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chemical brothers


david

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I went throught a massive chem bros fanboy phase.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO0EFY_gjNc

 

Any of the tracks featuring Beth Orton or Hope Sandoval made me melt, they were always trippy dreamy acid trips...

I preferred this style of the their sound compared to their obvious club smashers, although "Galvanize", "Star Guitar" and "Believe" were all pretty awesome.

 

I wasnt too keen on the "Further" album although I liked the dvd that came with it.

 

And I love this...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6u2yJ-iv4E

 

Well anyway... yeah go see a live show, get sensibly drunk/wasted/whatever and enjoy the ride....

 

Big live moments include The Sunshine Underground, The Private Psychedelic Reel, Surface to Air.... christ im coming up just thinking about it!

 

First saw them at Reading Festival in 1999. They were second on the bill on the Friday night, just before headliners The Charlatans. That was a massive deal for a "dance" act to be playing the main stage Reading at that time, but they absolutely smashed it and the Charlatans were shit.

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The Chemical Brothers got me into electronic music. I bought their 2 CD 2003 best of set after hearing an instrumental version of "Setting Sun" on a MTV compilation my dad had in his CD collection. I used to be a huge fan as well until I drifted toward other artists and genres. Until 2005 I had listened to every single remix and b-side and live set they put out. They transitioned out of the "big beat" rather well, and from what I've heard of their latest work, I feel like they're still above most EDM, electrohouse, etc. I still need to see them live. They've had some lame tracks here and there (Push The Button and We Are The Night were had too much forgettable filler) but oh well. They're a class act imo. I remember reading Simon Reynolds' book Energy Flash: A Journey Through Rave Music and Dance Cultur e and he raved (pun intended) about how they brought the fun back to electronic music. All the super excited fans of Skrillex remind me of how much the DJ sets by Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, and Fatboy Slim made me feel. The energy is the same, even though, well, I think you can assume I find their music far more appealing.

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i've been listening to them since age 8 or 9. i tell that story a lot because it seems very common to electronic music fans who grew up during the 90s... you know, Music for the Jilted Generation on headphones taking a new generation to the most imaginative locales

 

that scene in Almost Famous with the Led Zeppelin... that was Dig Your Own Hole for me. life changed from that moment.

 

I like that album and most of their other work more with every year. I think their first few albums will especially age well, very artful. people who think they are too rockist aren't listening to it the right way, I would say. instead of hearing it within the context of '90s big beat dance' or any genre it's better to hear it as what it actually is, which is really weird and inventive electronic music that happens to sound best when played at the loudest possible volume.

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Actually, I had no idea they remixed this at the time, but I loved this track when I first heard it, so this was my introduction to them.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMrKd1VNEow

 

Wish they remixed more often actually:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpNQkDSP8kc

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this looks unreal:

 

 

 

 

I love their everything must go remix, really good.

 

I find some of their stuff midly disturbing. this is an astoundingly intense and forgotten performance, otheworldly, rather frightening, hedonistic, and 90s:

 

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loved them back in the day and the first three albums are classic as well as the b-sides from that era but they never quite got the hang of anything else when they tried to move on from the big beat sound they perfected and as a result went downhill ever since

 

I remember watching Hannah and thinking what an appauling half arsed Run Lola Run wannabe soundtrack it was then found out it was the Chemical Bros!

 

My girlfriend also played a recent album in the car which was full of too many electro pop cliches to be taken seriously.

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The Chemical Brothers got me into electronic music.

 

Same here. Don't Stop The Rock from Dig Your Own Hole blew me away. That was a beginning of a new era for me. I was heavily into their stuff during like the last year or two of my high school period. Naturally, I was also heavily into Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. Nowadays, I mostly enjoy Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. I must admit that all their post-Push The Button stuff I, to put it harshly, simply can't stand. Let's be fair - it's still good music, but compared to their first 2 albums, it simply doesn't have that something for me.

 

Their Electronic Battle Weapon stuff is truly brilliant and could easily in my opinion be their ultimate legacy. My favourite one from the series is Freak Of The Week (partly the reason why I have the username that I have).

 

Then one day, years ago, while I was browsing one forum, I ended up in the thread for electronic music recommendations. Somebody mentioned Aphex Twin. I, being curious as usual, and open to new music, immediately checked him out. I heard Windowlicker first, and it didn't impress me much. Then I heard stuff from SAW2 and ICBYD and that was it. I basically instantly switched to Aphex, and even wrote a review for ICBYD on that same forum where I found out about Aphex, after a quite short period of time. Soon I heard of the rest of the crew. Even though I can still enjoy Chemical Brothers (just as Fatboy Slim and Prodigy), Aphex and the crew were and still are my favourite artists (among my favourite artists) for over 6 years now.

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Guest igloos unlmtd

I always wish they had the songs to back up their excellent production skills.

 

With that said, their last album Further was kind of cool which took me by surprise.

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This is the last track ("Saturate" on We Are The Night) they made they really blew me away, this was 2007 I believe.

 

 

I also feel the same way about their early career being better and more exciting than the newer stuff, even though it is well produced and quality dance music. It's not just nostalgia either, I think there was something really primal, heavy yet beautiful about their music, and way less "retro" and gimmicky than the other big beat artists. Likewise, it was a lot more fun than minimal techno, less dark than dnb and hardcore, and not constrained to home listening like IDM. I feel like they were the EDM equivalent of Public Enemy.

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The Chemical Brothers got me into electronic music too... The Test is still in my heart/brain since 7 years ago... That, like eagle sample in the chorus, was the starting point of my electronic music adventure.

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the breakdown on the track "Dig Your Own Hole" is just inconceivable to me. i don't understand how they came up with something so abstract and huge. it's positively alien, the whole album, in part just from the energy and the creativity and disregard for all things conventional. listening to it with a rational mind I imagine being in their studio while they recorded it, what the fuck were these guys on? seriously, are they fucking insane? people who write this off as Big Beat are missing the fact that this is some borderline spiritual music, there really is no reference for it when you get down to brass tax and really listen to the music. can you really imagine making this? maybe on a plastic level if you think it's all just 'loops' as a friend of mine said, but on the level of the soul that is behind the sounds, no!

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