We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Organic Grooves 2 - Remixes

by Codek Records

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $2 USD  or more

     

1.
2.

about

ORGANIC GROOVES, “DOIN’ WHAT COMES NATURALLY” Organic Grooves marks five years of unadulterd funk and fun by BRUCE TANTUM for TIMEOUT Magazine (AUGUST 2000)

From the outside, the old factory building near the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn appears to be just another dilapidated, postindustrial space. But the crowd of party people and the distant echo of percussion are clues that something unusual (for the neighborhood, anyway) is happening inside. Upon entering the building’s immense open courtyard, an awe-inspiring scene spreads out before you-hundreds of people are getting down on an impromptu dance floor, shaking to a distinctive psychedelic-dub sound that is utterly off-the-wall by current New York party standards. The funky genre-bending music is coming not only from a DJ, but also from a slew of improvising musicians who are somehow gelling into a coherent yet otherwordly sort of dance music. Organic Grooves is throwing another hoedown. Over the past five years, Sasha Crnobrnja (pronounced “Sir-no-burn-jah”) and Erika Lively’s roving Organic Grooves bash has become a mainstay of the city’s clubbing scene, growing naturally from modest roots into one of the more anticipated nights of the underground arena. This Friday, the duo and the rest of the Organic Grooves collective (which includes DJ Riain, musicians Zeb, Mike T., Gregory, Tamir and Takuya, and graphics-man supreme Alex Gloor) celebrate five years of hip-shaking action with a big blowout at the Bowery Ballroom. The Organic Grooves story begins in the early ’80s, when Crnobrnja began deejaying in his hometown of Basel, Switzerland. Although his record-spinning was certainly more traditional than it is now, it was still a bit left-of-center for its day, especially in the conservative Swiss environment. “I was playing a mix of whatever was around that wasn’t disco,” Crnobrnja recalls, “like early Eurythmics, Liquid Liquid, Konk, Kraftwerk, DAF, Medium Medium, A Certain Ratio-stuff like that. Basically funky music, but the new type of funk that was coming out at the time.” He was also heavily influenced by the “cosmic” scene, a little-known movement that had its origins in Italy in the early ’70s. “It was a mixture of all different musical styles,” he explains. “The cosmic DJs were mixing Krautrock with ambient, African, Brazilian, rock, all this weird stuff. It

wasn’t just haphazard-it had to work on a dance floor.” This blending of styles was to become a big part of the Organic Grooves style. Eventually, Crnobrnja hooked up with fellow Baseler (and current New York scene-maker) Benno Hotz. “He was into samplers and electronic music, and I played drums and percussion, and we started incorporating that with the deejaying, along with some rappers and a friend who played guitar. We were calling it the Go Global Sound System then. When Benno moved to New York around 1990, he told me there were these guys doing kind of the same thing-they turned out to be Giant Step.” Although Giant Step and Organic Grooves were both exploring the DJ-with-musicians concept, Giant Step’s sound was coming from a more traditional jazz angle. (Coincidently, Giant Step just celebrated its tenth anniversary last week-see TONY 255 for more on them.) In ’93, Crnobrnja made the big move to NYC to work as a designer (a sideline he continues today, along with partner Erika Lively-you can check out their wares at the pair’s Timtoum boutique at 179 Orchard Street). “When I hooked up with Erika, we decided to start doing events again-she had already been doing some parties in New York,” Crnobrnja says. “We did a few Go Global parties at some spots. The first one where we used the Organic Grooves name was in ’95 in a basement artist’s studio on Stanton Street, and that’s when we first joined up with [guitarist] Zeb, and a few other musicians. Erika was working then for XVI-when we saw the [Middle Eastern-looking, heavily mirrored and tiled] basement of that place, we said, ‘Wow, we have to do something in there!’ ” The space became the home of Organic Grooves’ first weekly events. “At first, we were playing some classics and more well-known music, along with the more underground stuff, but we were getting the people who just want to hear what they already knew,” Crnobrnja says. “So we stopped playing [well-known music] entirely, and that’s when we really started getting our own sound and our own crowd-when we really were doing something that we thought was different. >From there, it just kind of evolved into what it is today.” Since those early days, the party has intentionally wandered from venue to venue, playing in fab spots like a Loisaida antique shop, the good ship Frying Pan and the American Can Factory (the party described in the beginning of this article). All the while, Organic Grooves has been attracting more and more attention-it now consistently pulls in 500 or more revelers per party-and refining its sound further. When asked to define exactly what that sound is, Crnobrnja momentarily hesitates. “We used the description ‘trippy dub-funk’ in the beginning. You have to call it something, just to give people some idea of what it is, but we play all different kinds of music, with dub being the main ingredient. Whatever we do, that dub sound is always our backbone.” Whatever you call it, the music sure seems to get people on the dance floor-a typical Organic Grooves soiree has very few wallflowers. So is the Organic Grooves musical cadre a DJ with musicians, or a band that happens to have a DJ? “We’re getting to the point where I think we’re more of a band,” says Crnobrnja. “We don’t rehearse or anything, but over the years, we’ve become very in tune with each other and can kind of predict what the others are going to do. Zeb can play guitar all night and not be out of tune with what I’m playing-people don’t know how hard that is. Just like our recordings [on the excellent Codek label]-we’re learning step by step, and we feed off each other.” As for Organic Grooves’ future plans, Crnobrnja says, “We’re of course going to keep doing the parties, but after five years, we’re looking to take it into the next direction to keep it fresh. We definitely want to bring Organic Grooves to other cities, and we’re going to be putting out a lot of stuff on the record label and try to work with vocalists for that.” For the fifth-anniversary Bowery Ballroom bang-up, expect more of Organic Grooves’ patented “trippy dub-funk” psychedelia. Be sure and congratulate Crnobrnja, Lively and the rest of the corps for forging something unique on the New York scene, then get yourself out on the dance floor. That’s what it’s all about, after all.

credits

released January 2, 1999

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Codek Records UK

Codek Records was Co-founded by Sasa Crnobrnja & Alex Gloor in 1996 in New York City, which marks it's 25th anniversary in 2021.

contact / help

Contact Codek Records

Streaming and
Download help

Report this album or account

If you like Codek Records, you may also like: