Tom And Ed: Quality Time With The Chemical Brothers
March 8, 2022 11:54 AM Subscribe
The Chemical Brothers [Wikipedia, YouTube playlist], make electronica-based rock and roll. Or rock and roll-based electronica. Either way, they don't do a lot of interviews. Here are a few I found: 1997 audio interview, answers only [39m], 10 Years of Block Rockin Beats (2003) [34m], We Are The Night (2007) [YT playlist, ~25m total]. The Darkness That You Fear [4m] is their recent house-music-influenced release, from Apr 2021.
Also Of Interest:
Radio 1 Anti-Nazi Mix (1997) [58m] (The radio package for this mix contained the 1997 interview above.)
Full Chemical Brothers show from June 2019, well edited. [1h36m]
Interview with Adam Smith of Smith & Lyall on 25 years of live show creation for The Chemical Brothers (2021) [33m]
Also Of Interest:
Radio 1 Anti-Nazi Mix (1997) [58m] (The radio package for this mix contained the 1997 interview above.)
Full Chemical Brothers show from June 2019, well edited. [1h36m]
Interview with Adam Smith of Smith & Lyall on 25 years of live show creation for The Chemical Brothers (2021) [33m]
The Private Psychedelic Reel.
Turn it up loud.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:13 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Turn it up loud.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 3:13 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
That's funny I was going to post the same track, thatwhichfalls. Still my favorite track they've done. I've had the pleasure of seeing them live 3 times and they've been great.
posted by Catblack at 6:56 PM on March 8, 2022
posted by Catblack at 6:56 PM on March 8, 2022
Propellerheads and Fatboy Slim, of course, are also Big Beat icons worthy of checking out (now, the funk soul brother).
posted by neon909 at 7:53 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by neon909 at 7:53 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_beat
"Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada.[1]
Big beat achieved mainstream success during the 1990s and early 2000s with the mainstream success of artists such as the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim."
posted by neon909 at 7:55 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
"Big beat is an electronic music genre that usually uses heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns – common to acid house/techno. The term has been used by the British music industry to describe music by artists such as the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, Propellerheads, Basement Jaxx and Groove Armada.[1]
Big beat achieved mainstream success during the 1990s and early 2000s with the mainstream success of artists such as the Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim."
posted by neon909 at 7:55 PM on March 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I just feel like The Chemical Brothers were doing another thing, but got lumped in with those other bands for simplicity of categorization. I like those other bands fine, but CB is something else entirely.
posted by hippybear at 8:03 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 8:03 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
MOST of the bands in that generalization were 'doing another thing,' many of them SEVERAL other things, at different times in their careers.
The first two albums from The Prodigy, for example, span from breakbeat hardcore to rock to lounge. The Crystal Method's first album is straight-up breakbeat, techno, and almost house. There's no big beat there whatsoever.
Over a long enough timeline, many of the artists listed on that Wiki page at least dallied with big beat (Dig Your Own Hole from Chemical Brothers is a big beat staple), but really only Fatboy Slim stuck around for multiple albums. Propellerheads were big beat all the way, but of course we have just the one album.
Genres are just easy ways for the music industry to package music for radio formats, critical consumption, and record store aisles.
posted by jordantwodelta at 8:42 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
The first two albums from The Prodigy, for example, span from breakbeat hardcore to rock to lounge. The Crystal Method's first album is straight-up breakbeat, techno, and almost house. There's no big beat there whatsoever.
Over a long enough timeline, many of the artists listed on that Wiki page at least dallied with big beat (Dig Your Own Hole from Chemical Brothers is a big beat staple), but really only Fatboy Slim stuck around for multiple albums. Propellerheads were big beat all the way, but of course we have just the one album.
Genres are just easy ways for the music industry to package music for radio formats, critical consumption, and record store aisles.
posted by jordantwodelta at 8:42 PM on March 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Thanks for the heads-up on the 2021 tracks, hippybear. Another new one: Work Energy Principle.
Four perfect albums in a row by my reckoning, from 1997 to 2005, which made them my favourite band of that era. Their later albums are patchier, but still have plenty of good listening on them.
From 1999: The Sunshine Underground. (All of Surrender is amazing.)
posted by rory at 2:06 AM on March 9, 2022
Four perfect albums in a row by my reckoning, from 1997 to 2005, which made them my favourite band of that era. Their later albums are patchier, but still have plenty of good listening on them.
From 1999: The Sunshine Underground. (All of Surrender is amazing.)
posted by rory at 2:06 AM on March 9, 2022
I’ll pretty much listen to any of their releases. Apparently I like everything neon909 mentioned but haven’t listened to Propellerheads, did I just discover a new group? Hooray!
posted by caution live frogs at 5:10 AM on March 9, 2022
posted by caution live frogs at 5:10 AM on March 9, 2022
did I just discover a new group? Hooray!
