In the mid-'80s, when house music was still a dissident embryo growing in the belly of underground nightclubs and pirate radio, future techno chanteuse Billy Ray Martin was singing soul in Berlin nightclubs. Her seemingly incongruent love of early '80s industrial music found purchase in 1987 when she moved to Birmingham, England, and posted a classified ad in Melody Maker, which read, "Soul rebel seeks genius." Joe Stevens, Les Fleming, Roberto Cimarosti, and Brian Nordhoff heeded the call, and the resultant techno-pop group, Electribe 101, became the soft-focus guiding light of British house for several years. After standout parquet hits like "Talking With Myself" and "Tell Me When the Fever Ended," the diva and the engineer argonauts parted ways. (As clubhounds will recall, Martin went on to release two solo Top 10 dance singles, "Your Loving Arms" and "Running Around Town.") Finding house music growing ever more formulaic and facile, Stevens, Cimarosti, and Nordhoff dove deeper into the world of dub, which had held sway over the British underground since King Tubby's reign in the early '70s. Re-emerging as the Groove Corporation, the trio quickly proved themselves nimble helmsmen in aural territory ruled by grand musical pirates such as Lee "Scratch" Perry, U-Roy, the Scientist, the Mad Professor, Mikey Dread, and Prince Jammy. Their first release, Co-Operation, reaped a bounty of requests for remixes of everyone from Bob Marley to Ennio Morricone, and their second, Dub Plates From the Elephant House Volume One, turned their studio into a laid-back vacation spot for dub day-trippers, techno two-steppers, and dance floor vanguards. Volume Two ups the ante and shreds the house flag. Eschewing all techno inflections, it drifts down a lazy river of beats, picking up dancehall, jazz, and roots-reggae spice along the way. Sonically seamless, but with divergent textures and climates, it pulls you to your feet with tracks like "Clever Kid" and "Liberation Dub" and sucks you into a spliff-strewn stupor with tracks like "Scatter" and "Ghetto Side," fantastically placing the Elephant House studio on a par with King Tubby's own. Groove Corporation makes its Bay Area debut during "Dub Mission"'s seventh anniversary on Sunday, Aug. 31, at the Elbo Room along with Jah Grizzly on turntables, Ras T-Weed on the mike, and DJ Sep opening at 9 p.m. Tickets are $12-15; call 552-7788. -- Silke Tudor
