If it’s a smorgasbord of rare mellowtronica and dance
music from two of the UK’s most esteemed curators
you’re after, then you could do worse than to check out
this brand new reissue of Late Night Tales: Groove Armada
that was originally released in 2008.
For their second team-up with the legendary label (and
a release that even the BBC admits 'offers a selection
of some great tunes'), Andy Cato and Tom Findlay have
painstakingly compiled a collection of songs so varied, it’ll
leave even the most open-minded listener occasionally
scratching their head. And yet, somehow, it works - from
an unlikely cover of Gary Numan’s ‘Are (Friends) Electric?’
to the arcane Americana of Beyond The Wizard’s Sleeve’s
mix of Roscoe via a Balaeric edit of Will Young and a White
Isle-ready edit of Chris Rea’s Josephine, the good ship
Armada never fails to entrance. All aboard!
“When I look back on my career the two things I’m probably
most proud of were the compilations we curated and
the live show. They were two things I think we do really well.
How many of them are still tunes that I play now? Obviously
it's got ‘Josephine’ which is an Ibizan anthem and it’s
soundtracked all my best times in Ibiza. There are the times
you find yourself playing one of those nice beachside bars
or an afterparty somewhere, and you play that record and it
raises a roof and this edit is one I play all the time, even now.”
Tom Findlay, Sept 2023