Chemical Brothers Overview

The Chemical Brothers' short story seems riddle with chance occurences. The chance that two guys who met in a college history class in the early 1990s would spawn the creation of the Dust Brothers (renamed the Chemical Brothers in 1995). The... [more]

The Chemical Brothers' short story seems riddle with chance occurences. The chance that two guys who met in a college history class in the early 1990s would spawn the creation of the Dust Brothers (renamed the Chemical Brothers in 1995). The chance that a couple of geeks with a penchant for old guitar rock and rap albums would transform "proper" house music into the phenomenon called big beat. Big beat was obviously a reaction to a British techno snobbery that delighted in keeping electronic music underground. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons didn't necessarily want to make it commercial, but they did want to put some fun back into the monotonous dance-floor thump. They went light on the intellectualism and heavy on the energy, with a fusion of jazz, rock 'n' roll, hip-hop, funk, house, and techno. Ed Simons explains, "When we used to deejay, we'd play it (traditional rock music) in the middle of techno music and heavy trance music. That's also at the heart of what we do: Mixing musics that at first don't seem to go together and somehow making it work." The I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude projected by the Chemical Brothers soon got them gigs around London and landed them house DJ spots at London's Heavenly Social club. When they transferred their funky sound to a bedroom studio, the movement known as big beat began to take shape. The Chemical Brothers' 1995 debut album "Exit Planet Dust" is apparently a dance album, but it's reminiscent of a rock album with its anthemic rather than hypnotic drive. Drum intros pave the way for hard-core industrialized beats and old-school breaks. And there are sirens! And guitars! But the secret formula seems to lie in the heavy use of familiar samples; even pop audiences can happily recognize these lifted guitar riffs or vocal clips. This is dance music with personality (an innovative concept when it first came out). There's little of the super obscure-abstract-progressive-experimental stuff -- the Chemical Brothers just seem to have a sense of humor about it all. By the time the later albums emerged -- "Dig Your Own Hole" in 1997 and "Surrender" in 1999 -- the accessible big beat sound had been heard everywhere from pop radio stations to television commercials. These albums simply offer more of what the Chemical Brothers do best: more sirens and heavy drums, supplemented with guest vocals by rock luminaries like Noel Gallagher from Oasis. But even as the perpetually jaded public questions the duo's continuing innovativeness, the songs remain frustratingly catchy. Riding the squelchy, deep bassline and the Schoolly D vocal sample of "Block Rockin' Beat," listeners can't help but yell along. [show less]