Andy Cato - Times & Places LP on Apollo Records

Times & Places is the product of a musical veteran who’s put aside his marquee act for a moment, and been given the creative space to trawl back over his musical past. With Groove Armada withdrawing from the album-tour cycle for the moment, it made sense that Andy Cato might take some time to pull together some of his best solo work from over the years. What’s perhaps a bit more surprising is how breathtaking the final result turned out to be.

Times & Places is considerably more grounded in house and rave than you might expect from a Groove Armada affiliate; a famously eclectic ‘dance’ act, who were equally just as influenced by rock, funk and soul. Cato’s musical history though, prior to 1998’s Vertigo,was grounded more in straight-up house music, and the work he’s collected here stretches back to the early days of acid house.

In the end, Times & Places comes across as an impassioned love letter from Cato to the history of dance culture, scribbled from a distinctly UK perspective; from someone who’s been there to witness its many twists, turns and rebirths along the way.

The opening ethereal flourishes and chilled ambience of South of Mexico City captures perfectly the overall experience of Times and Places. Groove Armada had huge success over the years with anthems like Superstylin’, though if you look at the albums they’re taken from, often as a whole they were more mellow affairs. Here too, Cato finds his heart in the more pensive, downbeat side of club music, though he still threads them to the soul of the dancefloor.

Cato’s journey is a smooth one, and shifts effortlessly into the bluesy piano riff that holds down Abbey Road Jam; stunning in its simplicity.It’s one of a handful of tracks that sound like they could have been lifted off a Groove Armada album (in this case Goodbye Country, Hello Nightclub). This diversity adds to the richness, though they’re the exceptions rather than the rule, sparing the album from feeling like a dumping ground of GA offcuts.

Glancing at the song titles, it’s not difficult to guess the concept, with each song named after the place where the music was created. The PR tells of the extensive process of pulling together Times and Places, of digging through piles of cassettes, eight-track tapes, floppy disks and dusty analogue equipment. Equally though, Times & Places anthologises Cato’s own personal journey as a musician - communicating a a tangible sense of being taken along on that musical odyssey yourself, which stretches back over 20 years.

The assorted, largely laidback musical sketches work so well together, it’d be a crime not to hear the album in full. Sunrise Sant Agnes drops you straight into a Balearic chill zone, while Rainfalls (Toulouse) is the album’s most immaculate slice of spine-tingling, summery electronic bliss. Meanwhile, the album’s second half reveals Cato’s raver roots; sounding like what you’d hear while sprawled on a beanbag in the chillzone of a balmy Summer of Love warehouse bosh.

North From Montparnasse summons Orbital levels of euphoria, while the best is saved for last with the glorious 7am Drop, marking the point where the sunrise lights up the dancefloor. An unreleased gem floating around since the 90s, it’s an ageless slice of divine dance serenity.

Cato’s motivations might have been personal when compiling an anthology of his work from over the years; inavertedly though, he’s crafted a tribute to the enigma of the dancefloor. Times and Places is bereft of any standout singles, though as a whole it’s as good as a ‘listening’ electronic album gets. A superb salute to the timeless soundwaves of UK club culture.