The Chemical Brothers
New Biog as of 4/99
Since they first met a decade ago, the Chemical
Brothers have been on a mission. Their aims: to find
the sounds no one had heard before, to push their
music as far as it will go, to make each record
fresher and more exciting than the last. And from
Song To The Siren in 1992 to the brain-blitzing
mutant psychedelia of their third album, Surrender,
that's what they've done. On the way they've
invented (and transcended) big beat, toured the
globe, remixed the world and his brother,
soundtracked some of the messier nights out of the
last few years and made some of the most influential
music of the decade.
Ed Simons (tall, curly hair) and Tom Rowlands
(taller, long hair) met while studying history at
Manchester Poly in l989. They'd come from the south
to Manchester for the music and launched themselves
at the club scene with a vengeance. From nights at
the legendary Hacienda, to raves in Blackburn and
misbehaviour at clubs like Justin Robertson's Spice
and Most Excellent they soaked it all up. When they
started to DJ ("borrowing' the name the Dust
Brothers from the American producers of the Beastie
Boys' Paul's Boutique), they put their own spin on
things. During their first residency at Naked Under
Leather (as debauched as its name suggests) they
established a party-starting reputation for going
where most other DJs feared to tread: joining the
dots between acid house, hip hop and rock.
Tom was already part of struggling Henley-on-Thames
Balearic band Ariel, but when he went into the
studio with Ed in 1992 everything clicked into
place. The result was Song To The Siren, a record
that mixed breakbeats, sirens, shuddering bass and
ethereal indie vocals. They sent one of the 500
copies to Andrew Weatherall, who played it every
time he DJed and signed the duo to his Junior Boys
Own label.
1994 was the year that the Chemical Brothers changed
dance music. For starters, there were the
groundbreaking 14th Century Sky (featuring Chemical
Beats) and My Mercury Mouth EPs and a track donated
to the charity album Serious Road Trip. Rapidly
becoming the most in demand remixers in the country,
they also reworked everyone worth reworking, from
the Manic Street Preachers to Saint Etienne. In one
fortnight alone they tackled Prodigy, Primal Scream
and the Charlatans and came out on top every time.
They also made their live debut at Weatherall's
Sabresonic club. Finally, for 13 weeks that summer
and autumn, they helmed the decks at London's
notorious hedonism hotspot the Heavenly Social and
introduced everyone who could get in (including Paul
Weller, Tricky and Primal Scream) to the delights of
dancing to Barry White, Oasis, Chicago acid and Eric
B & Rakim all in one night.
The duo also played acetates of tracks from their
own forthcoming debut album, Exit Planet Dust.
Signing to Virgin, the Chemical Brothers (now
renamed after a dust-up with the original Dust
Brothers) finally released it in June 1995. It sold
275,000 copies in Britain alone and over a million
copies worldwide, while the singles Leave Home and
Life Is Sweet both went Top 20. With guest vocalists
Tim Burgess and Beth Orton, the album captured
everything that was exciting about the Social:
messy, ferocious and often emotional.
Other producers soon copied the Chemical formula and
the duo inadvertently spawned the entire big beat
movement, with artists like Fatboy Slim still citing
them as the original inspiration. Two years later,
even U2 were making Chemical-style tracks.
The next stage was the limited edition Loops Of Fury
EP in January 1996. The title track appeared in the
suitably frantic Sony Playstation game Wipeout 2097
and Get Up On It Like This was reincarnated a year
or so later on their second album.
Much of "95 and "96 were spent either on the decks
(at the now- weekly Heavenly Social, the DJ mix
album Live At The Social Volume One and an acclaimed
Radio I Essential Mix), on the road (America,
Europe, Tribal Gathering, Phoenix, Ibiza, supporting
Oasis) or in the studio looking for a way to get
everyone excited all over again. They slowed the
flood of remixes to a trickle and the Manics, Method
Man and Dave Clarke were the three lucky recipients,
with the Manics remix making an appearance on
Playstation's Gran Turismo. Meanwhile, Tom briefly
moonlighted with the Charlatans on their
contribution to the charity album Help and their
next single, One To Another.
Before the year was out, though, the Chemicals were
back in force with Oasis top man Noel Gallagher and
the car crash on vinyl of Setting Sun. To their
amazement it rocketed to the top of the charts and
became the most punk number one of the year. They
celebrated with a sell-out four-date British tour
and a return to the States, where Exit Planet Dust
had sold an unexpected 150,000 copies (it has now
sold twice that amount).
