| The Chemical
Brothers |
|
| Background information |
| Also known as |
The Dust
Brothers
The 237 Turbo Nutters |
| Origin |
 London, England |
| Genre(s) |
Big beat, house, trip hop, electronica |
| Years active |
1992–present |
| Label(s) |
Junior
Boy's Own, Astralwerks, Freestyle
Dust |
| Website |
TheChemicalBrothers.com |
| Members |
Tom
Rowlands
Ed Simons |
The Chemical Brothers are a Grammy
Award winning electronic music duo from England,
comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons
(occasionally referred to as Chemical Tom and Chemical Ed). Initially
they called themselves "The Dust Brothers", after the noted United
States production duo of the same name, but
their burgeoning popularity and the threat of legal action from the
originals led them to change their name in 1995. Along with The
Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The
Crystal Method and other lesser-known acts they were pioneers of the big beat
electronic dance genre, and are known for high-quality live sets.
|
Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 Background
- 1.2 Typeface
- 1.3 Ariel
- 1.4 Naked
Under Leather
- 1.5 The
Dust Brothers
- 1.6 The
Heavenly Social
- 1.7 From
Dust to Chemical
- 1.8 Exit
Planet Dust
- 1.9 "Setting
Sun"
- 1.10 Dig
Your Own Hole
- 1.11 More
mixing
- 1.12 Surrender
- 1.13 "It
Began in Afrika"
- 1.14 Come
with Us
- 1.15 Ten
years of The Chemical Brothers
- 1.16 Push
the Button
- 1.17 Tate
Tracks
- 1.18 We
Are the Night
- 2 Live
- 3 Discography
- 4 See
also
- 5 References
- 6 External
links
|
History
Background
Ed was born in Herne Hill, South
London, England,
on 9 June 1970 to a barrister mother and a father who was not around
much when Ed was growing up. Ed's two main interests when he was young
were aeroplanes and musicals. Simons went to school in South London,
attending two private schools; Alleyn's School and Dulwich
College. He left school with 11 O levels and 3
A-levels. Ed developed a fondness of rare groove and Hip hop music,
having frequented a club called The Mud Club when he was 14. By the
time he left school, his two main musical interests were two Manchester
bands, New
Order and The Smiths. Ed studied Medieval
History at the University of Manchester.
Another student in Ed's class was Tom Rowlands. Rowlands was
born on 11 January 1971 in Kingston-Upon-Thames, England.
His father was a lighting cameraman. When Rowlands was very young, his
family relocated to Henley-on-Thames. He later went to
school in Reading, Berkshire. Rowlands
became obsessed with Scotland when he was a child, and loved the
bagpipes in particular. Later, he became interested in other music.
Initially, one of his favourites was the Oh What a Lovely War
soundtrack, then 2-Tone, and in his
early teens, the electro sounds of artists such as Heaven
17, Kraftwerk,
New
Order, and Cabaret Voltaire.
Later on in his teens, Rowlands progressed to The Jesus and Mary Chain.
He described the first Public Enemy album as the record that
probably changed his life and says he thought Miuzi Weighs a
Ton was one of the most amazing records he had ever heard.
Rowlands started collecting hip hop records by people like Eric B and Schoolly D
but was also a large fan of My Bloody Valentine.
Rowlands left school with 9 O levels and 3 A levels. He also decided to
go to Manchester for further study because of its music scene and
specifically the Hacienda.
Typeface
The typeface used to write the typical "The Chemical Brothers"
logo is derived from Sho,
designed by Karlgeorg Hoefer in 1992. The
Chemical Brothers original logo is only in a few details different from
Sho i.e. the letters a and b. Linotype holds the licence for this
typeface.
Ariel
Rowlands was also in a band called Ariel prior to meeting up
with Simons. Ariel was formed in London by Rowlands and his friends Brendan
and Matt before they all moved up to Manchester. Their first single was
"Sea of Beats". Other songs, mostly released on 12"
included "Mustn't Grumble" and their most well-known, "Rollercoaster".
Their record
label, deConstruction,
insisted that they get a female singer, and after some disappointing
songs like "Let It Slide" (Rowlands would later describe it as "a
stinker") the band fell apart. One of the last things Ariel did was the
song "T Baby" which was remixed by the pair.
Ariel symbolically ended when deConstruction asked
us for a Dust Brothers remix of an Ariel track. That was the final nail
in the coffin".
