| DJ Sets ::Sister Bliss (Ayalah Bentovim)
& Faithless
The three principal members of Faithless
are Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo. The band was formed
in 1995, the debut single "Salva Mea (Save Me)"
was released that same year. 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 by Rollo released under
his monikers Rollo Goes Mystic and Rollo Goes Spiritual.
Faithless have released five albums of their own work, the
first four gaining moderate success on the album charts. The
albums are called Reverence (which reached number 36), Sunday
8PM (reaching number 31), Outrospective (at number 47) and
No Roots (which debuted at number 17); they were released
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
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 Dido's 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.
The band also 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
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 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, not yet released, 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. "Sun to Me" has been given as a free
download to all users that have registered on the new Faithless
site, or subscribed to their newsletter. The track has been
released on the band's MySpace page as well. On 12 February
2010, the first official single from the next Faithless album
was played on BBC Radio 1's Pete Tong show. The name of the
single is "Not Going Home" and it will be released
on 3 May 2010. The name of the new album is The Dance, and
it is scheduled to be released on 17 May 2010.