Spring 1997 brought Dig Your Own Hole, the
Chemicals' second album and one which confirmed
their status as one of the best bands in the
country. "Back with another one of those block
rockin' beats," promised the opening track, which
swiftly became their second number one single. But
there was a lot more to the album than that. As well
as Noel, Beth Orton appeared again, and cult
American band Mercury Rev contributed to the album's
epic showpiece, The Private Psychedelic Reel. It was
their finest moment yet and finally replaced
Chemical Beats as their set- closing anthem. "I
think the key is to change how you make your music
and how it sounds but still keep what was good about
it to start off with." reasons Tom.
The rest of the year was spent on a mammoth world
tour that included a residency at Tokyo's Liquid
Rooms, a triumphant set at a swamplike Glastonbury
and climaxed at the Brixton Academy in December. Two
further singles, Elektrobank and The Private
Psychedelic Reel, were released off Dig Your Own
Hole. Somehow, Tom and Ed managed to squeeze in a
remix of spacerock gospel heroes Spiritualized, done
at their own request.
1998 was meant to be a quiet year for the Chemicals,
working on the next album and getting back to their
roots as DJs. Such was the anticipation for their
deck skills, though, that every DJ appearance - from
the Heavenly Social's third birthday party to
Glastonbury - became an event in itself. Apart from
remixes of Mercury Rev and the original Dust
Brothers, their only release of the year was
Brothers Gonna Work It Out, released on their own
Freestyle Dust subsidiary of Virgin. A mix album
that mashed up their own tracks and DJing favourites
into a full throttle, manic frenzy. It was voted
Compilation Of The Year by most music magazines.
More bizarrely, Block Rockin' Beats netted a
prestigious Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental.
The Chemicals were not aware they made rock
instrumentals, but they accepted it anyway. Dig Your
Own Hole went on to achieve gold status in the USA,
selling 500,000 there and over two million
worldwide.
The title of Surrender, the Brothers' third album,
is a statement of intent. "We liked the idea of
giving into something and it taking you somewhere
else," explains Tom. "We're fairly obsessed with
music that takes you out of yourself."
Noel Gallagher is on board again for the
Beatles-influenced Let Forever Be and Mercury Rev's
Jonathan Donahue is also back, singing and playing
guitar on Surrender's closing track, the narcotic
lullaby Dream On. "We were attracted to it for the
sense of continuity," says Ed. "Rather than sticking
pins in the charts it was nice to work with someone
we knew."
Hope Sandoval of American duo Mazzy Star was
originally slated to feature on Dig Your Own Hole
and appears here on the langorous Asleep From Day.
Bernard Sumner from Manc legends New Order was asked
to work on the ferocious Out Of Control and brought
Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie with him, so two of
British music's most distinctive voices appear on
the same track.
Surrender's instrumental tracks also see the
Chemicals' sound moving in new directions. The
opener, Music: Response is the closest the album
gets to their previous work, while Under The
Influence is adrenalised techno, Orange Wedge is
squealing funk and Got Glint? takes its inspiration
from early house. The title track and epic
centrepiece, The Sunshine Underground, are natural
successors to The Private Psychedelic Reel and the
first single Hey Boy Hey Girl sounds like one of
their live sets condensed into five thrilling
minutes.
Essentially, Surrender is more of everything - more
intense, more emotional, more imaginative and more
ambitious than anything they've done before.
"We've always been part of a scene or reacting
against a scene but this is just our music," says
Ed. "I think it sounds like an outsiders record. We
wanted something to really draw people in. We both
wanted something aesthetically pleasing that was
joyous and that you could really love."
"We've still got lots to say," adds Tom. "The last
two years of music have been about people wearing
their influences on their sleeves, grabbing bits and
pieces and putting them together. I think this
record's gone beyond that and become a lot more than
the sum of its parts. I think it's so different from
other records that are going to be put out. It's
quite a courageous record. It's not cautious."
The Chemicals will be touring the album for most of
the year, starting in May with three UK warm up
dates and a headlining slot at the Homelands
festival.
Tom and Ed are still fucking with the formats,
pushing the boundaries and turning dance music
inside out with each new release. It's 1999 and time
to surrender to the Chemical Brothers.
The world is theirs.
