Led by Steven Malkmus, Pavement's early days were, while in hindsight the most ground breaking, more often than not over-shadowed by the on and off stage antics of drummer, Gary Young. Performing handstands, selling salads at the door and collapsing in a drunken stupor were only a few of Young's many capers. And while his departure in 1993 was no doubt responsible for the band being taken a lot more seriously by the critics, post-Young Pavement were sorely lacking in spontaneity, chaos and anti-hero smarts. Repackaged, re-enhanced and with the addition of a whopping 34 bonus tracks, Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe revisits the band at the height of its non-conformity and feedback addled best.
It's hard to know where to start with this CD as there is so much material on the album that even the most hardcore of Pavement fans will have trouble listening to it from start to finish the first time it gets plopped on the CD player. Including the 14 tracks from the original 1992 Slanted and Enchanted and with the addition of previously unreleased studio sessions plus a couple of BBC Radio sessions, the double CD is a living audio history of one the US's most influential, yet underrated acts caught in its heyday. While the sessions, especially those recorded for BBC Radio's John Peel show, make for great listening, it is the inclusion of a recording of an entire gig at London's Brixton Academy in 1992 that really stands out and makes this a lo-fi album worthy of being played on any hi-fi.
Groove Armada
Love Box
Jive
When London-based dance duo, Tom Findlay and Andy Cato, aka Groove Armada, released the dance/lounge crossover album Vertigo in 1999, great things were expected of the pair.
Spending several weeks in the UK album charts' top twenty and going Silver, the album also spawned the hit single, I See You Baby -- a tune later re-mixed by Norman "Fatboy Slim" Cook. Following this early success, Findley and Cato wound up supporting Elton John during his US tour.
Touring with the grand old man of the British music scene might well have proven to be the pair's first and last crowning moment, however. Since 1999 none of the duo's releases have hit the mark, with both 2001's Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub) and the pair's odd selection of tunes that appeared when they were invited to compile a CD for the Back to Mine series both proving hugely disappointing.
The pair's latest offering, Love Box, is similarly below par with much of the material being nearly as crude as the title itself. From tunes such as Remember, a flat and watered-down version of many a Portishead number, to the fluff of Be Careful What You Say, a tune which makes elevator music appear almost hip, the album is full of bloopers. There are signs of Groove Armada funkiness, but all too brief ones, with The Final Shakedown providing listeners with the album's only reason for being.
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