Representative Albums: "Reverence," "Back to Mine," "No Roots"
Representative Songs: "Insomnia," "God Is a DJ," "Don't Leave"
Biography
A prime house-pop group and consistent club act, Faithless is at its core a duo of producers Rollo and Sister Bliss. Before the group officially came together in 1995, Rollo had produced a previous club hit ("Don't You Want Me" as Felix in 1992), plus an album for Kristine W. and remixes for the Pet Shop Boys, Björk and Simply Red. Sister Bliss, a piano and violin prodigy from the age of five, converted to acid house in 1987, and quickly became one of the UK's best house DJs, also recording several singles as herself. Though the two had begun producing together as early as 1993, Faithless became a stable quartet two years later with the addition of vocalists Jamie Catto (previously in the Big Truth Band) and Maxi Jazz (from the Soul Food Cafe Band). The group reached worldwide status the following year with the singles "Salva Mea" (one of the biggest dance hits of the year), "Insomnia" and "Reverence." The debut Faithless album, also titled Reverence, appeared in late 1996 on Rollo's Cheeky Records, and was picked up for distribution by Arista the next year. Sunday 8pm followed in 1998, and was reissued in 1999 with a collection of remixes titled Saturday 3am. A comedown mix album, Back to Mine, appeared in early 2001, just before Faithless returned with Outrospective. In 2004 the band released the quieter than usual No Roots, with a new member (LSK) adding vocals. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide
The three principal members of Faithless are Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo. Jazz acts as a vocalist in mostly rap format with lyrics that have strong spiritual or socio-political content. Bliss constructs most of the music herself electronically, but is talented in playing the piano, violin, saxophone and bass. Rollo heads and produces the band. Lead female vocals for many of their songs are performed by Pauline Taylor, who also performed lead vocals for singles Rollo released under his monikers Rollo Goes Mystic and Rollo Goes Spiritual.
Faithless at the Orange Music Experience Festival, Haifa, 27 June 2005
Faithless have released five albums of their own work, the first four gaining successively higher positions on the album charts. The albums are called Reverence (which reached number 26), Sunday 8PM (reaching number 10), Outrospective (peaking at number 4) and No Roots (which debuted at number 1) between 1996 and 2004, with a greatest hits album out in 2005. In light of their dance roots, each of the four studio albums has been followed with a subsequent bonus disc of remixes. Their fifth album, To All New Arrivals, was released in 2006.
As well as their own studio albums, all three members actively engage in other people's work as solo figures. Sister Bliss, as previously mentioned, is a prominent dance DJ and has for a long time toured the circuit on her own, remixed others' albums and even appeared in music videos, such as Paul Oakenfold's "Weekend". Maxi Jazz brought out an album before the formation of Faithless and also worked on pirate radio. He also collaborated with Faithless founding member Jamie Catto on his new project 1 Giant Leap guesting on a song with Robbie Williams. Finally, Rollo founded the label Cheeky Records and has produced the music of other artists, most notably his sister's three albums, as well as using various monikers to create popular dance music under the names Rollo Goes ... (Camping, Mystic and Spiritual), Felix, Our Tribe (with Rob Dougan), and Dusted.
As well as this other work, the band collectively indulge in mixtapes of other musicians' work, either mixed by the group or merely selected by them. This includes the long running Back To Mine sessions, of which they are the fifth of over 20 people selected to choose the music, as well as The Bedroom Sessions and more recently the Renaissance 3D music project, in conjunction with the Renaissance nightclub.
On 29 September 2006, the first single Bombs from their latest studio album To All New Arrivals made its debut on BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong show. The album was released on 27 November 2006. "Bombs" generated moderate controversy with its music video, as demonstrated by MTV's refusal to air it[1]. The music video featured interchanged clips of war scenes and daily life; symbolizing the presence of war all around us. As said by the director of the music video Howard Greenhalgh, "War infects all our lives; recently it feels that this has increasingly become 'our way of life'".
On 7 August 2009, a dub mix of the track "Sun To Me" from their latest studio album (name still unconfirmed) made its debut on BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong show, Sister Bliss commented on it that it was something to get connected with the dance floor again. Recently, Sister Bliss confirmed that the new album is scheduled for the release in May, 2010.
