The Chemical Brothers
Encyclopedia
The Chemical Brothers are a British electronic music
duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester
in 1991, along with The Prodigy
, Fatboy Slim
, The Crystal Method
, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat
genre to the forefront of pop culture.
, South London
on 9 June 1970 to a barrister mother and a father who was not around much when Simons was growing up. Simons' two main interests when he was young were aeroplanes and musicals. Simons attended two South London public schools, Alleyn's School
and Dulwich College
. During his school years, he developed a fondness for rare groove
and Hip hop
music, having frequented a club called The Mud Club from the age of 14. By the time he left school, his two main musical interests were two Manchester bands, New Order
and The Smiths
. After finishing school with 11 O
levels and three A-levels, he continued on to study history, especially late medieval
history, at the University of Manchester
.
Tom Rowlands, a childhood classmate of Simons', was born on 11 January 1971 in Kingston upon Thames
, London. When Rowlands was very young, his family relocated to Henley-on-Thames
. He later attended Reading Blue Coat School
in Berkshire
, during which time he became obsessed with Scotland, developing a fondness for the bagpipes in particular. In his early teens, his interest in music broadened to other genres. Initially, some of his favourites included the Oh What a Lovely War soundtrack, 2 Tone
, the nascent gothic rock
genre (Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim) and the electro
sounds of artists such as Kraftwerk
, New Order
, Cabaret Voltaire
, and Heaven 17
. He described the first
Public Enemy album as the record that probably changed his life, and commented that "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" was one of the most amazing tracks he had ever heard. Rowlands also started collecting hip hop
records by artists like Eric B and Schoolly D
. Rowlands left school with similar accomplishments to Simons', achieving nine O levels and three A levels. For university, he followed Simons to Manchester primarily to immerse himself in its music scene in general and the Haçienda in particular.
Rowlands was also in a band called Ariel prior to meeting up with Simons. Ariel was formed in London by Rowlands and his friends Brendan Melck and Matt Berry. Their first single was "Sea of Beats", which was essentially a white label
. Before Philip Brown set up Echo Logik Records, their first promo was "Bokadilo". Other songs, released on 12", included "Mustn't Grumble" and their most well-known, "Rollercoaster". After a year on Echo Logik they signed to the record label
deConstruction
. They insisted that they get a female singer and they recruited former Xpansions frontwoman Sally Ann Marsh
, and after some disappointing songs like "Let It Slide" (Rowlands would later describe it as "a stinker") the band fell apart. One of the last things Ariel did was the song "T Baby" which was remixed by the pair.
Rowlands and Simons then started to DJ
at a club called "Naked Under Leather" in the back of a pub in 1992 under the alias of "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). The pair would play hip hop, techno, and house
.
famous for their work with the Beastie Boys
. After a while, they began to run out of suitable instrumental hip hop tracks to use, so they started to make their own. Using a Hitachi
hi-fi system, a computer, a sampler, and a keyboard, they recorded "Song to the Siren", which sampled This Mortal Coil
. "Song to the Siren" was released on their own record label, called "Diamond Records" (after Ed's nickname). In October 1992, they pressed 500 white label copies and took them to various dance record shops around London, but none would play it, saying that it was too slow (the track played at 111 BPM). They sent a copy to London DJ Andrew Weatherall
, who made it a permanent fixture in his DJ sets. Weatherall also signed the band to his Junior Boy's Own
label. In May 1993, Junior Boy's Own released "Song to the Siren".
Around June 1993, the Dust Brothers did their first remixes. The first was "Packet of Peace" for Justin Robertson's Lionrock
outfit, followed by tracks for Leftfield
, Republica
, and The Sandals
. Late in 1993, The Dust Brothers completed work on their Fourteenth Century Sky
EP
, released in January 1994. It contained the ground-breaking "Chemical Beats", which epitomized the duo's genre-defining big beat
sound, later taken up by Fatboy Slim
and many more. The EP also contained "One Too Many Mornings", which for the first time showed the less intense, more chilled-out side of The Dust Brothers. Both "One Too Many Mornings" and "Chemical Beats" would later appear on their debut album. Fourteenth Century Sky was followed later in 1993 by the My Mercury Mouth EP
. "Chemical Beats" was also part of the soundtrack for the first edition of the Wipeout games series, having been featured in Wipeout for the PlayStation
in 1995.