– Ed Simons
One of the blokes went a bit mad, but now he's back
at college, and the other one drives our van
– Tom Rowlands on Ariel, in 1995
Naked Under Leather
Rowlands and Simons then started to DJ at a club called "Naked
Under Leather", in the back of a pub, in 1992 under the alias of "The
237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson
Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). The
pair would play hip hop, techno
and house.
The Dust Brothers
Rowlands and Simons called themselves The Dust Brothers, after
the
US production duo famous for their work with the Beastie
Boys. After a while, they began to run out of suitable instrumental hip
hop tracks to use, so they started to make their own. Using a Hitachi
hi-fi system, a computer, a sampler and a keyboard, they recorded "Song
To The Siren", which sampled Meat Beat Manifesto.
"Song To The Siren" was released on their own record label, called
"Diamond Records" (after Ed's nickname). In October 1992, they pressed
500 white-label
copies. and took them to various dance record shops around London, but
none would play it, saying that it was too slow (The track played at
111 BPM). They sent a copy to London DJ
Andrew Weatherall, who
made it a permanent fixture in his DJ sets. Weatherall also signed the
band to his Junior Boy's Own label. In May
1993, Junior Boy's Own released 'Song To The Siren'.
The duo completed university with good results, each obtaining
upper-second class degrees. Around June 1993, the Dust Brothers did
their first remixes. The first was "Packet Of Peace" for Justin
Robertson's Lionrock
outfit, followed by tracks for Leftfield, Republica
and The Sandals. Late in
1993, The Dust Brothers completed work on their Fourteenth Century Sky
EP,
released in January 1994. It contained the ground-breaking "Chemical
Beats", which epitomized the duo's genre defining big beat
sound, later taken up by Fatboy Slim and many more. The
EP also contained "One Too Many Mornings", which for the first time
showed the less intense, more chilled-out side of The Dust Brothers.
Both "One Too Many Mornings" and "Chemical Beats" would later appear on
their debut album. Fourteenth Century Sky was
followed later in 1993 by the My
Mercury Mouth EP. "Chemical Beats" was also
part of the soundtrack for the first edition of the famous Wipeout
games series, having been featured in Wipeout for
the PlayStation
in 1995.
The Heavenly Social
In October 1994, The Dust Brothers became resident DJs at the
small, but hugely influential Heavenly Sunday Social Club at the Albany
pub in London's Great Portland Street. The likes of Noel
Gallagher, Paul Weller, James Dean Bradfield
and Tim Burgess were regular visitors. The Dust Brothers were
subsequently asked to remix tracks by Manic Street Preachers
and The Charlatans,
plus Primal Scream's "Jailbird"
and The
Prodigy's "Voodoo People". These two remixes received television
exposure, being playlisted by MTV Europe's "The Party Zone" in 1995. Early in
1994 however, The Dust Brothers were approached in the club one Sunday
by Noel Gallagher, from Oasis, who at the time were
becoming one of the most prominent guitar bands in Britain. Gallagher
told the duo that he had a Balearic inspired track which he had written,
which he would like the Dust Brothers to remix. However, over time,
Gallagher changed his mind, and in the end the Brothers did not remix
it. The track was "Wonderwall".
From Dust to Chemical
In March 1995, The Dust Brothers began their first
international tour, which included the United States – where they
played with Orbital and Underworld
– then a series of European festivals. Also around this time, the
original Dust Brothers threatened legal action over the use of their
name, and so Rowlands and Simons had to decide on a new name quickly.
They decided to then call themselves "The Chemical Brothers" after
"Chemical Beats" (Simons' grandmother had suggested they call
themselves "The Grit Brothers").
In June 1995, they released their fourth single, the first
under their new identity. "Leave Home" was released on Junior Boy's
Own, as a preview of the imminent debut album and became the band's
first chart hit, peaking at No. 17.
The Chemical Brothers go for big hip-hop beats,
howling sirens and persistent vocals reciting 'The Brothers gonna work
it out'"
– NME.
Exit Planet Dust
In July 1995, The Chemical Brothers released their debut album
Exit Planet Dust
(the title inspired by their name change) on Freestyle Dust/Junior
Boy's Own. It entered the UK charts at #9 and featured guest vocalist Beth
Orton on the song "Alive Alone". It eventually went on to
sell over a million copies worldwide. Shortly after its release, The
Chemical Brothers signed to Virgin Records, to which they took
their own offshoot label, Freestyle Dust. For their next
single, in September 1995, they again used a guest vocalist, for the
release of "Life Is Sweet", featuring their
friend Tim Burgess, singer with The Charlatans.
