Various Artists - Groove Armada pres. Lovebox vol. 2

Groove Armada’s hotly anticipated follow up to 2007’s Lovebox Weekender couldn’t come at a better time. The weather’s getting warmer, the fake tans and big sunnies are back, and Australia is preparing itself for another hectic party season. Lovebox: Festivals and Fiestas may well be the festival set for people who don’t like festival sets.

Forget the chart heavy, party pleasing antics of some festival favourites, Lovebox oozes cool. Groove Armada (AKA Tom Findlay and Andy Cato) aren’t interested in putting together a Ministry-style anthems and chillout compilation. They want to introduce today’s clubbers to soul Grandaddy’s like Sly & The Family Stone, The Human League and Franki Valli; dance-punk forefathers (and forebabes) like Blondie and Frankie Knuckles and anything else that ever took their fancy. All seamlessly mixed with the hot right now cool of N.E.R.D., M.I.A. and James Talk (JT?).

If your Saturday involves laying on a BBQ, mixing a jug of margaritas or dressing up for the party ahead, CD1 will soon become your essential soundtrack. Groove Armada nail the spirit of a lazy summer day, teasing and easing the listener into a surprising and varied selection of party-ready grooves. Featuring N.E.R.D.’s laconic burner Run To The Sun, LCD Soundsystem’s hippie/indie-inspired Someone Great and Human League’s electro-percussion classic Love Action, if you ain’t smiling, there’s something wrong with you.

CD1 peaks with Piloosky’s DJ Shadow-inspired re-edit of Franki Valli and the Four Seasons’ Beggin; a swirling, insistent chunk of nostalgia that gets heads, arms, legs and anything not nailed down moving in urgent fashion. Groove Armada follow this up with house party favourites Blondie and The Flaming Lips. Tell your friends it’s a mix tape and they’ll be forever impressed with the unpretentious, and unbelievable, fusion of then and now, funk and soul.

M.I.A.’s dirty beats and tripped out trumpets signal the setting sun and the getting down to business. These harsh edges are smoothed out by Ophir Project’s old school rhythms and waa waa solo. Holding onto the bass, and stepping into deeper territory comes the Glimmers’ Time For Action, ushering in a delightful formula of one part electro, one part funk.

It shouldn’t work, the sounds should jut and jar, but somehow they find a way to make it work. The funk tracks (for instance Khan’s On the Run, Tam Cooper’s Galactica) provide a sense of sophistication and thrill, the electro tracks (look to Laidback Luke’s Break down the House, Debbie Deb’s When I hear music) ground it in the here and now. You get the feeling in a live setting, the dancefloor would be an even mix of the old and the young, the exuberant and the jaded. And everyone would be lapping it up.

Lovebox rounds out with a distinctly clubby vibe, superbly aided by the likes of James Talk, Martin Landsky and Frankie Knuckle’s 1980s show stopper Your Love.

By then, maybe knee deep in mud, maybe sunburnt from head to toe, the festival crowd is ready for one last song, one last dance. You can almost hear the deafening cheers roaring above the arpeggio synths, see the arms in the air, as the DJs applaud the audience. And we applaud them. Fine show boys!

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