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Tracklist: “Stay Frosty” * “The Future’s What It Used to Be” * “Smoke & Mirrors” * “Stealth Cantorum” * “A Deeper Dub” * “Love Is Evil” * “Odessa Dubstep” * “Motorbootee” * “Traumarama” * “Fuzzy Logic” * “Music Don’t Die”

Pre-order Apollo 440’s “The Future’s What It Used to Be” from here | Watch the album trailer after the jump.

Apollo 440 – “The Future’s What It Used to Be”: Viva Music Album Review:

When was the last time you heard about Apollo 440? Frankly, although I am not a fanatic of football, and even less of football teams, it was when I first found out that the FA Cup charity theme song of Liverpool F.C. was provided by them. However, the nine years that passed since their latest album, “Dude Descending a Staircase”, there was enough Apollo 440 aired and since 2007, when they resumed their touring activity, it’s been as if they have never left the scene. Of course, the thirst for new Apollo 440 material was there, but also the signs. No less than nine Apollo 440 remixes were featured in the 20 year anniversary edition of U2’s “Achtung Baby” in late 2011, and then the news of an Apollo 440 comeback followed shortly. And now it’s almost here: on Jan-30, out on their own Stealth Sonic Recordings label, the Liverpudlian group comes back with “The Future’s What It Used to Be”, their fifth studio album, and probably one of their best achievements so far.

Apollo 440 – “The Future’s What It Used to Be” Album Trailer:

With a crucial beat which functions like a ‘brush up your Apollo 440 in 3 minutes, “Stay Frosty” brings to mind older Apollo 440, which is at the same time endearing and appeasing, but it also brings a wider scope of the beat and since a lot of progress has been made in music production since their latest album, it sounds even better than what we used to know. It is just the beginning of a very profound trip, that continues with a very infectious “The Future Is What It Used to Be”, a definite lovemark and a great addition to the list of our favorite Apollo 440 tracks. Plunging in the deep mire of our conventionalist look into past and future, it surfaces in spontaneous, melodic bursts. A lot of charisma is exuded, and it’s a task that “Smoke & Mirrors” does not find hard to match. The music, the beat, the vocoder, the lyrics may remind of an earlier rave era, but hey, the future is what it used to be! So it’s just fine to bring that back into the 2010’s. “Smoke & Mirrors” counts, just like “Stealth Cantorum” among Viva Music favorites from the album. It has zest, it accommodates perfectly dance routines and is a factotum of the band’s willingness to show what they have been up to in recent years. “A Deeper Dub”, a wonderful rendition of the already classical “A Deeper Love” from C+C Music Factory is a rare bird, keeping essential hues and making over the track into an essential compilation item for this year, truly contemporary. And if all this sounds happy go lucky, then it is time for “Love Is Evil” to show you the other side of engagement, with cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek’s voice sampled from one of his most known diatribes against the evil purported by love (mind you, it is universal love and love that fails to emote and restore a cosmic balance that he is talking about). And the carbon print of very refined emotion that is left by this track invades luxuriously the next track, “Odessa Dubstep”, a frantic piece of music, that is surely to attract some massive attention from club dj’s and radio hosts. The same can be claimed without any lenience about both “Motorbootee” and “Traumarama”, tracks that play purposefully with musical notions Apollo 440 were and can be again loved for. Back to fancy, “Fuzzy Logic” with an interlude from Discordianist philosopher and illuminatus Robert Anton Wilson, is on the lighter music side, but laden with meaningful quotes and proving to be quite a potent manifesto for the kind of epoch we are currently living in. To cap the compilation, the final track, “Music Don’t Die” returns to the beat and flair we love in Apollo 440 and covers the silence with very enigmatic and at the same time revealing sounds.

“The Future’s What It Used to Be” is unsurprisingly a great album, and making worthwhile if not the entire nine year wait for the new album, at least the gaps left by the absence of Apollo 440 sounds in recent years. Because yes, they have been missed, and it is good to have them back. Enjoy!

Apollo 440 – Official Website | on Facebook | Discography on Discogs