Contact

There's a bunch of brave pioneers out there who have been struggling to get rid of the DJ and replace him with live musicians. Contact shares this stubborn mandate with New Deal and Grand Theft Bus, bands that pride themselves on stamina, danceability and improv. Contact's half–hour long three-song EP is recorded live and is definitely made for the dance floor with its constant driving kick drum, upfront repeating bass and sundry atmospheric colours and textures. With more and more cross-over between the house music crowd and the jam band crowd — dancing being the common denominator — Contact are able to ride the border mainly due to the high profile of guitar in the music. The guitarist's focus on rhythm rather than melody, however, and the band's ability to serve the groove, not the soloist, set them apart from many of their contemporaries.