In October 1994, The Dust Brothers became resident DJs at the small, but hugely influential Heavenly Sunday Social Club at the Albany pub in London's Great Portland Street
. The likes of Noel Gallagher
, Paul Weller, James Dean Bradfield
, and Tim Burgess were regular visitors. The Dust Brothers were subsequently asked to remix tracks by Manic Street Preachers
and The Charlatans
, plus Primal Scream
's "Jailbird" and The Prodigy
's "Voodoo People". These two remixes received television
exposure, being playlisted by MTV
Europe's "The Party Zone" in 1995. Early in 1994, The Dust Brothers were approached in the club one Sunday by Noel Gallagher, from Oasis
, who at the time were becoming one of the most prominent guitar bands in Britain. Gallagher told the duo that he had a Balearic
-inspired track which he had written and would like the Dust Brothers to remix. However, over time, Gallagher changed his mind, and in the end the Brothers did not remix it. The track was "Wonderwall
".
In March 1995, The Dust Brothers began their first international tour, which included the United States – where they played with Orbital
and Underworld
– then a series of European festivals. Also around this time, the original Dust Brothers
threatened legal action over the use of their name, and so Rowlands and Simons had to decide on a new name quickly. They decided to then call themselves "The Chemical Brothers" after "Chemical Beats" (Simons' grandmother had suggested they call themselves "The Grit Brothers").
In June 1995, they released their fourth single, the first under their new identity. "Leave Home" was released on Junior Boy's Own, as a preview of the imminent debut album and became the band's first chart hit, peaking at No. 17. It stayed at number 17 for 8 weeks, the most weeks a record has stayed at the same place in the charts (apart from Number 1's).
(the title inspired by their name change) on Freestyle Dust/Junior Boy's Own. It entered the UK charts at No. 9 and featured guest vocalist Beth Orton
on the song "Alive Alone". It eventually went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, and was used on the soundtrack of the science fiction
TV series pilot Virtuality
. Shortly after its release, The Chemical Brothers signed to Virgin Records
, to which they took their own offshoot label, Freestyle Dust. For their next single, "Life Is Sweet
", released in September 1995, they again used a guest vocalist, featuring their friend Tim Burgess, singer of The Charlatans. It reached No. 25 in the singles charts. The single was also Select magazine's "Single of the Month" for October. The release included a Daft Punk
remix of "Life Is Sweet".
In August 1995, The Chemical Brothers DJ'ed for Oasis at a Sheffield
gig. The gig began to backfire when it became apparent that Liam Gallagher
didn't seem to like any of the tracks they were spinning. The closest that they could come to pleasing him was the Happy Mondays
' "Wrote for Luck". Gallagher proceeded to kick The Chemical Brothers off the turntables and procured a friend from The Verve
to continue to DJ. He subsequently favoured psychedelic
material to the displeasure of the crowd.
Around this period, The Stone Roses
asked the Chemical Brothers to remix "Begging You", from their Second Coming
album. After beginning work on a remix which they viewed as having potential, The Stone Roses changed their minds and the project was cancelled.
In October 1995, the duo returned to the Heavenly Sunday Social for a second and final run of DJ dates. They then became residents at the Heavenly Social on Saturdays at Turnmills. In November, The Chemical Brothers played the Astoria Theatre in London. At this time the Brothers usually used a fusion of "Chemical Beats" and The Beatles
' "Tomorrow Never Knows" as their encore. During the encore, however, Keith Flint
from The Prodigy
jumped up on stage to dance, wearing a T-shirt sporting the slogan "Occupation: mad bastard". A few from the crowd subsequently joined in. This resulted in a power cable being kicked loose, bringing the show to a temporary close. The Chemical Brothers confessed to not being too bothered; "because he's Keith from the Prodigy, and he can do whatever the fucking hell he likes". Just before Christmas, 1995, they played their biggest gig to date, with The Prodigy, at the Brixton Academy.
In January 1996, Exit Planet Dust went gold. The Chemical Brothers released their first new material in six months on Virgin, the Loops of Fury EP. The four-track release was limited to 20,000 copies, but is now available for digital download. It entered the UK charts at No. 13. NME
described the lead track as "splashing waves of synths across hard-hitting beats". The EP also contained a Dave Clarke remix of "Chemical Beats", and two other new tracks, "Get Up on It Like This" and "(The Best Part Of) Breaking Up".
