Herald rating: ****
(Grand Royal/ Shock)
Review: Russell Baillie
Novel idea, this: send out a Groovebox - a portable synthesiser combining the Roland company's semi-legendary 606 and 808 drum machines and 303 bassline generator - to a bunch of artists, and compile the results.
That it works is possibly because some of those selected (Air, Beck, Cibo Matto, Sean Lennon) aren't allergic to a good retro-electro-twiddle. Or that those having to put down their guitars (Pavement, Sonic Youth and Tortoise's John McEntire) would be likely to enter into the lo-fi spirit of the occasion. But it's a odd gem of an album.
Sure, some of the aforementioned folks don't sound much different. But the mix of spartan pulsations (including an ambient reworking of the 70s synth hit Popcorn by Gershon Kingsley) and actual songs (the best is the haunting Today I Started Celebrating Again by Bonnie Prince Billy aka Will Oldham) makes this an enjoyable and dead-cool novelty album and a positive exercise in product placement.
Various - <i>At Home with the Groovebox</i>
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