The Dance

Long-awaited and unpredictable The Dance

The sixth studio album from the grand masters of dance music Faithless called The Dance is a sort of celebration of their fifteenth anniversary. It took the band’s fans quite a while to see this record finally delivered. Its predecessor, To All New Arrivals, was released in 2006. Since then, the outfit has managed only a couple of compilations to enlarge their discography. As good as these collections are, they are not capable of replacing CDs with fresh and interesting new material. Even most experienced and loyal supporters of Faithless did not dare foretell what type of music should be awaited on The Dance. The band’s last records signaled a deviation from the music the ensemble started with. Club dance material was gradually pushed out by a more thoughtful and profound type of music with an atmosphere similar to that found in ambient. The guess seems even harder since Faithless parted their ways with Sony/BMG moving to the Nate Tunes label. Will the band do another successful record comparable to No Roots, and Outrospective? What will be their secret weapon this time? Do the musicians of the outfit that is young no more have enough ideas and efforts to produce one more powerful album?

A new sweet present to clubbers from Faithless

In fact, the title of the Faithless new long player is an answer to many questions. The Dance is, first of all, a dance music album, more dynamic and explosive than its predecessors, and having less philosophizing, prophecies and preaching than on To All New Arrivals, and No Roots. The record kicks off with Not Going Home, a composition that soon is going to flood dance floors. Take it for granted. Although it slows down a bit as it approaches its end, it’s 100% dance material with powerful basses. This is the music you used to hear from Faithless when they were only making their first steps, when they were just becoming a new club music sensation. The rest of the tracks follow the same pattern. They share similar duration, drive and monotonous beats that will make you test your body and endurance till dawn. The traditional collaboration with Dido was continued as the singer did her job for Feelin Good, and North Star. You were right to expect some influence from other stylistic schools. Coming Around is a relaxing track looking like one of those you might find on To All New Arrivals, while Crazy Bal’heads is a politically tuned reggae piece condemning corrupted politicians. However, you will have no doubts choosing the best one among all the songs. This is definitely Tweak Your Nipple, another hit to the Faithless collection and a soon-to-be worldwide favorite of dance floors.

Faithless are still fascinating

Speaking briefly, The Dance is a collection of club music, the type featured on the first works by Faithless. After the disputable To All New Arrivals, an album that was meant to be the second No Roots, but never did, the band realized how far aside they had gone. The total time of the new record exceeds seventy minutes, a figure that would sentence to death many other albums. Yet in this case, the huge amount of the fresh material is but a blessing. Don’t forget this is a piece of dance music, the one that doe not test your nerves, does not bore you, but lures away, spells and relaxes. So, these seventy minutes are likely to come to an end much faster than you might expect in the beginning. The remarkable thing is that, with the change of the stylistic components, Faithless preserved their most attractive and unique peculiarities. We are talking here about the philosopher Maxi Jazz’s easily recognizable vocalizing manner, DJ Sister Bliss’s colorful and fancy synths performance, and Rollo’s commitment to organic and seamless integration of their music with elements of other trends. Faithless remain powerful, impressive and mysterious. Such they have been and still are. The only thing left to wish is that they could release their following record faster than four years after now.