In February 1996, Select magazine published a list of the 100 best albums of the 1990s thus far. Exit Planet Dust was listed at Number 39. In August 1996, The Chemical Brothers supported Oasis at Knebworth
, where 125,000 people attended each of the two shows.
During the 1995 Glastonbury Festival
, Rowlands and Simons had another conversation with Noel Gallagher
. Gallagher told them how much he liked Exit Planet Dust, and asked if he could sing on a future track, similar to the way Tim Burgess had worked on "Life Is Sweet". They didn't think much of the offer at the time, given how busy Gallagher would be with the release of Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
, plus the complexities of dealing with each others' record companies. However, the duo later worked on a track which they thought would benefit from having a vocal on it. They sent Gallagher a tape of what they had done so far. He worked on it overnight, and left a message with them early the next morning that he was ready to record it. The track was called "Setting Sun
" and was finally released in October 1996. It entered the UK charts at the top, giving the duo their first ever Number One single. "Setting Sun" was backed by a longer instrumental version, and also a new track "Buzz Tracks", which was not much more than a DJ tool. The three remaining members of The Beatles
' lawyers later wrote to The Chemical Brothers, mistakenly claiming that they had sampled "Tomorrow Never Knows
". Virgin Records hired a musicologist to prove that they did not sample the classic 1960s psychedelic
song.
Meanwhile, in 1996, Live at the Social Volume 1
was released by Heavenly Records
, which became The Chemical Brothers' first mix CD (excluding Xmas Dust Up, a free album that came in a 1994 issue of NME). It was also the duo's first and only live album (excluding the EP Live 05
).
" went straight to No. 1 in the UK, possibly thanks, this time, to its Schoolly D
vocal sample and re-working of the bassline from 23 Skidoo's single "Coup". The NME named it "Single of the Week" and said "It throbs like your head might if you had just done a length underwater in a swimming pool full of amyl
." It later won them a Grammy Award
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
In the US at this time, "Setting Sun" was sitting at Number 80 in the Billboard Top 100, after selling around 80,000 copies, an uncommon achievement for a European "dance" act. Sales from Exit Planet Dust were also around 150,000.
On 7 April 1997 The Chemical Brothers released their second album, Dig Your Own Hole
. It was recorded at the band's own south London studio, with the title taken from graffiti on the wall outside. The album was well received, with Mixmag rating it 10/10 and calling it "mad enough to be thrilling, slick enough for not even remotely trendy coffee tables".
During the summer of 1997, the Brothers toured extensively, particularly in the United States. They also became residents at Tokyo
's Liquid Rooms. In August, The Chemical Brothers achieved rapprochement with the US Dust Brothers, and asked them to remix the forthcoming single "Elektrobank
". They themselves also became highly sought-after for remixes for other artists. Metallica
asked the Brothers several times to remix "Enter Sandman", but were repeatedly turned down. In September, the next single from Dig Your Own Hole, "Elektrobank" was released. In November, the pair played at Dublin's Point Theatre, with support from Carl Cox
. They also began a US tour in Detroit.
At the end of the year, Dig Your Own Hole' s final track, the nine minute-long "The Private Psychedelic Reel", gave rise to a limited-edition mini-EP of the same name. The B-side consisted of a live version of "Setting Sun", recorded at the Lowlands Festival
, Netherlands on 24 August 1997. Also in December, following four sold-out US shows, The Chemical Brothers toured the UK, finishing with a sold-out gig at London's Brixton Academy.
In 1998, they concentrated more on DJ'ing, although some remixes did see the light of day, including "I Think I'm in Love" from Spiritualized
. Both a vocal remix and an instrumental remix were included in the single release. Each came in at over seven-and-a-half minutes. Another remix completed by the Brothers was "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by Mercury Rev
. This was another extension in the association between the two bands, since Mercury Rev's Jonathon Donahue contributed to "The Private Psychedelic Reel" on Dig Your Own Hole.
In September 1998, a second mix album, Brothers Gonna Work It Out, was released. It contains some of their own tracks and remixes, as well as songs from artists who have influenced their sound, such as Renegade Soundwave
, Meat Beat Manifesto
, Carlos "After Dark" Berrios, and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales
.
