Moca - Wroooooooooam (2004)

The German act Moca's first full-length album slips excitingly between categories, and by its hard-to-categorize nature is infinitely more interesting and listenable than the sorts of albums where the listener hears four measures and can already peg exactly which of the myriad subcategories of electronic dance music to slot it into. At its base, Wroooooooooam is pure old-school house, early-'90s style, with its prominent, easy-to-digest beats and occasional snippets of soul diva vocals. But on top of that, there's more than a little downtempo mellowness (never so much that the album is in any danger of slipping into the Muzak-like background wash of so many downtempo releases), and most obviously, there's a huge influence here from plain old-fashioned '60s soul-jazz and groovy '70s fusion: wah-wah guitars that will have you checking the musician credits for George Benson's name, funky electric piano and clavinet parts, and more vintage synths than can be found this side of a Stereolab flip side. Most importantly, however, there's some real skill here not only in putting together slick and danceable grooves, but also compelling, sturdy melodies to go on top of them. Wroooooooooam is the sort of album that even people who don't normally go for this kind of thing can love.