It reached #25 in the singles charts. The single was also Select
Magazine's Single Of The Month for October. The release included a Daft Punk
remix of "Life Is Sweet".
"The Brothers are in absolutely inspired, jackhammering,
Underworld-fondling form. Crunchy on the outside. And crunchy on the
inside too."
– NME, awarding it Single Of The Week
In August 1995, the Chemical Brothers DJed for Oasis
at a Sheffield
gig. The gig began to backfire when it became apparent that Liam
Gallagher didn't seem to like any of the tracks they were
spinning. The closest that they could come to pleasing him was the Happy
Mondays' "Wrote For Luck". Gallagher proceeded to kick the
Chemical Brothers off the turntables and procured a friend from The
Verve to continue to DJ. He subsequently favoured obscure psychedelic
material to the displeasure of the crowd.
Around this period, The Stone Roses asked the
Chemical Brothers to remix "Begging You", from their "Second Coming"
album. After beginning work on a remix which they viewed as having
potential, the Stone Roses changed their minds and the project was
cancelled.
In October 1995 the duo returned to the Heavenly Sunday Social
for a second and final run of DJ dates. They then became residents at
the Heavenly Social on Saturdays at Turnmills. In November, The
Chemical Brothers played the Astoria Theatre in London. At this
time the Chems usually used a fusion of "Chemical Beats" and The
Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" as their encore. During the
encore, however, Keith Flint from The
Prodigy jumped up on stage to dance, wearing a t-shirt
sporting the slogan "Occupation: mad bastard". A few from the crowd
subsequently joined in. This resulted in a power cable being kicked
loose, bringing the show to a temporary close. The Chemical Brothers
confessed to not being too bothered; "because he's Keith from the
Prodigy, and he can do whatever the fuck he likes" Rowlands said later.
Just before Christmas, 1995, they played their biggest gig to date,
with The Prodigy, at the Brixton Academy.
In January 1996 Exit Planet Dust went
gold. The Chemical Brothers released their first new material in 6
months on Virgin, the "Loops Of Fury" EP. The four track release was
limited to 20,000 copies. It entered the UK charts at #13. NME
described the lead track as "splashing waves of synths across
hard-hitting beats". The EP also contained a Dave Clarke remix of
"Chemical Beats", and two other new tracks "Get Up On It Like This" and
"(The Best Part Of) Breaking Up".
In February 1996, Select Magazine published a list of the 100
best albums of the 1990s thus far. "Exit Planet Dust" was listed at
Number 39. In August 1996, The Chemical Brothers supported Oasis at Knebworth, where 125,000
people attended each of the two shows.
"Setting Sun"
During the 1995 Glastonbury Festival, Rowlands
and Simons had had another conversation with Noel
Gallagher. Gallagher told them how much he liked Exit
Planet Dust, and asked if he could sing on a future track,
similar to the way Tim Burgess had worked on "Life Is Sweet". They
didn't think much of the offer at the time, given how busy Gallagher
would be with the release of Oasis' (What's the Story)
Morning Glory?, plus the complexities of
dealing with each others' record companies. However, the duo later
worked on a track which they thought would benefit from having a vocal
on it. They sent Gallagher a tape of what they had done so far. He
worked on it overnight, and left a message with them early the next
morning that he was ready to record it. The track was called "Setting
Sun" and was finally released in October 1996. It entered the UK charts
at the top, giving the duo their first ever Number One single. "Setting
Sun" was backed by a longer instrumental version, and also a new track
"Buzz Tracks", which was not much more than a DJ tool. The three
remaining Beatles'
lawyers later wrote to the Chemical Brothers, mistakenly claiming that
they had sampled Tomorrow Never Knows. Virgin
Records hired a musicologist to prove that they did not sample the
classic 1960s psychedelic song.
In March 1997, the Brothers released the second track from
their forthcoming album, to give the world a further taster of what to
expect. "Block Rockin' Beats" went straight to #1 in the UK, thanks,
this time, to its Schoolly D vocal sample and re-working of
the bassline from 23 Skidoo' song "Coup". The NME named it Single Of
The Week and said "It throbs like your head might if you had just done
a length underwater in a swimming pool full of amyl."
