There was a time when electronic music existed in its own very distant but parallel universe to our own, when geeky techno brainiacs hid in a room from midnight to sunrise and gave ambient shape to their intriguing brainwaves. Today, with the breakthroughs of electronic acts like the Prodigy and Chemical Brothers, electronic music has, for better or worse, edged ever closer to mainstream pop. Today, many new techno acts simply substitute synthesized instrumentation for organic guitars, bass, and drums, giving rise to a new school of electronic "musicians" more interested in fabricating a faux-rock sound based almost entirely on gimmicks. It's odious.
Apollo Four Forty cobbles together mindless but easily identified bits of classic rock guitar, a big backbeat, and some dippy vocal tracks in creating a sad, almost pathetic, amalgam of rock and electronica. Where ingenious electronic rock extracts clever rock samples and twists them into barely identifiable but engaging themes, A440 leaves its samples intact, its cleverness stowed away, and its subtlety locked in a closet. They crib chord progressions from Led Zeppelin, the Clash, and the Who, among others, and lump them clumsily on top of indelicate rhythm tracks with little--if any--ingenuity. In fact, if it weren't for "Stop The Rock" the opening track with an excellent psyche-organ track, and the slinky title tune, this one would already be de-filed for good.
All recordings courtesy of Sony Music, Inc. and Reverb America Music, administered by Universal-Songs of PolyGram Int'l, Inc. (BMI). ÒStop The RockÓ written by Noko, I. Hoxley, T. Gray, H. Gray; ÒHeart Go BoomÓ written by P. Colbourne, K. Goodman, I. Hoxley, Noko, T. Gray, H. Gray; ÒStadium Parking LotÓ written by Noko, I. Hoxley, P. Colbourne, T. Gray, H. Gray.
