La Peste

Most Americans' introduction to A3 came via the use of the group's "Woke Up This Morning" at the start of episodes of the television series The Sopranos. The odd combination of gutbucket rhythms, gospel harmonies, electronic bleeps, and Robb Spragg's gravely voice intoning, "Woke up this morning with a blue moon in your eye," as the camera records a passenger-seat view of a car emerging from the Lincoln Tunnel and making its way through the industrial wasteland of northern New Jersey is now an indelible TV experience. But Sopranos fans might be surprised to know that the song is the work of an odd musical collective from the Brixton district of London who sport such pseudonyms as the Empiricist (guitarist Mark Sams) and The Spirit (keyboard player Orlando Harrison). It's no wonder that placing them is difficult. They seem to have spent most of their time absorbing media depictions of America, minus any cultural context, and then mixing these undigested references up with dance music. Though the beats rarely flag on the group's second album, La Peste, elements of folk, country, blues, and gospel come and go in incongruous profusion.