Sounds From The Ground - 20 Years Of The Best (2014)

Celebrate two decades and eight album releases with the remastered 20 Years of The Best Sounds From the Ground. Two decades of the best music from the respected London duo of Nick Woolfson and Elliot Morgan Jones - SFTG - their remastered eighth Waveform release!

Recalling William Orbit's Strange Cargo, Sounds From The Ground is a British duo operating at the edges of ambient and dance and providing as much for the mind as the body in this electronica journey. From the opening 'Treasure,' Sounds From The Ground brings a coolly distant ear, mixing and matching familiar elements but in consistently engaging and surprising ways. Mysterious spoken voices, sampled gospel, trip-hop dub grooves, and filter-swept synth lines shift the focus along an arc described as much by mood as by melody. Minimalism meets dub on the tropical cycles of 'Bodega Bay,' while 'Drugstore,' which marches to a groove of doom, is a piece of resigned heroism. 'Rye' traverses a dark, voodoo trance vamp placed with Terry Riley-like organ cycles. The roller-rink organ refrain and horn bursts of 'Marshmello' circumscribe a hallucinogenic ballroom. Sounds From The Ground may be on terra firma, but its music is flying high.

Their debut album, 'Kin' came out on Waveform in 1996. The duo's second Waveform album, 'Terra Firma,' released in 2000, helped secure SFTG as a satisfying, downtempo UK musical force. Billboard magazine called it "consistently engaging" and like all the SFTG titles, it continues to be enthusiastically received. In 2004, Nick and Elliot returned to their roots with their third Waveform title, 'Luminal.' A spacious and sometimes gritty release with contributions from pedal steel guitarist BJ Cole, vocalist Rachael Calladine, Canada's talented throat singer and Bjork contributor Tanya Tagaq Gillis, dub maestro Dillinger and up and coming UK vocalist Taz. CDBaby described Luminal as "less lounge and more fat and dirty." In 2006 SFTG took things to new heights with their fourth Waveform release 'High Rising' - more fresh sounding and widely acclaimed ambient, dub, trip hop and chilled back electronic musical styles. In 2008 we proudly released their fifth Waveform title, their evocative, shimmering work 'Brightwhitelight.' In 2010 SFTG took us on yet another exacting journey through 'The Maze and in 2012 they expanded our horizons and introduced us to a 'Widerworld.'

Tracklist:

01. Gather 06:12
02. Treasure 07:19
03. Move On 06:25
04. Triangle 10:07
05. Drugstore 07:02
06. Eclipse On 5th 06:13
07. Slate Grey 08:55
08. Step Into Now 06:55
09. Faraway Star 06:34
10. Afterglow 07:15