British dance music band Faithless have released their new single ‘Forever Free’, featuring the final recorded vocals from the late Maxi Jazz.
Emerging in the mid ’90s, Faithless’ core members, comprising of lead vocalist Maxi Jazz, musician Sister Bliss and producer Rollo, played a key role in shaping the electronic dance music scene, with iconic tracks such as ‘Insomnia’ and ‘We Come 1′.
‘Forever Free’ which was released on Friday 6 June, will be the opening track in their new album ‘Champion Sound’, their first since 2020’s ‘All Blessed’. ‘Champion Sound’ will be the first studio album to feature Maxi Jazz’s vocals since 2010’s ‘The Dance’. The 17-minute-long track takes listeners on a journey through echoed, distorted synths, energetic beats and evocative spoken word. Jazz’s segment in the track nears the beginning, and goes as follows: “When time come/Beneath the fearsome sun/My daughter my son/Be as completely you/As you can be.”
Maxi Jazz passed away in 2022 at the age of 65 after battling a long illness. Faithless had split in 2011, and when they reformed in the midst of the Covid pandemic, Maxi hadn’t joined them, as he’d formed his own band, Maxi Jazz and The E-Type Boys. A complete stylistic departure from his work with Faithless, the band described their sound as “melodic funk and blues mixed with reggae beats, dub basslines and Jamaican melodies.”
In a 2024 interview with NME, Sister Bliss shared some insight into the new album, and discussed missing Jazz and honouring his legacy. She described going on stage without their former frontman as “like going out there and just pulling your pants down.”
She says: “It’s a very vulnerable experience because Maxi was so iconic and so powerful and so compelling and charismatic as a frontman. You couldn’t not get involved when he’s there being the remaster of it all, and bringing that extra dimension – that philosophical, anarcho-Buddhist-punk vibe – to the live shows.”
Speaking about ‘Champion Sound’, Sister Bliss said working with poets and spoken word musicians that shared Faithless’ vision was key after Jazz’s passing: “That is a real passing the baton from Maxi, which is what he wanted to do. He wanted to slow down on Faithless, probably because he wasn’t very well. So I feel that we’ve been blessed enough to find artists to collaborate with who are worthy of that baton.”
‘Champion Sound’ will be released in four parts over the summer, and is said to feature big names such as Bebe Rexha. The full album is dropping in September. Singles ‘Forever Free’, ‘Fugitive’, ‘In Your Own Groove’ and ‘Peace and Noise’ have already been released, and are available for streaming. You can pre-order ‘Champion Sound’ here.
