About

Sometime in 2000 I got a copy of Revolution magazine with a CD of music from the Eighteenth Street Lounge label. I later learned that the label belonged to Thievery Corporation and was named for their club on 18th Street in Washington, DC. But when I got the CD, I didn’t know who they were. In fact, it wasn’t clear to me if they were a company or a band.

The music sounded completely fresh to my ears, and got me thinking about music in a different way. Put simply, it had some of the feeling of electronic dance music, but did not seem to be created for dancing. The medium tempo of some of the songs was an obvious clue, but more than that, there was an attention to detail and a rich range of influences that aren’t common in pure dance music.

It was music with a beat and brains. In other words, a thinking groove.

Much as I love Thievery, and their label, and their lounge, and their DJ mixes, and their live shows, this is not a Thievery Corporation fan site. But it’s because of them that I wanted to explore what seemed like a new area for music and mixing.

I also need to mention Stéphane Pompougnac and the Hôtel Costes mixes. As soon as I heard the first two songs on Costes 3 – “Ambrosia” by A Reminiscent Drive and a remix of “Where do I begin” by Shirley Bassey – I understood that it was possible to put music together in a way that reflected the Thievery mindset. Match beats sometimes, or shift to a completely different tempo. Throw in old, new, electronic, organic, whatever. Just maintain a good mood and a good groove.

I’ve been a radio DJ, a mixer of background music for shops, a clubber, a fringe participant in the pop music industry, and most of all, a fan of many, many different kinds of music. Thinking Groove is the idea that seems to tie it all together.