V/A Groove Zone (Groove Zone)

Tracklist :

1. FREq – Time Traveller 140 BPM
2. Sensient – Phobial 135
3. Metronome – Too Rough to Cough 138
4. Chromosome vs Stella Nutella – Le Groove 140
5. Fine Diner – Catalepsy 140
6. OMB –BBL 130
7. FREq – We Communicate 135
8. Andromeda – Slip Streamed 136

Bonus track :
9. Vibrasphere – San Pedro (Low Sky remix)

Groove Zone is a new progressive label coming from Japan, held by Taku Yoshihaya.

Groove Zone is also the name of the first release of the label consisting mainly in a morning progressive compilation with some tribal or heavy beats hints ; the whole thing mastered by Henrik Nilsson (Metronome). First remark about the little booklet made of urban architecture lines design , inside which you’ll be able to find all the photos of the artists involved in this compilation as well as some infos about them like birthday date (useful if you wana send a Nutella’s pot to Stella or a Stella Artois beer’s pack to Miss Nutella as a birthday’s gift for example ).

FREq (Aran Gallagher/New Zeland) opens the ball with an urban morning tune ‘Time Traveller’ with some slight tribal flavour, indeed the kind of tune reflecting the early morning of a yuppie waking up at 6:00 PM and who needs since the first seconds to be in hard & speed rythmn of life helped in this with , as a result no extra time spent for breakfast , he just takes a swift shower &at 6:30 PM goes direct to the subway for an hour of transport to his job’s location. 7 :45 PM Arriving at his desk after a quarter of walk coming out from the metro, the yuppie just got the time to take a coffee at the automatic machine while contemplating a short moment the first sunshine of the day, it’s already 8:00 PM and the bigboss is still calling after you, harassing you should i say …

Sensient (Tim Larner/Australia) delivers a more pumping & night production with several soft industrial & disturbing-mysterious tones, it’s a bit like if you were propulsated in the 4th dimension, discovering by night at random an hidden acces to a futuristic car’s assembly line fill in with different machines all working without any human presence, their repetitive moves give the impress of a musical choregraphy answering to their own generated sounds while functionnating.

Metronome (Henrik Nilsson/Sweden) in Too Rough To Cough sum up a bit the whole musical content of this compilation. A first part focuses on the biting rythmic up to 2’20, then we evolve into more tribal groovy harmony. 3’30 you get your first deep morning lead but just a few seconds, but don’t worry it was just a teasing and will be back later on after 5’50 & up to the end mixed with the tribal-groovy touch already appreared. You left the track with the feeling of travelling the world riding on top of a white cloud.

To tell the thruth, i don’t catch the spirit of the track from Chromosome (Anders Nilsson) vs Stella Nutella (Hanna Flemstrom/Sweden) . It’s strange, there’s some electric guitar riffs but a global boring atmosphere. It’s only when the gospel samples after 4’00 happens that i found the association with the progressive builds up interesting. Unfortunatly, it doesn’t last & the guitar riffs come back immediatly with this kinda asiatic lead, very frustating…

Fine Diner (Matt Larner/Australia) brings an hypnotic nebulous morning contribution with some percussions line in the background. The track changes of posture after 4’40 could i say from passive spectator comtemplating an invisible paralysing people process through a camera , you’re now hitted yourself by the syndrome which transforms you in an active particapation. No worry here , it’s just indeed the sonic’s ascendancy on your mind.

OMB (Daisuke Yamagishi/Japan) makes at first a gallopping beat but for me the real start of the track is situated at 2’00. The time when a backgroundish morning & cycling up structure makes his appearance. I enoy & enter easily in the tune but i’ve to admitt that it could be more difficult or disagreeable for those who don’t dig too much hypnotic stuff. Music more for the brain & less for the body would i say.

FREq again, with a track intro that could sound tek/housey to someone like me, it results disapointing comparing to the others productions on the cd even the Chromosome & Stella ‘s track.

Andromeda (Anders Nilson) just gives a perfect entertaining morning-prog art of piece, just listen & open your eyes…

Vibrasphere (Rickard Berglöf & Robert Elster/Sweden) have cooked the bonus track in place of a remix of the already acclaimed San Pedro. Trembling accordion or maybe bandoneon part (accordion from america latina, Argentina exactly i think) coppled with accoustic guitar sweet melody , embellished with the gimmick of a woman murmuring ‘San Pedro’ on your hears ; that’s the receipe of the trip to San Pedro wherever it is.

Favorites :1,2,3,5,8,9

Verdict : this is the typical release that won’t get twice same feedback i guess, personally this the kind of morning-progressive i’m searchin but i’m sure some harcore proggy lovers won’t dare paying as much attention to Groove Zone as me. In spite of this, i feel it to be recommended for the morning-proggy lovers & give it 8,5/10