Andy Cato announces solo LP on Apollo Records, shares a new remix by Biosphere

MP3: Andy Cato – “Sunrise Sant Agnes” (Biosphere Remix) – http://www.xlr8r.com/mp3/2013/03/sundown-sant-agnes-biosphere-remix

Times & Places is the new solo album from Andy Cato, one half of game-changing British dance outfit, Groove Armada. The 18 track collection of original works will be released on 29th April on R&S’s imprint, Apollo Records, home to the likes of Aphex Twin, Biosphere, Model 500, Sun Electric and new signings Submerse, Shadow Child and Synkro.

A fascinating, psychogeographical journey stretching from Cato‘s pre-Groove Armada years through to the present, Times & Places was largely recorded ‘on the road’ – on tour buses, in airport lounges and beyond – over the course of the past 20 years (the first track is from 1993).

Beginning with the era of UK squat raves and Castlemorton, then warehouse parties in pre-rebirth East London, the mid 90’s dance boom and his involvement with Beat Foundation, to early GA forays here and abroad, the album follows him through DJ gigs in front of 100,000 people, the Coca Cola-sponsored stages of the reborn US edm scene, arriving at an LA gig in a Sopwith Camel, right up to the current era as a recent signing to cult underground house label, Hypercolour.

The process of pulling together the fragmented tracks on Times & Places meant digging through piles of cassettes, eight-track tapes, and withered floppy disks, sometimes re-recording the distorted pieces of music captured long ago on dusty C90s. Happily, some tracks, such as the one recorded at Abbey Road’s Studio 2, were in a much better state.

In an era of emotionless, digital only releases, this album should be enjoyed alongside the extensive sleevenotes and still imagery in the accompanying hardbook CD package. These photos and other materials surfaced during the process of sourcing the music – visual reminders of the history of the past 20 years of British dance music culture through the lens of someone who’s seen first hand its many twists, reconfigurations and rebirths.

Download the Biosphere remix of “Sunrise Sant Agnes” at XLR8R.