GROOVE ARMADA present RED LIGHT
aaamusic | On 21, Jun 2011
In a career that spans over a decade, Groove Armada have made an indelible mark on the music world, becoming established as one of the planet’s most-loved and biggest selling dance acts. From storming the charts to headlining the world’s largest festivals, the duo of Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have become an internationally revered musical force and they have done it their way.
The release of their sixth studio album, ‘Black Light’, last year explored a redefinition of the GA sound and garnered massive critical acclaim leading to a year of headlining festivals all over the world and ending in a Grammy nomination. Having created an album that was the epitome of what they had been striving to achieve, this triumphant tour marked the end of this musical period for GA, as Andy Cato explains:
“Brixton, October 2010 – end of the UK tour, and last ever gig for GA as a live band. The ‘Black Light’ album, the best we ever made, finally captured the sound of GA on stage, and it sounded even better after 6 months on the road. It was a massive Brixton weekend and marked the end of an era which had scene GA Live become a festival closing gig all over the world.”
Now in 2011 and with GA at the peak of their career, they are embarking upon a new chapter with Red Light. Imbued with the spirit of the warehouses that gave birth to the GA project, Red Light signals a return to their musical roots with a newly developed audiovisual live experience and series of dancefloor EPs.
“Red Light was the natural sequel. Having pushed the sound to the extremes of the live side, it was the moment to return to digital. The warehouse sound where GA started”, says Cato. “We wanted the vibe of those parties we’d always played – the free ones, the roadtrips, Sankeys, Space, The Tunnel NYC, Basics, the 333 in ’98 – but refreshed and enlarged for the big stages.”
Red Light takes this DJ heritage and ignites it with a decade of experience of big live show productions. Wanting to completely redefine the way in which they can perform, they created the new show.
“We set about designing a DJ booth which would let us control the full experience, throw in live jams, manipulate the music however we want, whenever we want. Multi-decks, fx and machines. Then we re-cut the GA house sound and filled the record box with a selection of unique edits and new material. Then we added a real-time humanized visual system using kinect cameras which means that any Red Light performance experience can only ever happen once. The result is a gig rooted in the warehouse, delivered stadium style.”
This summer the duo will take the newly honed show to Ibiza for a Red Light residency at We Love…Space as well as a series of festival dance arena headline shows. The inimitable GA edited blend of tough upfront tunes will be experienced in a whole new way and will feature the unveiling of brand new Red Light material.
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