It later won them a Grammy Award for Best Rock
Instrumental Performance.
Things were quite promising for the Brothers in the US at this
time, "Setting Sun" was sitting at Number 80 in the Billboard Top 100,
after selling around 80,000 copies, an excellent achievement for a
European "dance" act. Sales from Exit Planet Dust
were also around 150,000.
Dig Your Own Hole
On April
7, 1997 the
Chemical Brothers released their second album, Dig
Your Own Hole. It was recorded at the band's
own south London studio, with the title taken from graffiti on the wall
outside. The album was well received in most circles. Mixmag
rated it 10/10 and gave it the "Album of the Month" label, calling it
"mad enough to be thrilling, slick enough for not even remotely coffee
tables".
During the summer of 1997, the Brothers toured extensively,
particularly in the States. They also became residents at Tokyo's Liquid
Rooms. In August, the Chemical Brothers achieved rapprochement with the
US Dust Brothers, and asked them to remix forthcoming single
"Elektrobank". They themselves also became highly sought-after for
remixes for other artists. Metallica asked the Brothers several times
to remix "Enter Sandman", but were repeatedly turned down. In
September, the next single from Dig Your Own Hole,
"Elektrobank" was released. In November, the pair played at Dublin's Point
Theatre, with support from Carl Cox. They also began a US
tour in Detroit.
At the end of the year, Dig Your Own Hole's
final track, the nine minute-long "The Private Psychedelic Reel" gave
rise to a limited-edition mini-EP of the same name. The b-side consisted
of a live version of "Setting Sun", recorded at the Lowlands
Festival, Netherlands
on August
24, 1997.
Also in December, following four sold-out US shows, The Chemical
Brothers toured the UK, finishing with a sold-out gig at London's Brixton
Academy.
More mixing
In 1998, they concentrated more on DJing, although some
remixes did see the light of day, including "I Think Im In Love" from Spiritualized.
Both a vocal remix and an instrumental remix were included in the
single release. Each came in at over seven-and-a-half minutes. Another
remix completed by the Brothers was "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp", from Mercury
Rev. This was another extension in the association between the two
bands, since Mercury Rev's Jonathon Donahue contributed to "The Private
Psychedelic Reel" on Dig Your Own Hole.
In September 1998, a second mix album, Brothers Gonna Work It Out,
was released. It contains some of their own tracks and remixes, as well
as songs from artists who have influenced their sound, such as Renegade Soundwave, Meat Beat Manifesto
and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales.
In May 1999 The Chemical Brothers played three UK dates in Manchester,
Sheffield
and Brighton,
their first since December 1997. Also that month, they released their
first new original material in two years, a track called "Hey Boy, Hey
Girl". This was more house influenced than hip-hop. In
interviews at the time, Rowlands and Simons indicated that the track
was inspired by nights out at Sheffield club "Gatecrasher". The track
was also one of their more commercially accessible tracks and went to
number 3 in the UK charts.
Surrender
The third album Surrender
was released in June 1999. It featured vocals from Noel Gallagher,
Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue and Mazzy
Star's Hope Sandoval. As "Hey Boy, Hey Girl"
had suggested, the album was more house-oriented than the previous two.
On one of the album's stand out tracks, "Out Of Control", New
Order's Bernard Sumner supported by
Primal
Scream's Bobby Gillespie provided
vocals. It reached Number 1 in the UK album charts, and was widely
praised in the print media. The Michel Gondry-directed music
video for "Let Forever Be", which utilized ground-breaking video and
film effects in its depiction of a young woman's nightmares,
also received a lot of attention.
Later that summer, The Brothers headlined the Glastonbury
dance tent on the Friday night, followed by a UK tour which ended in
December and included Homelands Scotland on September 4. In November, "Out
Of Control", featuring Sumner and Gillespie on vocals, was released as
single. The release also contained the much anticipated Sasha remix. The final
single from Surrender, in February 2000, was the
five track "Music: Response" EP, containing the title track and two
remixes, plus a new track, "Freak of the Week", and a track called
"Enjoyed", which was essentially a remix of "Out Of Control" by the
Brothers themselves.
A CD copy of Surrender was placed in the
third Blue Peter time
capsule, buried in January 2000.
