Gettin' High On Your Own Supply

Apollo 440 are one of those bands for whom there is no middle ground. You either love them for their unique brand of electronic sampladelica or despise them with a passion usually only reserved for the Man Utd money machine. Personally, I’m of the former persuasion, but I must admit that their formula becomes a bit jaded over the course of an album.

Their ‘Lost In Space’ theme (included here) is one of the finest three minutes of upbeat pop nonsense I’ve heard in some time, and the good news is that it fits right in with the likes of current single ‘Stop The Rock’ and the heart-racing ‘Crazee Horse’. ‘Cold Roc The Mike’ takes what sounds like an old heavy metal riff and spruces it up for the end of the nineties.

Unfortunately, when they try to add breadth to their repertoire, they’re not as successful. The trancey ‘40 Days’ sounds tired, trying hard over its five and a half minute duration to be something more than background music, but failing. ‘The Machine In The Ghost’ suffers from that old problem of the song title being better than the track itself, taking an age to wind itself up and just as long to fade out.

Much better is the Deep Purple-on-Prozac of ‘Blackbeat’, a more focused, in your face affair that comes across like an old punk standard overlaid with snatches of swirling organ. The reggae rhythms of ‘Heart Go Boom’ mix it up with a more hip-hop sensibility, but it’s still more Finley Quaye than Public Enemy. ‘Stadium Parking Lot’ is straight out of the Beastie Boys book of songwriting, though no less enjoyable for that.

While they are by no means one-trick ponies, Apollo 440 find it tough going over the full fifteen furlongs, but in a straight sprint, their brand of infectious pop is hard to beat.