Old Biog (expired 4/99)
The Chemical Brothers
1994. Everyone gets excited about new wave, the mode
revival, 'End of Century', etc. All the usual retro
bollocks. On the other hand, you've got Mo'Wax,
jungle, the 'Bristol sound', trip hop. People
scratch their goatees and there's too much
theorising going on. Along come the Dust Brothers,
take all the best parts (sound and attitude alike)
from all camps. They redefine dance music - all of a
sudden, the rock heads get it, the dance heads get
it and the crack heads and the f**k heads are drawn
in as well. In the short space of one year, they
cover all bases. They play DJ sessions that end in
amyl and alcohol overdose wherever they go. Their
records are sound clashes - supa dope hip hop vs.
acid house vs. chunky funky beats vs. rock and roll
mentality. Come 1995, a lawsuit and a mindblowing
forthcoming lp mean a swift name change is in order,
and the artists formerly known as the Dust Brothers
become the Chemical Brothers.
A Chemical background: Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons
met in Manchester. Tom looked like a blonde Ramone,
Ed has been known to grow his hair to afro
proportions. Tom had previously been in Baleiric
combo Ariel, who released several records through
Deconstruction. They were veterans of Manchester's
Spice and Most Excellent clubs, only taking time out
from propping up the bar to stage dive. They began
DJing under the Dust Brothers moniker, playing daft
parties in the only way they know how. The daft way.
Records with big beats, loads of sirens and a
smattering of 'wailing women' over the top. The
natural progression into the studio resulted in a
track featuring big beats, sirens, 'wailing women'
and vocals. They pressed up a few green label copies
and watched it go.
In just over a year, they made three very chemically
friendly records. The first single, the self
financed 'Song to the Siren', was soon picked up by
Junior Boy's Own and overhauled by Sabres of
Paradise. The second, 'The Fourteenth Century Sky'
ep featured the groundbreaking 'Chemical Beats', a
track that ripped up every dancefloor in its wake. A
wah-wah synth washing over a pounding backbeat, the
most unrelating record of 1994, the unheralded
single of the year. 'My Mercury Mouth' ep followed,
featuring an electro funk title track, the skanked
up 'If You Kling To Me I'll Klong To You', and a
noise fest known as 'Dust Up Beats', featuring a
stomach churning rise section to make you physically
sick. Suddenly, the media sit up and pay attention,
as do 100 A&R men waving cheque books. Everyone
wants a piece of the Chemical Brothers.
Some are lucky enough to get one, and The Chemical
Brothers remix CV expands, connecting them to
everyone who matters in '94/'95. Turbo charged
overhauls of Primal Scream, Sabres Of Paradise, The
Charlatans, Manic Street Preachers, Bomb the Bass,
Justin Warfield, and Leftfield take the bare bones
of the tracks and pound them into mind bending
narcotic cocktails inrecognisable from the
originals. Some said they all sound the same. They
weren't listening - check the graceful, liquid funk
of 'Patrol', (The Charlatans), the bombastic noise
fest of 'Jailbird (Primal Scream), the head f**k
human beatbox driven "Tow Truck" remix (Sabres of
Paradise). Then go figure....
As DJs, The Chemical Brothers started off doing
'backrooms' (i.e. the risk room where anything goes,
the one where the 'serious' clubbers usually
wouldn't go if you paid them). As their reputation
grows, the rooms become the place to be, people
climbing over the speaker to find space to
dance/breath. Before long, whole, whole clubs are
devoted to the backroom atmosphere and The Chemical
Brothers are at the helm of two of the most
important - the Manchester club known only as Naked
Under Leather and its London counterpart The
Heavenly Sunday Social. Both were sweatbox pub
rooms, over filled with people who don't understand
the meaning of the word 'enough' and don't see
anything wrong with jumping up and down to
everything from Hardfloor to Bobby Womack, The
Beastie Boys to The Beatles. Not indie disco, not
elitist, not trendy. Not for the faint-hearted.
1995. The Chemical Brothers step up another gear. A
single, 'Leave Home', which sounds like Motorhead
joyriding with The Prodigy, enters the charts at
number 17. The debut album 'Exit Planet Dust'
already sounds like the album of the year, with its
guest slots (Tim Burgess from The Charlatans and up
and coming singer Beth Orton). A handful of live
shows so fierce that they pulp the audience into
gurning submission. DJ sessions in the clubs and
pubs, in seedy bars and the backs of cars.
Productions and remix work with top pop acts the
world over. And much more hair. 1995. We love the
Chemical Brothers.