In May 1999, The Chemical Brothers played three UK dates in Manchester
, Sheffield
and Brighton
, their first since December 1997. Also that month, they released their first new original material in two years, a track called "Hey Boy, Hey Girl". This was more house
-influenced than hip hop. In interviews at the time, Rowlands and Simons indicated that the track was inspired by nights out at Sheffield club Gatecrasher. The track was also one of their more commercially accessible tracks and went to number 3 in the UK charts.
, was released in June 1999. It featured vocals from Noel Gallagher, Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue
, and Mazzy Star's
Hope Sandoval
. As "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" had suggested, the album was more house-oriented than the previous two. On one of the album's stand out tracks, "Out of Control", New Order's
Bernard Sumner
supported by Primal Scream's
Bobby Gillespie
provided vocals. It reached No. 1 in the UK album charts, and was widely praised in the print media. The Michel Gondry
-directed music video
for "Let Forever Be", which utilized ground-breaking video and film effects in its depiction of a young woman's nightmares, also received a lot of attention.
Later that summer, The Brothers headlined the Glastonbury
dance tent on the Friday night, followed by a UK tour which ended in December and included Homelands
Scotland on 4 September. In November, "Out of Control", featuring Sumner and Gillespie on vocals, was released as a single. The release also contained the Sasha
remix. The final single from Surrender, in February 2000, was the five track "Music: Response" EP, containing the title track and two remixes, plus Electronic Battle Weapon 4
, named "Freak of the Week", and a track called "Enjoyed", which was essentially a remix of "Out of Control" by the Brothers themselves.
A CD copy of Surrender was placed in the third Blue Peter
time capsule
, buried in January 2000. That same month, they appeared on Primal Scream's album Xtrmntr
at track 11 with a remix.
. In December 2000, The Chemical Brothers aired one of their new tracks, "It Began in Afrika" at their New York DJ gigs, supporting U2
.
In 2001, they were quite active with releases and live performances. Early in the year, they began working on a fourth album, provisionally titled Chemical Four. The first track which fans got a taste of was "It Began in Afrika", as previously played in their DJ set in New York. The track would make its live debut in California
in April 2001, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
. Another new track, "Galaxy Bounce", also got its public debut at Coachella. As had become customary for their releases and experiments, "It Began in Afrika" was first pressed as a promo, as part of the "Electronic Battle Weapon
" series. It received much airplay on dance music radio shows in the UK, and became more and more popular in clubs over the course of the summer. It also became one of the "anthems" in Ibiza
as the summer progressed. It was given a full commercial single release in September, reaching No. 8 in the UK singles chart, even though no promotional video was made for the track.
Rowlands and Simons also remixed a track from Fatboy Slim
's Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
, entitled "Song for Shelter". This remix was released as a single on 3 September 2001 (one week before "It Began in Afrika") as the CD2 single for "Song for Shelter / Ya Mama
". It reached No. 30 in the UK Singles Charts (sales were combined with the CD1 single).
The Chemical Brothers finished work on another album, Come with Us
, in October 2001. It featured collaborations with Richard Ashcroft
of The Verve
("The Test"), and long-time collaborator Beth Orton
("The State We're In"). The album was released in January 2002, preceded by a single, "Star Guitar", a melodic Balearic beat
number, with a promotional video by Michel Gondry
that featured passing scenery synchronized to the beat viewed through a train window. What would be the second track on the album, "It Began in Afrika", was released 10 September 2001 to be circulated around the clubbing scene where it was a popular hit. "Star Guitar" was also released as a DVD
single, the pair's first.
The album, Come with Us, was less well received than their previous albums, but nonetheless went straight to No. 1 in the UK album charts in the first week of its release, selling 100,000 copies. In April, the title track from the album was released as a single with remixes by Fatboy Slim
as part of a double-A sided release with "The Test".
During the summer of 2002, The Chemical Brothers traveled the festival circuit to promote the album. Later in 2002, they released two EPs, one specifically aimed at Japan and the other the US (entitled AmericanEP
). Both contained remixes, live versions and B-sides. Additionally, the band produced New Order
's final non-album single "Here to Stay
", and remixed the song as well.