"It Began in Afrika"
In June 2000 Tom and Ed played the Pyramid stage at the
Glastonbury Festival pulling in the largest audience ever seen in the
Festival's history. In August 2000 they played to a large crowd at the
main stage at Creamfields festival, Ireland.
Highlights of their live set included "Out Of Control" and "Hey Boy,
Hey Girl". In December 2000, The Chemical Brothers aired one of their
new tracks, "It Began in Afrika" at their New York DJ
gigs, supporting U2.
According to Rowlands, the new track was described as having:
quite a lot of percussion, big, sweeping sort of
stuff. Live conga playing, quite spaced out. It's like Body &
Soul, but really, really hard and twisted, it's like high-impact,
full-on, but with more organic sounds, and quite intense, without the
good vibe.
In 2001, they were quite active with releases and live
performances. Early in the year, they began working on a fourth album,
provisionally titled "Chemical Four". The first track which fans got a
taste of was "It Began In Afrika", as previously played in their DJ set
in New York. The track would make its live debut in California
in April 2001, at the Coachella
Valley Music and Arts Festival, to much acclaim. Another new track also
got its public debut at Coachella, "Galaxy Bounce". As has become
customary for their releases and experiments, "It Began In Afrika" was
first pressed as a promo, as part of the "Electronic Battle Weapon"
series. It received much airplay on dance music radio shows in the UK,
and became more and more popular in clubs over the course of the
summer. It also became one of the "anthems" in Ibiza as the summer
progressed. It was given a full commercial single release in September,
reaching #8 in the UK singles chart, even though no promotional video
was made for the track.
Rowlands and Simons also remixed a track from Fatboy Slim's
"Halfway Between The Gutter And The Stars", entitled "Song For Shelter."
Come with Us
The Chemical Brothers finished work on another album, Come
with Us, in October 2001. It featured
collaborations with Richard Ashcroft ("The
Test"), formerly of The Verve, and long-time
collaborator Beth Orton ("The State We're
In"). The album was released in January 2002, preceded by a single,
"Star Guitar", a melodic, Balearic number, with a promotional video
by Michel
Gondry that featured passing scenery synchronized to the beat viewed
through a train window. What would be the second track on the album,
"It Began in Afrika", was released September 10th, 2001 to be
circulated around the clubbing scene where it was a popular hit. "Star
Guitar" was also released as a DVD single, the pair's first.
The album, Come with Us, was less well
received than their previous albums, but nonetheless went straight in
at #1 in the UK album charts in the first week of its release, selling
100,000 copies. In April the title track from the album was released as
a single with remixes by Fatboy Slim as part of a
double-A sided release with "The Test".
During the summer of 2002, The Chemical Brothers traveled the
festival circuit to promote the album. Later in 2002, they released two
EPs, one specifically aimed at Japan and the other the US (entitled AmericanEP).
Both contained remixes, live versions and B-sides.
One of their other major songs from this album was "Galaxy
Bounce", which was popular and featured as the main title music for the
Xbox game Project
Gotham Racing.
Two other songs featured on a fairly popular game on the PS2
a racing game title WRC II: Extreme are "Come
with Us (Introduction)" and "Star Guitar (Title Screen)"; both are
instrumental.
Ten years of The Chemical
Brothers
Late 2002 and early 2003 saw Rowlands and Simons back in the
studio, working on new material, including "The Golden Path", a
collaboration with Wayne Coyne, the lead singer of The
Flaming Lips. This was released in September 2003, at the same time as
a "best of" album, entitled Singles 93-03, marking
ten years of The Chemical Brothers' releases. Singles 93-03
included most, but not all, of their singles. A second new track, in
addition to "The Golden Path", was included on the album, called "Get
Yourself High". Singles 93-03 was also released on
DVD, whose extra features included selected live performances and
interviews with Rowlands, Simons and many of their collaborators from
throughout the period. "Get Yourself High", which featured Canadian
rapper k-os
on vocals, was released as a single in November 2003.
In late 2003 and 2004 The Chemical Brothers continued to work
in the studio, on new material and a remix of "Slow" by Kylie
Minogue. After being released on rare white label vinyl, it was
subsequently given a commercial release in March on CD (on her next
single "Red Blooded Woman") and on exclusive 12" vinyl picture disc
(containing two other Kylie remixes). In Summer 2004 they returned to
the festival circuit, including appearances at the Glastonbury
Festival, Tokyo,
Scotland
and Ireland.
