Groove Armada Pick Out Some Seminal Manumission Bangers
Groove Armada have always been fascinated by the beat. A pair of DJs and crate-diggers turned producers, their infatuation with club culture added a sense of gravitas and heft to their chart crossover hits.
The pair remain at the forefront, too; festival favourites, 2022 proved to be one of their busiest ever years, with Groove Armada reaching new audiences in the process.
New career-spanning box set ‘GA25’ is out on November 11th (order it online), and it brings together some of their seminal hits – ‘Superstylin’, ‘I See You Baby’, Song 4 Mutya and ‘My Friend’, amongst others – over double disc CD and vinyl LP packages.
Ahead of this, Clash spoke to Groove Armada about one of their formative, and longest-lasting club experiences. Manumission began in Manchester, a predominantly gay-mixed night that quickly took the city by storm. Moving to Ibiza, the team helped revolutionise clubbing and dominated nightlife on the island for over a decade.
Groove Armada were regular fixtures, the pair playing countless sets at Manumission’s home in Privilege.
The set up may have been outrageous – live sex shows, live performances, acrobatics and pyrotechnics – but what sealed the deal with the music itself, an excellent brew of house, disco, and Balearic sounds that arguably defined Ibiza in the popular consciousness.
Here, Groove Armada go deep on the tracks that made those Manumission nights tick.
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Les Rhythms Digitales – ‘Jacques Your Body (Make Me Sweat)’
Stuart Price slapping bass in an earlier guise. Out on Wall Of Sound, Derek da Large was a Manumission legend.
Kerri Chandler – ‘Back To Raw‘
Fierce proper house music, we played a lot of that proper US house, amongst all the break bit. Kerri figured large, a legend.
Bizarre Inc. – ‘Playing With Knives‘
A total Andy staple track at the time, we played this all over the island and it always sounded great. The drop, the groove, the vocal!
Groove Armada – ‘I See You Baby’
Fatboy did an amazing job, but I’ll always have to love the OG. It was made in that basement.
Strings Of Life – ‘Soul Central’ (Danny Krivit edit)
Loved this tune so much, it has got me out of jail 1000 times.
Ray Mang – ‘No 1’
Nu disco at its very best from the hugely influential Nuphonic records, and Raj aka Ray Mang. This was a party starter and ended up on our ‘Back To Mine’ as did…
Dayton – ‘The Sound Of Music’
Deep down, around that time I was still a disco head and this tune used to find its way into our sets. Production on this is perfection.
Chris Rea – ‘Josephine La Versione Francaise’
Any self-respecting Balearic head knows this is the anthem and we have played this to more people than I can remember, and we definitely played it there. Pure joy.
Chic – ‘Chic Cheer’
Always a good one to play when you’ve had a few as the Cheer at the beginning is the perfect entree. Late night disco vibes.
Candi Staton – ‘You’ve Got The Love’
An all-time classic. What more is there to say…?
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‘GA25’ is out on November 11th, and can be ordered online.
