Faithless celebrate 30 years of ‘Insomnia’ mega-hit with special 12” vinyl release
Faithless (Photo via Rotate Publicity)
UK electronic act Faithless mark the 30th anniversary of their classic single “Insomnia” with a special 12″ zoetrope vinyl EP, released for RSD Black Friday 2025 via Sony Music. The new edition follows their eighth studio album “Champion Sound” and a run of sold-out shows including Brixton Academy, The Roundhouse and a third headline appearance at Glastonbury.
The 12″ EP replicates the original mid-90s club package. Pressed as a zoetrope picture disc, it comes in a replica die-cut Cheeky Records house bag, visually echoing the 1995 UK release. The tracklist gathers five key versions: “Insomnia (Monster Radio Edit)”, “Insomnia (Original Radio Edit)” and “Insomnia (Monster Mix)” on side A, backed with “Insomnia (Moody Mix)” and “Insomnia (Tuff Mix)” on side B. The release is exclusive to RSD Black Friday 2025, with copies available through participating independent stores such as Banquet Records, Rough Trade and HHV.
A zoetrope picture disc is a vinyl record that turns into a little animation when it spins. More concretely: The record has artwork printed in frames around the label, like a flipbook in a circle. When the record spins at the correct speed and you look at it under a strobe light (or film it with your phone at a specific frame rate), those frames line up and your eye sees a looped animation. Without the strobe / phone trick, it just looks like a nicely designed picture disc with circular patterns.
Alongside the vinyl, Faithless are supporting the anniversary with a digital EP. A newly announced “Insomnia” 30th anniversary digital EP appears on major streaming platforms the same week, pairing the original mixes with contemporary versions and edits. Earlier in November, Disclosure already released their 2025 edit of “Insomnia”, first road-tested at Glastonbury 2024 and now officially credited as “Insomnia (Disclosure’s 2025 Edit)”, which entered the UK Official Singles Sales Chart at number 18 on 27 November 2025.
“Insomnia” is more than just a hit
“Insomnia” first appeared in late 1995 as the second single from Faithless’s debut album “Reverence”. Written by the late Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss and Rollo, and released via Cheeky/Arista, the track reached number 27 on the UK Singles Chart on its first run before a 1996 reissue pushed it to number three and to number one on the UK Dance Chart. It topped the national charts in Finland, Norway and Switzerland, and later reached triple-platinum certification in the UK.
Musically, the song is built around a progressive house framework, a slow-building bassline and the delayed arrival of its central synth riff, a structural decision Sister Bliss has linked to the influence of Underworld and Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. The best-known “Monster Mix” became the standard club and live version, while the Moody Mix incorporates a sample from Biosphere’s 1994 track “Novelty Waves”.
“Insomnia” has remained central to Faithless’ live sets. In Belgium, the track’s impact became literally measurable: the autumn 2001 show at Forest National in Brussels – where around 8,000 fans jumped in unison during a Faithless performance – caused a small local “earthquake” recorded by instruments.
Sister Bliss sums up the band’s perspective on the track’s longevity like this: “Can’t quite believe it’s the 30th anniversary of our song ‘Insomnia’ which has become a defining hymn for the dance floor over the decades. It opened so many doors for us – drawing attention to our first album ‘Reverence’, which was largely ignored upon release […] When asked if we were bored of performing ‘Insomnia’, Maxi would always reply ‘never’! Because we loved how much pleasure it gave people to hear it […] we are forever grateful to all our fans for their enduring love for ‘Insomnia’.”
Disclosure describe the piece as “one of the greatest electronic music songs of all time”, while Sister Bliss has called their 2025 edit “a great and funky tribute to Maxi and our beloved UK dance music scene”.
The anniversary edition indeed functions as a tribute to vocalist and co-founder Maxi Jazz (Maxwell Fraser), who died peacefully in his sleep at home in South London on 23 December 2022 after a long illness, aged 65.
About Faithless
Faithless formed in London, England, in 1995, built around core members Rollo (Rollo Armstrong), Sister Bliss (Ayalah Bentovim) and Maxi Jazz (Maxwell Fraser), with Jamie Catto as an early co-vocalist and songwriter. The group emerged from the UK club and production circuit, working out of Rollo’s Cheeky Records imprint and combining house, trance and trip hop elements with spoken-word vocals and politically aware lyrics.
The debut album for Faithless, “Reverence”, appeared in 1996, introducing “Salva Mea”, “Insomnia”, “Don’t Leave” and the title track. Initial UK exposure came via club play and specialist radio, but the reissue of “Insomnia” in 1996 pushed them firmly into the charts across Europe and onto the US and Canadian dance charts. Faithless followed with “Sunday 8PM” (1998), which contained “God Is a DJ”, “Take the Long Way Home” and “Bring My Family Back”.
The third album “Outrospective” (2001) and its reworked edition “Outrospective/Reperspective” came ahead of “No Roots” (2004), which became their first UK number one album. In 2005, the compilation “Forever Faithless – The Greatest Hits” summarised their first decade and went on to become the best-selling dance album of that year in the UK, with worldwide sales reported at over 1.6 million copies. “To All New Arrivals” followed in 2006, with “The Dance” closing the first phase of their studio album run in 2010.
The band announced a hiatus in 2011, then re-emerged intermittently for festival shows and the 2015 project “Faithless 2.0”, which combined new remixes with reworked originals. In 2020, they released “All Blessed”, their first full studio album in a decade, before the Covid-19 pandemic curtailed touring plans.
Following a pause after the death of Maxi Jazz, founding members Rollo and Sister Bliss returned to performing live doing DJ and live sets. In 2025 they released the album “Champion Sound”, their first studio work since “All Blessed” (2020) and the first without Maxi Jazz. The record, produced by Rollo and Sister Bliss, was released on 5 September 2025 and includes collaborations with Bebe Rexha, Antony Szmierek, Emmanuel Jal, L.S.K. and spoken-word artist Suli Breaks.
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