Apollo 440: История британской электронной группы

British electronic group

Apollo 440 (also known as Apollo Four Forty or @440) are a British electronic music group formed in Liverpool in 1990. The group has written, recorded, and produced five studio albums, collaborated with and produced other artists, remixed as Apollo 440 and as ambient cinematic alter ego Stealth Sonic Orchestra, and created music for film, television, advertisements and multimedia. They notched up ten UK top 40 singles with three top tens, and had a chart presence worldwide. Its name comes from the Apollo program 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. To date, Apollo 440's remixes range from U2, P. Diddy/Jimmy Page, Jean Michel Jarre and Ennio Morricone. Among their Stealth Sonic Orchestra remixes are a series of Manic Street Preachers singles.

Apollo 440 were formed by the brothers Trevor and Howard Gray with fellow Liverpudlians Noko and James Gardner. Trevor, Howard and Noko all attended the same school, Old Hall High School in Maghull, in the mid to late 1970's. Gardner left after the recording of the first album. All members sing and add a profusion of samples, electronics, and computer based sounds. After relocating to the Camden area of London, Apollo 440 recorded in 1994 with their debut album, Millennium Fever, and released it on 30 January 1995 on their own Stealth Sonic Recordings label (distributed by Epic Records). Collaborators over the years have included Jeff Beck, Jean Michel Jarre, Billy Mackenzie, Ian McCulloch and Tomoyasu Hotei. Currently, the band resides in Islington, London, having once again moved its headquarters.

+ List of singles, with selected chart positions, showing year released and album name Year Title Peak chart positions Album UK AUS IRL NLD US Dance 1991 "Lolita" — — — — — — — — — — non album tracks "Destiny" — — — — — — — — — — 1992 "Blackout" — — — — — — — — — —1994 "Astral America" 36 — — — — — — — — —Millennium Fever"Liquid Cool" 35 — — — — — — — — —1995 "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" 35 — — — — — — — — — 1996 "Krupa" 23 85 — — 38 — — — — 7Electro Glide in Blue 1997"Ain't Talkin' 'bout Dub" 7 64 32 3 13 24 15 2 18 15 "Raw Power" 32 — — 17 — — — 44 — —"Carrera Rapida" — — — — — — — — — — 1998 "Rendez Vous 98" (with Jean Michel Jarre) 12 — — — — — — — — — non album track "Lost in Space" 4 — — — 74 18 90 — — —Gettin' High on Your Own Supply 1999 "Stop the Rock" 10 79 — — 47 26 — — — 11 "Heart Go Boom" 57 81 — — — — — — — — 2000 "Cold Rock the Mic / Crazee Horse" (promo only) — — — — — — — — — — "Charlie's Angels 2000" 29 — 64 — 95 — 70 — 75 —Charlie's Angels 2001 "Say What?" (with 28 Days) — 23 — — — — — — — —Stealing Chairs2003 "Dude Descending a Staircase" (feat. The Beatnuts) 58 — — — — — — — — —Dude Descending a Staircase "—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

Over 50 different Apollo tracks have featured in movies, trailers, TV, games and ads worldwide, the latter including globally branded cars, beers, soft drinks, phones, audio and software. They have also written two entire soundtracks for the Sony PlayStation and provided the themes for ITV World Cup '98 and Formula 1 2000 to 2002 coverage as well as Liverpool F. C.'s Official 2006 FA Cup song.

The album, Millennium Fever, is a tribute to the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard. Since the release of that album, other references to Jean Baudrillard's works have popped up. The track, "Astral America", references Baudrillard's book America, where the term originates. The track, "The Perfect Crime", references Baudrillard's book of the same name. The lyrics of "Stealth Requiem" reference the Baudrillardian concept of hyperreality. At one point a female voice says, "Ravishing hyperrealism Mind blowing", and later quotes directly from America (1988): "The exhilaration of obscenity; the obscenity of obviousness; the obviousness of power; the power of simulation."

The title and cover art of the album Dude Descending a Staircase are parodies of Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 by Marcel Duchamp.

The song "Liquid Cool" (released as a B side in 1993, as a single in 1994, and featured on the Millennium Fever album) is a tribute to Alcor, a company focused to pursue research into and the organization of cryonization. The topic is also referenced in the title song "Millennium Fever", which includes the line, '"I've been dreaming of freezing my mind in California'" where Alcor was based until 1994. Contact details for Alcor subsequently appeared on the sleeve of the single "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", a cover of the Blue Öyster Cult song.

The song "Omega Point" references the religious concept of the same name, and features a quote from Barrow and Tipler's "The Anthropic Cosmological Principle".

Their 1996 song is a homage to the Polish American drummer Gene Krupa and his improvised style of drumming.

On the album Electro Glide in Blue, track 6 called "Tears of the Gods" (6:18) features audio quotes from the 1970s video performance "Bukowski at Bellevue". The quotes are all taken from a piece entitled "Soup, Cosmos, and Tears." (A transcription of the video can be found at the Blithering Savant blog.)

The song "Love is Evil", on the album The Future's What It Used to Be, contains samples from the Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek.