Faithless - Sunday 8PM
Following up on their 1998 release Reverence, the UK collective Faithless have put together a superlative collection of songs, laced with everything from acoustic guitars, piano and strings through to an endless assortment of sound effects, effectively complimenting a groovy drum 'n' bass style rhythm track.
At the top Faithless elegantly set the scene with The Garden, an instrumental which is at once irresistible and which also introduces many of the component elements, organic and synthetic, which are featured throughout the album.
The Garden then proceeds to slip effortlessly into another guise, that of Bring My Family Back, which retains the basic melody but is garnished orally with laid-back rap from Maxi Jazz as Rollo, Sister Bliss and Jamie Catto do magic with the hard and software.
By midpoint the acoustic elements have dropped away to be replaced with the kind of sonics that will surely have the floors of clubs around the world filled to the max, peaking with God Is A DJ, complete with crowd noise atmospherics, pre-empting reality before it even gets a chance, and the kind of key changes that helped make classics of those early journeys into electronic dance music.
From there Faithless lock into the home run. Going deep into unexplored territory until Killer's Lullaby comes along and sends you soaring.
If their debut, Reverence, was a taste of things to come then Sunday 8PM surely marks the arrival of a Faithless.
Rating - 955,714 (out of a possible 1,000,000)
