Groove Armada - Vertigo

Vertigo is the second studio album by English electronica duo Groove Armada, originally released in May 1999 by Jive Electro Records.

1999 belonged to Groove Armada’s Vertigo was a standard inclusion in even the most causal of music collections at the end of the 90s. It marked the moment that dance music came good at album length.

Groove Armada, formed of jazz musician Andy Cato and Tom Findlay, had been floating around the dance scene as DJs, pressing white label 12"s, for some time before this album - which was not, as many believed, their first.

With a classy, understated cover, Vertigo is an accomplished blend of musicianship, well-informed samples and guest vocalists. The biggest of its singles was the soon-to-be-live-favourite “I See You Baby”, with Gram’ma Funk on lead vocals: a dirty slink of a tune celebrating clubbing at its most base (and honest). Another single, the Patti Page-sampling “At The River”, impresses to this day despite its ubiquity at the time in both television use and on Café del Mar-styled chill-out compilations. Its trombone riff taunts you with familiarity, before the song kicks in and the sun dips again to kiss its Balearic beat undercurrents.

It’s impossible not to see the duo as ringmasters pressing the buttons, an image which persists to the present day. From the sumptuous G funk of “Whatever, Whenever”, to “Pre 63”’s muted trumpet, via the ambient landfill of “Served Chilled” and the house anthem of “If Everybody Looked The Same”, the pair seldom takes their eyes off the (glitter) ball. The sultry “Dusk You & Me” particularly impresses, and the hypnotic loops and sumptuous horn-break of Inside “My Mind (Blue Skies)” allow it to shine as a lesser-known highlight.

Groove Armada will be forever associated with Vertigo’s down-tempo vibe, time has been kind and this remains a classic of its genre.

Check out the tracks: “If Everybody Looked The Same”; “At The River” and “I See You Baby”. 

This double LP reissue housed in a single sleeve with printed inner sleeves and digital download is pressed in Europe on black vinyl.