They also visited South America for the first time,
arriving at Chile,
Argentina
and Brazil.
It was during these sets that they played new material, including "Acid
Children", which proved to be one of the most popular new tracks.
In September 2004 The Chemical Brothers released the seventh
Electronic Battle Weapon. "Electronic Battle Weapon 7" was being
released as a one-sided promo-only 12", containing "Acid Children". A
marked departure from the Chemical Brothers' previous musical
endeavours, it featured a screeching 303 bassline and a distinctive
vocal sample; a pitch-altered sample of Freddie Krueger proclaiming
"You Are All My Children Now!", which is lifted from an old horror
film, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge.
Coupled with the projection of a sinister clown mouthing these same
words at their live gigs made for quite an experience.
The Electronic Battle Weapon series of promo releases have
typically been newly recorded Chemical Brothers tracks, released on
promo to allow DJs to test them in a club environment, and to gauge
their popularity.
Push the Button
In 2004, The Chemical Brothers began work on Push
the Button, their fifth studio album, which
features collaborations with Tim Burgess, Kele
Okereke and Anwar Superstar, amongst others. The
album was released on January 24, 2005.
"Galvanize", which features Q-Tip
on vocals, was the first single to be taken from Push the
Button, and premiered exclusively on iTunes. The single
was released on January 17, 2005, and entered the UK chart at #3. The
second single "Believe" (featuring Kele Okereke from Bloc
Party) failed to crack top 10, but still made it into the top
20, peaking at #18. "The Boxer", featuring Tim Burgess, became the
duo's first single to fail to crack the top 40.
The album and single "Galvanize" won a Grammy in the Grammy
Awards of 2006. One of the songs in this album, "The Big Jump" appears
in the video game Burnout Revenge,
as well as Project Gotham Racing 3.
Tate Tracks
In September 2006, the Chemical Brothers were revealed as the
first musicians to be involved in Tate
Tracks. Tate Modern invited various groups and
songwriters to choose a work that inspired them from the gallery's
collection of modern art and then write a track about it. The Chemical
Brothers' submission, Rock Drill, was inspired by
the Jacob
Epstein sculpture Torso in Metal from The Rock Drill,
and can be heard on headphones in front of the work in the gallery.
From October 2006, it also became available to hear online at the Tate
Tracks website.
We Are the Night
The Chemicals welcomed June 2006 with an announcement on their
official forum stating that the duo had been working on fresh material,
specifically an album, codenamed 'Chemical 6'..
Simons also announced that the band would be playing select venues in
the Summer 2007 season, specifying Rome, and also Fabric
in London.
Simons is also quoted as saying that the duo are 'hoping to put a
battle weapon out for the summer,',
retrieved possibly referring to the 'Electronic Battle Weapon' series,
which are somewhat experimental tracks the band occasionally release on
white
label.
Electronic Battle Weapon 8 & 9 were debuted on Pete
Tong's BBC Radio 1 show on December
8, 2006. The
double sided vinyl was finally released just before The Chemical
Brother's much anticipated New Years Eve gig at the famous Turnmills in
London.
The vinyl had a limited edition release worldwide and has been received
well by fans, DJs and critics alike.
Electronic Battle Weapon 8 at about six and a half minutes is very
distinct from the 'big acid' style that the earlier battle weapons
adhered to. It is characterised by 'thundering dirty drums' with a
rising synth line, and to
many it is perceived as being one of the most euphoric tracks that
the Chemicals have released in recent years. A version of this track
features on the 'We Are The Night' album and is entitled 'Saturate'.
Electronic Battle Weapon 9 is typical Chemicals dancefloor track with
their trademark vocoder
vocals coupled with sirens and a basic 'tribal' melody.
At the same Turnmills gig, the Brothers also played a
previously un-released song at midnight to welcome 2007 which went down
well with the crowd.
Many are left wondering if the latest in the Electronic Battle Weapon
series were simply one off genius pieces or signal a new direction they
could take with the new album, perhaps swaying from their genre
defining 'big
beat' psychedelic
albums of the past.
On March
21, 2007,
The Chemical Brothers officially announced their forthcoming album on MySpace. The new
album entitled "We Are the Night", was released on July 2, 2007 in the United
Kingdom and July
17, 2007 in
the United
States. The Chemicals cited a delay in the production of artwork for
this delay.
