Friday, 4/25/97 ‘Chemical’ with good effects Duo’s new CD
surfaces from Britain’s electronica dance craze
By Mike Prevatt Daily Bruin Contributor Here it is, ladies and
gents. After a six-month media buildup on the new musical movement
that just won’t die down, electronica safely tests the waters with
its voltage-heavy kings, the Chemical Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed
Simmons). Has this new musical medium got a fair shot in the big,
bad world of competitive pop? Well, let’s just say the Chemical
Brothers make the best case for it. "Dig Your Own Hole" is the
first electronica album to be released since the media mayhem
started. It is a magnetic and stimulating journey into electronic
and computer-rock orchestration. For an hour or so, the Chemical
Brothers put on a schizophrenic display of sound effects,
synthesized noises and bare-bones bass and guitar rhythms that
travels at an insanely high speed without any breaks to catch your
breath. The album begins with the new single, "Block Rockin’
Beats," which combines booming effects, funk-driven guitars and
barrages of screeching samples. It is dazzling electronic rock ‘n’
roll that dares you not to dance. This gives way to the album’s
title track, which continues the funk, but with a more lively tone.
This kind of colorful music isn’t as dark as Underworld, but it has
the same style of repetitive beats with electronic interjections
that change or are altered every 30 seconds or so. "Elecktrobank"
is a more somber Chemical Brothers number, hinting bits of
industrial styling here and there, which pop out from under the
rapid-fire beats and throbbing bass. This song seems like it came
from the "Trainspotting" soundtrack, as could "Don’t Stop the
Rock," also a murkier song which sounds like a video game gone mad
with its random blips and bleeps. The club sound surfaces with
"Piku," a somewhat slower tune with elements that range from
scratchy-record sound distortion to brass-section samples. Then
their hit single, "Setting Sun," sneaks up, grabs you and shakes
you with its fun house mayhem and blaring noise. It perhaps is the
best, most melodic representation of alternative rock fusing with
dance music, featuring vocals by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher. "It Doesn’t
Matter" begins with a simple, ’80s-like synthesized sound and
gradually builds up, sample by sample, into a multilayered song
with sonic rattling and warped vocals. The upbeat "Get Up On It
Like This" is more a piece of electronic wizardry than it is a
dance song, borrowing from jungle and techno. "Lost in the K-Hole"
starts off like a high school garage band with a synth machine,
then turns into a more complex number. "Where Do I Begin" actually
uses straightforward guitar pop in the beginning, letting the
synthesized hums and voices (contributed by Beth Orton) take over
in the end. The album ends with the brilliant epic, "The Private
Psychedelic Reel," a nine-minute trek from depressing drones and
pseudo-sitar chords to sonic explosions and spacey ambience. The
Chemical Brothers don’t have that pop accessibility which sells
millions of copies. However, what is more important is that, like
Beck, the band displays its incredible talents at bringing together
so many different elements and mixing them with computerized
sequences. Its originality comes from using the usual guitar,bass
and drum offerings and blending their synthesized components. But
more impressive is the fact that Rowlands and Simmons produced the
album themselves. Their successful blends of synth and rock sounds
– and their commercial acceptance – have been a long time coming.
Since the early ’90s, Britain has popularized the dance genre. The
days of the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays were over and bands
began experimenting with a more radical style of dance music. They
were influenced by rhythmic bands like the Happy Mondays, ’80s
synth pop (New Order, Depeche Mode) and house music. Artists like
the Shamen and Utah Saints gave club music a more aggressive
nature, and with the rise of techno, the dance halls of England
began to take over British culture. Then the electronic musicians
began to come out of the woodwork. Primal Scream, Massive Attack
and Stereo M.C.s found success in the U.K., thanks to a huge,
burgeoning rave culture. This set the stage for an even bigger
dance music uprising. Soon Orbital, Underworld, Prodigy, the Future
Sound of London and Leftfield were not only the hottest club spins
around, but their often vocal-less and melody-less songs found
their way into the nation singles’ chart. Even groups like Depeche
Mode and U2 began remixing electronica and rock. When the Chemical
Brothers came into the scene in 1995 with their debut album, "Exit
Planet Dust," the duo was hailed by both critics and audiences as
one of the most talented groups in England. As America found
interest in electronic-based music, thanks to the "Trainspotting"
soundtrack, Nine Inch Nails and Beck, DJs began to play more and
more alternative dance music. Soon, the Chemical Brothers began to
pop up on college and alternative radio. "Exit Planet Dust" hit
Billboard’s Heatseeker chart. The hype, named electronica, was
born. With "Exit Planet Dust," the Chemical Brothers never thought
they would be on the forefront of a music revolution. The album has
yet to go platinum here in the States. However, its
long-anticipated followup may bring electronica fully into the
mainstream. In its first week,"Dig Your Own Hole" sold 50,000
copies to debut at No. 14 on Billboard’s Top 200 album chart, only
one notch below U2. But forget superficial commercial concerns.
"Dig Your Own Hole" is one swelling and intricate opus of sensory
overload which bridges the gaps between the avant-garde, rock ‘n’
roll and dance music. The underground has surfaced, and it has
never sounded cooler. Grade: A Astralwerks Britain’s, the Chemical
Brothers, head electronica’s emergence as an avant garde, power
genre in the music world. SF Bay Guardian