Not just any new (old) group, but a fantastic one: Decksanddrumsandrockandroll is a stone-cold classic. Go for the UK edition with "Echo and Bounce" and the 20th anniversary bonus disc with the tracks from their three EPs.
Oh, how I searched the record stores of the 2000s for any sign of a follow-up... sigh.
posted by rory at 6:07 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
Not just any new (old) group, but a fantastic one: Decksanddrumsandrockandroll is a stone-cold classic. Go for the UK edition with "Echo and Bounce" and the 20th anniversary bonus disc with the tracks from their three EPs.
Oh, how I searched the record stores of the 2000s for any sign of a follow-up... sigh.
posted by rory at 6:07 AM on March 9, 2022 [1 favorite]
According to Wikipedia, they originally called themselves the Dust Brothers:
posted by Acey at 7:09 AM on March 9, 2022
The Dust Brothers name and trademark was used by the British duo that eventually became the Chemical Brothers as they began their career. Used as a homage to the American group, they changed their name when they were unable to convince the Dust Brothers to sell the name.[5] Eventually the groups reached an understanding, and the Chemical Brothers' 1997 EP Elektrobank featured a Dust Brothers remix of the title track.As a fan of both, I'm glad there was a positive resolution.
posted by Acey at 7:09 AM on March 9, 2022
The Private Psychedelic Reel.
Turn it up loud.
That's funny I was going to post the same track, thatwhichfalls. Still my favorite track they've done.
The Brothers comment on that in the 1997 interview in the post. They go through Dig Your Own Hole track by track, and I think their main memorable comment about TPPR was "once you go there, there's no turning back" or something similar.
posted by hippybear at 7:30 AM on March 9, 2022
Turn it up loud.
That's funny I was going to post the same track, thatwhichfalls. Still my favorite track they've done.
The Brothers comment on that in the 1997 interview in the post. They go through Dig Your Own Hole track by track, and I think their main memorable comment about TPPR was "once you go there, there's no turning back" or something similar.
posted by hippybear at 7:30 AM on March 9, 2022
I just feel like The Chemical Brothers were doing another thing, but got lumped in with those other bands for simplicity of categorization.
I think this is partially true, and partially Wikipedia just being wrong in this instance. Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx are really not big beat.
At least initially though, there was a bit of a scene that they were part of. One of the first dance music CDs I had as a teen, Brit Hop and Amyl House showcases the sort of dirty, acid and samples breakbeat they would take to the bank, and I think it was actually mixed by one of the Chemicals? Worth a listen as an extremely late 90s artifact!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:11 AM on March 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
I think this is partially true, and partially Wikipedia just being wrong in this instance. Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx are really not big beat.
At least initially though, there was a bit of a scene that they were part of. One of the first dance music CDs I had as a teen, Brit Hop and Amyl House showcases the sort of dirty, acid and samples breakbeat they would take to the bank, and I think it was actually mixed by one of the Chemicals? Worth a listen as an extremely late 90s artifact!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:11 AM on March 9, 2022 [2 favorites]
BBC Radio John Peel 6 Music did a retrospective for the Chemical Brothers' third record, Surrender, hitting 20 years old some point recently, wherein they proclaimed it as when the duo hit their stride. I'm forever skewed by being a late teenager at the release of Exit Planet Dust/Dig Your Own Hole and think that the sheer grimy danceability of those first two records is lost -- it lacks groove that Felix and Simon of Basement Jaxx find easily -- and the sound has been sanitised for British chart attention.
I was too young to try ketamine (referenced in their tune Lost in the K-Hole) or Amyl Nitrate (also popular then), and would want a retrospective to nod to these facets of enjoying a live performance or DJ set from the time.
posted by k3ninho at 6:52 AM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I was too young to try ketamine (referenced in their tune Lost in the K-Hole) or Amyl Nitrate (also popular then), and would want a retrospective to nod to these facets of enjoying a live performance or DJ set from the time.
posted by k3ninho at 6:52 AM on March 10, 2022 [1 favorite]
I started with some singles pre Exit Planet Dust, and then have stuck with them to this day, and I really truly think Surrender is their crowning work so far. I get the total love for Dig Your Own Hole, and it is magical in its own respect, but the unity of feeling and flow across Surrender truly wins out. There is no Reel on Surrender, but there is a lot that touches that territory and makes it, dare I say, more accessible.
posted by hippybear at 12:37 PM on March 10, 2022
posted by hippybear at 12:37 PM on March 10, 2022
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