Faithless

Faithless came together in London in 1995 around three core members, Rollo, Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz, and the division of labour was odd from day one. Rollo stayed in the studio and has never set foot onstage with the band, which left Sister Bliss and Maxi Jazz to carry the name out on the road, again and again, with Maxi up front on lead vocals and guitar.

Reverence arrived in 1996 and laid down the blueprint: a house and techno pulse, trip-hop shadows, and Maxi's low, unhurried voice talking you through the small hours. "Insomnia" is the one everybody knows, all coiled tension and strobe-lit release. Sunday 8pm followed in 1998 with "God Is a DJ", a title that makes the case for the dancefloor as church all by itself, and Outrospective (2001) and No Roots (2004) kept the lights on with "We Come 1" and "Mass Destruction", while singers like Zoë Johnston and LSK joined the extended family.

Under the beats the words have always leaned sociopolitical, and that never went soft: the 2020 album All Blessed carried Yannis Behrakis' photograph of refugees on its sleeve and took immigration as its theme. Mixmag ranked them 4th on its list of the greatest dance acts ever, they have headlined Glastonbury four times, and the story runs all the way to Champion Sound in 2025.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.