill-out room headliners of the highest order. Remixes by Tim "Love" Lee ("Your Song") and Kinobe ("A Private Interlude") are also weightless to the point that they'll leave you feeling lightheaded — at least until Groove Armada's curve-ball cuts emerge, including the dubbed-out disco bliss of "Whatever, Whenever," the Clash-sampling guitar pop of "Madder," and the dance floor-storming, 4/4 beats of "Fogma."

With four straight albums in the U.K. Top 10 and Elton John behind them (he took the duo on tour soon after Vertigo dropped), Groove Armada's been something of an anomaly in the expansive realm of electronica music. Mostly because they've refused to stick to one or even three subgenres within the span of each platter — one minute they're readying "I See You Baby" for a big-beat remix by the likes of Fatboy Slim, and the next they're wading through the underground with spy groove samples and the backpack-rap icon Jeru the Damaja ("Suntoucher"). Did we mention that Richie Havens — the Greenwich Village folkie who opened Woodstock and played the same coffee shops as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez — also turns up on "Little by Little" and "Hands of Time?" Yes, they're that unpredictable.