One of their other major songs from this album was "Galaxy Bounce", which was popular and featured as the main title music for the Xbox
game Project Gotham Racing
. It was also included on the soundtrack for the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
. "Star Guitar" was featured as a song on the PSP
's Lumines II
.
Two other songs, "Come with Us (Introduction)" and "Star Guitar (Title Screen)", were featured on a PlayStation 2
racing game titled WRC II: Extreme. Both songs are instrumental.
The Song My Elastic Eye from the Come with Us album was played in the 2004 movie The Butterfly Effect
starring Ashton Kutcher
and Amy Smart
.
Late 2002 and early 2003 saw Rowlands and Simons back in the studio working on new material, including "The Golden Path", a collaboration with Wayne Coyne
, the lead singer of The Flaming Lips
. This was released in September 2003, at the same time as a "best of" album, entitled Singles 93–03, marking ten years of The Chemical Brothers' releases. Singles 93–03 included most, but not all, of their singles. A second new track, in addition to "The Golden Path", was included on the album, called "Get Yourself High". Singles 93–03 was also released on DVD, with extra features including selected live performances and interviews with Rowlands, Simons, and many of their collaborators from throughout the period. "Get Yourself High", which featured Canadian rapper k-os
on vocals, was released as a single in November 2003.
In late 2003 and 2004, The Chemical Brothers continued to work in the studio on new material and a remix of "Slow
" by Kylie Minogue
. After being released on rare white label vinyl, it was subsequently given a commercial release in March on CD (on her next single "Red Blooded Woman") and on exclusive 12" vinyl picture disc (containing two other Kylie remixes). In Summer 2004 they returned to the festival circuit, including appearances at the Glastonbury Festival
, Tokyo, Scotland, and Ireland. They also visited South America
for the second time (the first time being in 1999), arriving at Chile
, Argentina
, and Brazil
. It was during these sets that they played new material, including "Acid Children", which proved to be one of the most popular new tracks.
In September 2004, The Chemical Brothers released the seventh "Electronic Battle Weapon". "Electronic Battle Weapon 7" was being released as a one-sided promo-only 12", containing "Acid Children". A marked departure from the Chemical Brothers' previous musical endeavours, it featured a screeching 303
bassline and a distinctive vocal sample; a pitch-altered vocal sample proclaiming "You Are All My Children Now!", which is lifted from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
. It was coupled with the projection of a sinister clown mouthing these same words at their live gigs.
The Electronic Battle Weapon series of promo releases have typically been newly recorded Chemical Brothers tracks, released on promo to allow DJs to test them in a club environment, and to gauge their popularity.
, and Anwar Superstar
, amongst others. The album was released on 24 January 2005.
"Galvanize
", which features rapper Q-Tip
on vocals, was the first single to be taken from Push the Button, and premiered exclusively on iTunes
. The single was released on 17 January 2005, and entered the UK chart at No. 3. The second single, "Believe
" (featuring Kele Okereke from Bloc Party
), failed to crack the top 10, but still made it into the top 20, peaking at No. 18. "The Boxer", featuring Tim Burgess, became the duo's first single to fail to crack the top 40.
The album and single "Galvanize" won a Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2006
. One of the songs in this album, "The Big Jump", appears in the video game Burnout Revenge
, as well as Project Gotham Racing 3
. The track "Surface to Air" features a pulsing chord progression and bassline reminiscent of the intro to the Strokes
song "The Modern Age".
An unofficial, remixed version of the album entitled Flip the Switch was released as a free download, along with the Believe EP, featuring six further remixes of "Believe".
In September 2006, The Chemical Brothers were revealed as the first musicians to be involved in Tate Tracks. Tate Modern
invited various groups and songwriters to choose a work that inspired them from the gallery's collection of modern art and then write a track about it. The Chemical Brothers' submission, Rock Drill, was inspired by the Jacob Epstein
sculpture Torso in Metal from The Rock Drill, and can be heard on headphones in front of the work in the gallery. From October 2006, it also became available to hear online at the Tate Tracks website.
in London. Simons is also quoted as saying that the duo are "hoping to put a battle weapon out for the summer", possibly referring to the Electronic Battle Weapon series, the somewhat experimental tracks the band occasionally release on white label
.
