Going back to the early 90′s, this week. 1993, was the actual year that the track I’m sharing was released. It came out on the album “Strange Cargo III.” The artist, as you have probably guessed by this point, is William Orbit. Why is it that all of the best electronica artists/DJs, or whatever you want to call them, were from the UK? I’m not sure that the same is not still true today. Back to the point… Orbit was mainly a producer before putting out the “Strange Cargo” series. This song was on the charts, so even if it wasn’t your genre, chances are, you have heard it. It popped up in my headphones the other day, and I thought that it was a good one share. I’m referring, of course to Water from a vine leaf. This track features some vocal work by Beth Orton. But the first half of the track is instrumental. It has since been remixed about 1000 times, including a pretty cool mix by Underworld. The version that I’m sharing, is just the regular old album cut. It is about 7 mins. long. So, if you have the time to commit, here you go.

Lucky number 13, here we are. I debated about posting something other than these guys, today, since the last LMA was also electronica-style stuff. But whatever. “These guys,” by the way, are Groove Armada. A couple of guys, is exactly what they are. They are kind of like a 2 man version of Norman Cook (Fatboy). Groove Armada hails from the UK, where interestingly enough, they owned a night club with the name Groove Armada, in the mid-90′s. Their sound isn’t super original, awe inspiring, or anything like that. Over all, it is your typical house style electronica stuff. The reason that I’m sharing it, is because I have found it fantastic for background music while reading (drowning out train noise w/o being distracting), running or working on computer crap. They have both high energy and mellow songs, which is kind of nice also. If you hate house music, you will hate these guys. Reagan, can’t stand them. The slow developing, busy, long, repetitive tracks, that seem to bleed into one another, can really work against any argument that it is enjoyable music. On the other hand, if you are in the mood, and the venue is right, those same characteristics can make it ideal. The song that I picked to share is kind of a middle of the road, choice, as far as energy level goes. The title of it is “Easy.” As mentioned above, it is fairly slow developing. It you give it a chance though, it has full on throwback disco flavor, by the time that it gets going. Press play, if I haven’t talked you out of it.

This is another one of those “post rock” groups that I was turned onto by a Base58 mashup. I’m not going to lie, at first they were a little much for me. At the time that I discovered them, I was neck deep into NYC hiphop. It didn’t leave a lot of room for new stuff to find its way into the playlist. Not to mention that I had my reservations when I found out that they have French origins (although currently based in the UK).  I can’t stand Nouvelle Chanson, or most other pseudo artsy French music. Anyway, I would throw on Stereolab, generally at night, when I just needed something on in the background. Something so that you could just marinate. After after doing this a few times, I started to hear some stuff that I really liked. I ended up becoming a huge fan. There are still some Stereolab songs that are over my head, that I can’t really get into. But overall, I really enjoy their sound. I hate to get all cliche and drone on about what an eclectic mix they have incorporated into their sound, but I guess that I just did. The problem is that they have a fairly broad spectrum encompassed in their sound, as well. Which made it difficult to choose a song to share. I finally settled on one called “Les Yper-Sound.” Press Play.