EMI subsequently released an online 'old-skool' The Chemical Brothers
computer game as an apology.
The track listing was released to the fans on the official mailing list
on April 10th. The new album is heavily collaborated with the likes of Klaxons
(on "All Rights Reversed"), Midlake (on "The Pills Won't Help You Now"),
Ali
Love (on "Do It
Again") and Willy Mason (on "Battle Scars").
On April
12, 2007 Pete
Tong again had the privilege of giving the world the very
first preview of a Chemicals track. This time it was the first single
"Do It Again" off their new album, aired on his BBC
Radio One "In New Music We Trust" show.
The track has surprised many fans due to its continuation from the
Electronc Battle Series direction..
The track is widely regarded as dance floor friendly, dominated by pop
vocals and a minimalistic production approach.
The track is regarded as a 'grower' after gaining mixed reviews after
the first listen on Pete Tong's show, with its
simplistic catchy vocals and electro beat. The official release of the
single was June 4th (digital download) and June 14th (12", 7" and CD).
In 2007, The Chemical Brothers' music will also be featured in
a movie adaption of Irvine
Welsh's best-selling novel Ecstasy:
Three Tales of Chemical Romance.
The album is on general release in the UK as of July 2nd.
Live
Chemical Brothers playing at the Brixton Academy
The Chemical Brothers are credited as being one of the few
truly arena-sized electronic acts. Their live acts comprise large
screens displaying psychedelic images, strobe
lights and lasers
that project over the crowd. There has been speculation over how much
of their live gigs are pre-recorded, although they insist (on their
official website FAQ) that they have a mere outline of track order and
the rest is mixed live. This would seem to be confirmed by concert
goers who have seen gigs on consecutive nights and have posted notable
differences between the sets played (see External links below.)
The Brothers have also played at many major festivals, from Glastonbury
to Reading and currently hold the
record for most gigs performed in a year at the Brixton
Academy. The duo headlined at Glastonbury Festival in 2007, playing on
the Sunday evening on the Other Stage, hailed by some as one of the
best Electronic performances ever.
In addition to performing their own music they also hold
regular DJ
nights where they mix other artist's tracks (in the style of Brothers
Gonna Work It Out).
As with their recorded albums The Chemical Brothers are well
known for their incorporation of guest vocalists into their live
performances. Notable appearances in recent gigs have included Bernard
Sumner of New Order, who sang on the
original "Out of Control", and Tim Burgess.
The duo also played at the launch event for the Wii gaming device.
On March 29th, 2007, The Chemical Brothers were announced to
play on the Main Stage at Creamfields festival on the August 25 2007.
According to their MySpace site, they are also playing Electric
Picnic, which had been rumoured, although it is as of yet unconfirmed
by the promoters.
Discography
-
Main article: The Chemical
Brothers discography
See also
- List
of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List
of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
References
External links
| v • d • e The
Chemical Brothers
|
| Tom
Rowlands • Ed
Simons
Discography
Albums: Exit
Planet Dust • Dig
Your Own Hole • Surrender
• Come
with Us • Push
the Button • We
Are the Night
Singles and EPs: "Song
to the Siren" • Fourteenth Century Sky
• My
Mercury Mouth EP • "Leave Home" •
"Life
Is Sweet" • Loops
of Fury • "Setting
Sun" • "Where
Do I Begin" • "Block
Rockin' Beats" • "Elektrobank"
• "The Private Psychedelic
Reel" • "Only
4 the K People" • "Hey
Boy Hey Girl" • "Let
Forever Be" • "Out
of Control" • "Music:
Response" • "It
Began in Afrika" • "Star
Guitar" • "Come
with Us/The Test" • Come with Us/Japan Only EP
• AmericanEP
• "The Golden Path" •
"Get
Yourself High" • "Galvanize"
• "Believe" •
"The Boxer" •
Live 05
• "Do It
Again" • "The
Salmon Dance"
Compilations: Live at the Social
Volume 1 • Radio
1 Anti-Nazi Mix • Brothers Gonna Work It Out
• In Glint
• Singles
93-03 • The
Remixes Volume 06
Electronic Battle Weapon series: "EBW 1" •
"EBW 2" •
"EBW 3" •
"EBW 4" •
"EBW 5" •
"EBW 6" •
"EBW 7" •
"EBW 8" •
"EBW 9"
|
