Groove (2000 Film)
Dance culture, and the rave scene in particular, has been a potentially ripe film topic for years, so whenGroovewas released to heavy buzz at the Sundance film festival, Sony Pictures immediately saw a possible summer sleeper. WithJohn Digweedmaking a cameo appearance, as well as a savvy mixture of featured music throughout the movie,Groove's soundtrack will do nothing but contribute to the film's success. West Coast dance fixtureWish FM, a.k.a. Wade Hampton, serves as the film's music supervisor, and he comes up with a compelling mix that nicely parallels the momentum of the movie's broiling dance-floor sequences. Starting off with some light house, then darkening his touch into deeper, more trancing territory, Wish reaches a zenith with Digweed's "Heaven Scent," using its soaring keyboard refrain as a natural peak. There are peaks all over this record, though, asOrbital's "Halycon + On + On" andScott Hardkiss's mix of Alter Ring's "Infinitely Gentle Blows," with its electrified vocal mishmash, provide ever-entrancing moments of turntable bliss. The movie's director, Greg Harrison, has said he intended the film to act "as an authentic document of a time in youth culture history"--his movie's soundtrack is definitely that.--Matthew Cooke