Chemical Brothers
Born In The Echoes
(Virgin EMI)
It feels like a long time in electronic dance music since The Chemical Brothers demolished the airwaves with Block Rockin’ Beats. But they’ve hit the No 1 spot with every studio album since 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole (although five years ago Further was deemed ineligible for the UK charts because of an iPad promotion) and have cranked out top-class pop tunes with big-beat underbellies at every point along the way.
The decision to do away with guest vocalists on Further (and the instrumental necessity of 2011’s soundtrack album to the film Hanna) possibly didn’t work in the duo’s commercial favour. It’s back to business as usual, though, as Beck, Cate Le Bon, Ali Love, Q-Tip and Annie Clark (aka St Vincent) bring their voices to bear on an album that sees The Chemical Brothers leapfrog the disco-influenced style that worked so well for Daft Punk a couple of years ago.
The sound here has a harder edge than the French boys, of course, and the purloined rock/pop styles are more varied than those peddled by current heroes of electronic dance music such as Avicii. For a couple of decades, The Chemical Brothers have been the dance duo that indie kids could love; the silky art-pop leanings of Under Neon Lights (with Annie Clark) and the New Wave majesty of Wide Open (with Beck) suggest it will remain so.
Alan Morrison
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