Apollo Smile

I apologise to anyone traumatized by this post in advance, but I thought it only right to finish talking about Matt Dike's productions with one I'd mentioned earlier but otherwise ignored. That would be Apollo Smile, and boy, get ready for a smack-like overdose of bubblegum!

Ms. Smile has been around since the early nineties and is best known as the voice of Ulala in the English versions of the Space Channel 5 games. Her contributions to those games are pretty notable as most think she got the voice-acting perfect and the games are looked at as early precursors to the Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero games, their spin-offs and various clones. None of that has anything to do with her career in pop music though, which based on this album alone is pretty dismal. I suppose I'm being a bit hard on her as this was the early nineties and her music comes off like a full-band version of Deee-Lite with the sex-flair right up front, and maybe if I had heard this record around the time I was listening to World Clique I would have a different opinion (as in I still enjoy World Clique), but as it stands it sounds mighty dated, almost like they were trying to sell an early twenties Britney Spears to teenie-boppers but without as much sex yet more than what was acceptable for the time. Sorry if that's a little long-winded, but listen to Thunderbox and you'll understand.

Apollo's career continued despite the album flopping and she has recorded at least two more solo albums since independently, played with an "Atari" band named Rockbot and hosted the Sci-Fi Channel's Anime Week in 1998, which I'm sure is due to her then calling herself The Live Action Anime Girl, something I'm sure existed in Japan long before Ms. Smile's arrival. That said, she probably would have went over wonderfully in Japan but I haven't read anything to prove she did.

Most of what makes this album fail is the over-enthusiastic vibe coming from Apollo's vocals, which isn't to say she's a bad singer, but it doesn't sound like she either knew what she was doing here or the engineers and producers sucked. Freddie Richmond, Jr. gets the main production credit here and he's also credited with mixing the album with David Bianco who was given a co-production credit on six tracks. As for the rest of the line-up, several names known for quality stand out including engineer work from Steve Ett, Sylvia Massy, Brendan O'Brien and David Bianco again, co-production on four tracks from Matt Dike (both versions of Dune Buggy, Temple Of Love and Peace Sign), remix credits to Bill Laswell for the Praxis version of Thunderbox and Shep Pettibone for his version of Dune Buggy, and vocals and "box" (?) by Johnny "Guitar" Watson. So Johnny "Guitar" Watson didn't play guitar on the album? WHAT?!? It's also worth noting that Matt Dike, Mike Ross, Rick Ross (not THAT Rick Ross, Mike's brother and manager for Delicious Vinyl), Chris and Cynthia Goss (think QOTSA) all get thank yous.

A few tidbits worth explaining, the version of Thunderbox listed as the Praxis Remix is not listed as such on the album, but in the credits Mr. Laswell is given his remix credit. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me why a remix was made of that track as it isn't terribly different from the original version which was featured on the Days Of Thunder soundtrack. I've included that version as a bonus track for anyone interested enough to examine it. Mr. Pettibone doesn't get his name on the track list either, where his version of Dune Buggy is listed as a Bonus Remix, but again the credits do list him as the responsible party so I only thought it was right to do the same here. There were several additional remixes of Dune Buggy created which are also attributed to Mr. Pettibone, but I have no interest in hunting those down so please forgive their non-presence here. Last but not least, I have seen Matt Dike credited several times as the original producer of Thunderbox, although the album's credits and those from the Days Of Thunder soundtrack don't agree with that statement. Whether he is or is not though, it sure sounds like something he would have at least started, what with a guitar riff heard both on Paul's Boutique and Tone Loc's Loc'ed After Dark and drum loops from Bonzo's Montreux off Led Zep's Coda, but until such a time as I or someone else gets to ask him directly we may never know.

So again, I apologise for any undue trauma you may suffer from listening to this craptastic voyage I am featuring for you today, but it's not right to mention something and then not explain it, so I thought it only right. Sorry if I hurt your feelings Ms. Smile, if it's any consolation YOU WERE GREAT as Ulala! All this said, enjoy if possible and may the devil have mercy on my soul, although the way he works he might reward me for this one!


Apollo Smile

01 Thunderbox (Praxis Remix)
02 Dune Buggy
03 I Want You To Love Me
04 Love Comes Your Way
05 Theme For All Nations
06 Friends
07 Hymn To The Sun
08 Temple Of Love
09 Peace Sign
10 Theme (Reprise)
11 Dune Buggy (Shep Pettibone Remix) (listed as a bonus track on the album)
12 Thunderbox (Original Version) (bonus track, courtesy of ME!)

PS - The image in this post has nothing to do with the album cover, although I think it's a heluva improvement if you ask me! Girl is HOT!!!!! and with five exclamation points! For those who want the real cover, it's embedded with the MP3s in the rar. Also, found this little article asking where she has went to. In a strange way I hope they find her, not just because she's hot but because she seems like she really believed in what she did. So, Apollo, if you're out there, sorry for the bashing but drop a line to the people and let 'em know what you're up to.