Dude Descending a Staircase

In his review for The Guardian, Adam Sweeting gave the album four out of five starts, writing: "Keen Liverpool FC supporters and pioneers of Brit electro, Apollo 440 come bounding back with a vast double CD that nobody could accuse of failing to deliver value for money. Where the band score is in their ability to blur the line between people and machinery: time and again you are left wondering whether that was a drummer or a drum machine, a pianist or merely another sample. The 18 tracks here cover a bit of everything, from speedy dance-pop with shouting to ripped-to-shreds disco, leavened with intermittent blasts of old-fashioned hard rock. They seem particularly fond of giant 1970s soul grooves with massed banks of strings, as though they had been loading up on old Isaac Hayes and Temptations records. They could do a lot worse". On the other hand, Uncut stuff reviewer gave it 1.5 out of 5 writing "Kudos to Apollo 440 for the title and sleeve here, wry references to Marcel Duchamp which may sail over the heads of some. It's a juicy electric foray into retro-futurist funk, the cheesy, strobe-lit spirit of which is captured on titles like "Disco Sucks" and "Escape To Beyond The Planet Of The Super Apes", featuring guest appearances that include a shouty turn from Pete Wylie. The second disc is more of a laid-back, trippy affair?most enticing of the tracks on offer being "Something's Got To Give". Nice, though a few more moments of splashdown wouldn't go amiss".

{{Track listing

| all_writing =

| headline = Disc 1

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title1 = Dude Descending a Staircase

| note1 = featuring The Beatnuts

| writer1 = {{hlist|Howard Gray|Trevor Gray|Norman Fisher-Jones|Jerry Tineo|Lester Fernandez|Charles Davis}}

| extra1 = Apollo 440

| length1 = 5:06

| title2 = Hustler Groove

| note2 = featuring Lightnin' Rod

| writer2 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Jalaluddin Mansur Nuriddin|Stuart Crichton}}

| extra2 = {{hlist|Apollo 440|Stuart Crichton}}

| length2 = 6:14

| title3 = Disco Sucks

| note3 = featuring Ewan MacFarlane

| writer3 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Ewan MacFarlane}}

| extra3 = {{hlist|Apollo 440|Stuart Crichton}}

| length3 = 3:55

| title4 = N'Existe Pas

| note4 = featuring Ewan MacFarlane

| writer4 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| extra4 = Apollo 440

| length4 = 6:45

| title5 = Electronic Civil Disobedience

| note5 = featuring Jay Dunne

| writer5 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Jay Dunne}}

| extra5 = {{hlist|Apollo 440|Stuart Crichton ({{abbr|co.|co-producer}})}}

| length5 = 4:55

| title6 = 1, 2, 3, 4

| note6 = featuring Pete Wylie

| writer6 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Ian Hoxley|Pete Wylie}}

| extra6 = Apollo 440

| length6 = 3:45

| title7 = Escape to Beyond the Planet of the Super Ape

| note7 =

| writer7 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Paul Kodish}}

| extra7 = Apollo 440

| length7 = 4:40

| title8 = Time Is Running Out

| note8 = featuring Tommy Blaize

| writer8 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| extra8 = Apollo 440

| length8 = 5:00

| title9 = Children of the Future

| note9 = featuring Lightnin' Rod

| writer9 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Nuriddin}}

| extra9 = Apollo 440

| length9 = 7:55

| total_length =

}}{{Track listing

| all_writing =

| headline = Disc 2

| title10 = Diamonds in the Sidewalk

| note10 = featuring Jack Kerouac

| writer10 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Jean-Louis Lebris de Kéroua}}

| length10 = 3:41

| title11 = Something's Got to Give

| note11 = featuring Xan

| writer11 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Lisa Lindley-Jones|Denise Lorraine Kessler|Pete Kessler}}

| length11 = 6:54

| title12 = Christiane

| note12 = featuring Elizabeth Gray

| writer12 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| length12 = 5:37

| title13 = Existe

| note13 =

| writer13 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| length13 = 6:00

| title14 = Bulletproof Blues

| note14 = featuring Ewan MacFarlane

| writer14 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|MacFarlane}}

| length14 = 6:21

| title15 = Suitcase '88

| note15 =

| writer15 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| length15 = 4:31

| title16 = Check Your Ego

| note16 = featuring Spoonface

| writer16 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones|Elroy Powell}}

| length16 = 4:09

| title17 = Rope, Rapture & The Rising Sun

| note17 =

| writer17 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| length17 = 7:06

| title18 = Bad Chemistry

| note18 = featuring Ewan MacFarlane

| writer18 = {{hlist|H. Gray|T. Gray|Fisher-Jones}}

| length18 = 2:46

| total_length = 1:35:20

}}

;Sample credits

• Track 1 contains elements from "When The Revolution Comes" written by Abiodun Oyewole
• Track 5 contains elements from "People Get Up" written by Ricardo Williams
• Track 10 reading from "Praised Be Man, fragment from San Francisco Blues" (1956) courtesy of Jack Kerouac
• Track 11 contains elements from "Sweatheart" written by Pete Kessler and Denise Davis

{{div col}}

• Howard Gray – producer
• Trevor Gray – producer
• Norman "Noko" Fisher-Jones – producer
• Paul Kodish – drums
• Cliff Hewitt – drums
• Ewan MacFarlane – vocals (tracks: 3, 4, 14, 18), backing vocals
• Ian "Mary Byker" Hoxley – backing vocals
• Keith Holden – harmonica
• Stan Francisco – saxophone
• Stuart Crichton – backing vocals, cello, additional keyboards, programming, producer (tracks: 2, 3), additional producer (track 5)
• Tommy Blaize – vocals (track 8), backing vocals
• Andy Caine – backing vocals
• Paul "Harry K." Colbourne – backing vocals
• Kristine Pratt – whispering vocals
• Jerry "JuJu" Tineo – vocals (track 1)
• Lester "Psycho Les" Fernandez – vocals (track 1)
• Jalal "Lightnin' Rod" Nuriddin – vocals (tracks: 2, 9)
• Jay Dunne – vocals (track 5)
• Pete Wylie – vocals (track 6)
• Jack Kerouac – vocals (track 10)
• Lisa "Xan" Lindley-Jones – vocals (track 11)
• Elizabeth Gray – vocals (track 12), backing vocals
• Elroy "Spoonface" Powell – vocals (track 16)
• Chris Conway – recording (track 1)
• Ashley Krajewski – recording and mixing assistant
• Andrew Nichols – mixing assistant
• John Davis – mastering
• Tom Sheehan – photography
• Anthony Ausgang – painting
• John Birchall – hair stylist

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{Discogs master|3900|Dude Descending A Staircase}}

{{Apollo 440}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:2003 albums

Category:Apollo 440 albums

Category:Albums produced by Stuart Crichton