The Chemical Brothers glorious return with Born in The Echoes
Big beat maestros 'Do It Again' with eighth studio album Born in The Echoes. Released on 17 July, after a monumental Glastonbury set, the electric duo certainly know how to make us 'Go'.
Okay, I'll stop with the puns... Maybe. One weekend in June, there was a little festival called Glastonbury. I didn't go, but I stayed up way passed my Sunday night bedtime to watch The Who. While I was waiting for the mod legends to take to the stage for their headline slot, I tuned into a set on The Other Stage only to be sucked into a psychedelic 3D vortex - otherwise know as The Chemical Brothers.
Those of you who have seen their film, Don't Think, will know about their exciting, innovative and futuristic brand of electronica. So three years after the release of this film and five years after their last studio album, Further, they prove they're going from strength to strength.
Tom Rowlands who hails from Reading and Ed Simons who hails from the posh part of South London have created a dystopian disco. And those of you who read this blog know how I love a dystopian tale. Starting with Sometimes I Feel So Deserted, you're immediately pulled into the bosom of furious, multi-layered and electro-despair. Regardless of the nature of their lyrics, you can't help but don a fluorescent tabard and dance like a loon.
You should all recognise the sophomore track on the album as Go. This has rarely been off my commuter playlist since I heard it on the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show on BBC6 Music. In this hip house track, The Chemical Brothers with the help of Q Tip say they're 'only here to make you go'. And they mean it, I defy anyone who says they don't at least toe-tap to this.
Under Neon Lights I predict will be the next single, mostly because Annie Clark, aka St Vincent lends her vocals to it. It's echoey tinkling makes you feel like you're in an 80s computer game, while doing acid, in Koh Phangan. It's dark, edgy and infectious. It uses a plethora of unidentifiable sounds with St Vincent's voice flowing through to provide a much needed synergy to the track.
EML Ritual reminds me, very slightly, and I'm not sure why, of their Surrender album. It was another all killer, no filler album that conjures up images of an anarchic, urban battlefield. Not a romantic vision that's all beret-wearing radicals running through city streets armed to the teeth just to draw secret symbols on walls; but one that's entrenched in the loneliness, anxiety and desolation of unwittingly getting into something that isn't quite what you wanted and not knowing how to get out.
Then as we hit the halfway point of the album, it kind of loses it as it turns into high-octane dance and not much else; until we get to Reflexion. It's schizophrenic in the amount of directions it pulls you in. And it has that signature Chemical Brothers sound you can't define but you know it when you hear it.
Taste of Honey is the middle-8, it's a complete change of pace for the album. Minimal, experimental with a nod to orchestral and that 80s toy that was an electronic keyboard flute.
Then we hit the chill out part of the album. We've partied until we've sweated out of our eyeballs and now we need to wind down with Radiate, Wide Open and title track Born in The Echoes. The latter starts like Hey Mickey, but this is an alternative version where Mickey might be so fine but Toni Basil is too busy to care and doesn't appreciate his arrogance anyway. It's one of the stand out tracks of the album - it has so much going on, yet remains so simple.
This is the part where I summarise my thoughts on the album. I don't really want to do that because for me The Chemical Brothers aren't a review, they're an experience. They teleport you to other lands, perhaps not green and pleasant ones, but definitely exciting ones full of neon decadence. Don't believe me? Watch this.
Okay, I'll stop with the puns... Maybe. One weekend in June, there was a little festival called Glastonbury. I didn't go, but I stayed up way passed my Sunday night bedtime to watch The Who. While I was waiting for the mod legends to take to the stage for their headline slot, I tuned into a set on The Other Stage only to be sucked into a psychedelic 3D vortex - otherwise know as The Chemical Brothers.
Those of you who have seen their film, Don't Think, will know about their exciting, innovative and futuristic brand of electronica. So three years after the release of this film and five years after their last studio album, Further, they prove they're going from strength to strength.
Tom Rowlands who hails from Reading and Ed Simons who hails from the posh part of South London have created a dystopian disco. And those of you who read this blog know how I love a dystopian tale. Starting with Sometimes I Feel So Deserted, you're immediately pulled into the bosom of furious, multi-layered and electro-despair. Regardless of the nature of their lyrics, you can't help but don a fluorescent tabard and dance like a loon.
You should all recognise the sophomore track on the album as Go. This has rarely been off my commuter playlist since I heard it on the Shaun Keaveny Breakfast Show on BBC6 Music. In this hip house track, The Chemical Brothers with the help of Q Tip say they're 'only here to make you go'. And they mean it, I defy anyone who says they don't at least toe-tap to this.
Under Neon Lights I predict will be the next single, mostly because Annie Clark, aka St Vincent lends her vocals to it. It's echoey tinkling makes you feel like you're in an 80s computer game, while doing acid, in Koh Phangan. It's dark, edgy and infectious. It uses a plethora of unidentifiable sounds with St Vincent's voice flowing through to provide a much needed synergy to the track.
EML Ritual reminds me, very slightly, and I'm not sure why, of their Surrender album. It was another all killer, no filler album that conjures up images of an anarchic, urban battlefield. Not a romantic vision that's all beret-wearing radicals running through city streets armed to the teeth just to draw secret symbols on walls; but one that's entrenched in the loneliness, anxiety and desolation of unwittingly getting into something that isn't quite what you wanted and not knowing how to get out.
Then as we hit the halfway point of the album, it kind of loses it as it turns into high-octane dance and not much else; until we get to Reflexion. It's schizophrenic in the amount of directions it pulls you in. And it has that signature Chemical Brothers sound you can't define but you know it when you hear it.
Taste of Honey is the middle-8, it's a complete change of pace for the album. Minimal, experimental with a nod to orchestral and that 80s toy that was an electronic keyboard flute.
Then we hit the chill out part of the album. We've partied until we've sweated out of our eyeballs and now we need to wind down with Radiate, Wide Open and title track Born in The Echoes. The latter starts like Hey Mickey, but this is an alternative version where Mickey might be so fine but Toni Basil is too busy to care and doesn't appreciate his arrogance anyway. It's one of the stand out tracks of the album - it has so much going on, yet remains so simple.
This is the part where I summarise my thoughts on the album. I don't really want to do that because for me The Chemical Brothers aren't a review, they're an experience. They teleport you to other lands, perhaps not green and pleasant ones, but definitely exciting ones full of neon decadence. Don't believe me? Watch this.
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