Faithless To All New Arrivals

    Faithless – To All New Arrivals

    05 May

    By

    Genre: Electronic
    Style: House, Downtempo, Breakbeat, Conscious, Synth-pop
    Year: 2006

    Bout time!

    Recently Record Store Day promised a reissue of the 2006 album by Faithless – To All New Arrivals.

    Mark Reuten of Dutch Vinyl (www.dutchvinyl.com.au) was anticipating a copy of the reissue but unsure if the allocation would come through on the day. Due to my being offshore I had two friends who were eager to line up before store opening on the day and grab a copy (thanks Chris and Andrew!).

    The reason for the excitement was a recent disaster in purchasing online. My son had located a copy of the original issue and paid dearly for the rarity. Several hundred pesos only to have the warpage added to postage which rendered the disc unplayable (yes even the best tracking arm and cartridge said “no way Jose”).

    After trying a “hail Mary” attempt at flattening the disc thermally the warp did indeed flatten. However, it moved the mountain into a sideways detour that was impossible to read.

    6 months later we learned that a fresh reissue would be released. Now original vs reissue arguments are real and valid. Some good, some bad, some “meh” results over many years. How would this turn out?

    Sister Bliss

    Before venturing into sonics what of Faithless? Having recently seen the current band tour Melbourne in early 2026 at the PICA venue in Port Melbourne, all the big dance hits and laser show were in fine form.

    Faithless had the ghost of Maxi Jazz in vignettes and samples and most of the audience were 50+ so would have seen them live in the 90’s and 00’s.

    However Faithless was always powered by Sister Bliss the DJ name for Ayalah Deborah Bentovim who formed Faithless in 1995 with Rollo Armstrong, Jamie Catto and Maxi Jazz. Bliss constructs most of the music of Faithless herself electronically, but also plays the piano, violin, saxophone and bass guitar. She is a superbly talented synthesist (low on presets).

    To All New Arrivals was the fifth of seven (thus far) studio albums by the Bristol UK based electronic trip hop house trance band Faithless, released 2006, presented in a partially “continuously mixed” format.

    The tracks are designed to be enjoyed as a thematic development. No bone jarring moments like Peter Gabriel’s “So” album where you just get into a blissful zone and get a “Sledgehammer” moment to jolt you out of it.

    This album includes collaborations with Harry Collier, Robert Smith (of The Cure), Cassandra Fox, Dido, One Eskimo, and Cat Power and some sample cameos from Tears for Fears.

    Fortunately, Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz are still united on this LP with the added collaborations showing no signs of future illness and premature passing.

    Critically not everyone understood this album. Online reviews might have desired more dance anthems of the past. For listeners who wanted more dance “bangers” it got a little more serious in tone as the 00’s progressed and as previewed in the 2004 album No Roots.

    If you followed Maxi Jazz you would have realised he had depth of views and convictions, and “lighter fare” was not where he was heading.

    The album opens with a phone call of a woman’s voice saying “If I don’t get out of this, I just want you to know that I really really love you.” Something we all dread.

    Then the track “Bombs” drops an antiwar political message and a chorus that declares there is “so much love, so much pain, so much more than I thought could ever contain.”

    The Cure’s Robert Smith is twisted into the track “Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite,” with a pulsing beat, distressed children sounds, and a sample of his own “Lullaby”.

    One sample is from a Tears for Fears track – there are also harmonies that connect Massive Attack’s “Unfinished Symphony.” All build up to “Emergency” which finishes the album in a seven-plus minute soundscape, that can leave you speechless.

    Sonic Bliss

    Ok, how does it sound? Could you drop this at club levels?

    Short answer is yes! A magnificent soundscape to be enjoyed on a “big system”.

    Thankfully the masters of the “vinylverse” decided to lay the reissue tracks out across two LP discs instead of the original one LP.

    They let the music fill the real estate. They let the tracks breathe. They cut the dynamics in to make you want to “goose the volume” appropriately.

    Thank you Miles Showell the Mastering and lacquer cutting engineer from London (UK), working at Abbey Road Studios. Famous for being an expert in half-speed mastering which he refers to as “the holy grail of vinyl cutting.”

    Mastered At – Abbey Road Studios

    Lacquer Cut At – Abbey Road Studios

    This album reissue showcases his work, and the reissue obliterates the 2006 original. We did the shootout on the “big rig” and the original was compressed and demure in comparison (inner tracks on our warped edition were useable).

    Tracklist

    Bombs: 4:58
    Spiders, Crocodiles & Kryptonite: 5:40
    Music Matters: 4:37
    Nate’s Tune: 2:14
    I Hope: 5:27
    Last This Day: 5:09
    To All New Arrivals: 4:57
    Hope & Glory: 5:01
    A Kind Of Peace: 4:13
    The Man In You: 5:05
    Emergency: 7:44

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