Are We a Rock Band or What…?! This is both for rockers and ravers. 😀
Apollo 440 are one of the widely underrated bands, although between 1993–2004, they had 11 Top 40 UK singles with three Top 10s, recorded and produced four albums, collaborated with and produced other artists, remixed as Apollo 440 and as ambient cinematic alter-ego Stealth Sonic Orchestra for bands and artists such as U2, Puff Daddy/Jimmy Page and Ennio Morricone, and created music for film, television, advertisements and multimedia.
“Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Dub” pushed Apollo 440 into the spotlight from their second album “Electro Glide in Blue” released in 1997. The opening verses – “Lets go back to the rock… And see it at four-forty” – are a play on words based on an exact quote and actual sample taken from the 1971 movie “The Andromeda Strain” while they also samples “Ain’t Talkin’ ’bout Love” by Van Halen. This song reached #7 in the UK Singles Chart. So, “Lets go back to the rock….”
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahrpa_PqZrk&w=540&h=435]
“Gettin’ High on Your Own Supply” is the third album by Apollo 440 which contains the single “Stop the Rock”. Videos were made for “Stop the Rock”, “Heart Go Boom” and “Lost in Space”. Apollo 440 cut samples from Led Zeppelin to Status Quo, among many others and blending styles from trance, ska, hip-hop, dub, and disco to electronica and rock.
The epic “The Machine in the Ghost” is a modern space rock trip with smooth jazz and trip-hop taste, “Heart Go Boom” and “Stop the Rock” are more dance oriented funk and ska perfumed tracks while “Blackbeat” bring to surface rock and psychedelic shades.
Track list:
01. “Are we a rock band or what….?”
02. Stop The Rock
03. Crazee Horse
04. Cold Rock The Mic
05. Lost In Space
06. For Forty Days
07. Heart Go Boom
08. The Machine In The Ghost
09. Blackbeat
10. Stadium Parking Lot
11. Yo! Future
12. High On Your Own Supply
13. The Perfect Crime
The name comes from the Greek god Apollo and the frequency of concert pitch — the A note at 440 Hz, often denoted as “A440”, and the Sequential Circuits sampler/sequencer, the Studio 440. They changed the writing of their name from Apollo 440 to Apollo Four Forty in 1996, though they switched back for their latest album.
Albums:
1995 – Millennium Fever
1997 – Electro Glide in Blue
1999 – Gettin’ High on Your Own Supply
2003 – Dude Descending a Staircase
Apollo 440’s fifth album, “The Future’s What It Used To Be”, is due to be released in 2011.
Apollo 440 – Official Site
Apollo 440 @ MySpace
Apollo 440 @ Facebook
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siUggWBU4Uc&w=540&h=435]