Electronic Battle Weapons 8 & 9 were debuted on Pete Tong
's BBC Radio 1
show on 8 December 2006. The double sided vinyl was finally released just before The Chemical Brother's much anticipated New Year's Eve gig at the famous Turnmills
in London. The vinyl had a limited edition release worldwide and has been received well by fans, DJs, and critics alike. Electronic Battle Weapon 8, at about six and a half minutes, is very distinct from the "big acid" style that the earlier Battle Weapons adhered to. It is characterised by 'thundering' drums with a rising synth line. A version of this track features on the We Are the Night album and is entitled "Saturate". "Electronic Battle Weapon 9" is a typical Chemicals dancefloor track with their trademark vocoder
vocals coupled with sirens and a basic 'tribal' melody.
At the same Turnmills
gig, the Brothers also played a previously unreleased song at midnight to welcome 2007, which went down well with the crowd. This track eventually emerged as "Burst Generator", found on the forthcoming album We Are the Night. Many were left wondering if the latest in the Electronic Battle Weapon series were simply one off experiments or signal a new direction they could take with the new album, perhaps swaying from their genre defining big beat
albums of the past. The song was also the band's 100th released song.
On 21 March 2007, The Chemical Brothers officially announced their forthcoming album on MySpace
. The new album, entitled We Are the Night
, was released on 2 July 2007 in the United Kingdom and 17 July 2007 in the United States. The Chemical Brothers cited a delay in the production of artwork for this delay. EMI subsequently released an online Chemical Brothers computer game as an apology. The track listing was released to the fans on the official mailing list on 10 April. The new album is heavily collaborated, with the likes of Klaxons
("All Rights Reversed"), Midlake
("The Pills Won't Help You Now"), Ali Love
("Do It Again
"), and Willy Mason
("Battle Scars").
On 12 April 2007, Pete Tong
again had the privilege of giving the world the very first preview of a Chemicals track. This time it was the first single "Do It Again" off their new album, aired on his BBC Radio 1
"In New Music We Trust" show.. The official release of the single was 4 June (digital download) and 14 June (12", 7", and CD). The album went on general release in the UK on 2 July 2007.
In September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played a free live gig in Trafalgar Square as part of the Becks Fusions event. All who attended were provided with 3D glasses to view the on-screen visual effects.
In 2008, The Chemical Brothers' music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's
best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
.
The Chemical Brothers supplied a new track for the Heroes
soundtrack, titled "Keep My Composure".
and will be released 22 June, adding that it will be "the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks." The films have been made with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. The album has been described as their most "psychedelic and melodic to date". Before the release of the album, the band played four shows in May at the London Roundhouse where they played the album and its accompanying films in its entirety. The films will feature on a special edition DVD and on the iTunes LP edition.
Most reviews have been positive, with BBC Music
declaring that "...synths are brutally manhandled and pushed to their limits across the eight tracks". The Irish Times
reported that "This is a very impressive collection that is carried along with a stirring sense of velocity and momentum". However, praise hasn't been unanimous for the LP, with the American rock magazine Spin giving it a rating of three out of five stars.
At the New York Comic Con, on 10 October 2010, English film director Joe Wright
announced that The Chemical Brothers would be scoring the soundtrack to his upcoming film, Hanna
. Joe Wright, who had worked with The Chemical Brothers in the past as a member of the visual company Vegetable Vision, expressed his feelings on the score, stating that he was "very excited to finally... work with a more modern beat. There's a lot of bass, it's very loud." The soundtrack was released exclusively on iTunes on 15 March 2011 and on CD on 4 July 2011.
Two weeks after the announcement regarding Hanna, rumors began circulating that The Chemical Brothers had recorded part of the score for the movie Black Swan
, after a post in Ed Simon's Twitter
account. A second post on the Chemical Brothers' own Twitter account seemed to confirm this. On 22 November 2010, a Black Swan music video was released along with the movie trailer. This music video featured a different version of the track "Don't Think
" and announced that the movie would feature new music from The Chemical Brothers, along with a handful of other artists. The next day, the names of the eight tracks not composed by Clint Mansell
– Black Swans main composer – were released, listing The Chemical Brothers as contributing three new songs for the movie. On 29 November, an exclusive video was posted on RollingStone.com
, containing more footage of the alternate version of "Don't Think". Mansell's work was released the next day. No announcement has been made yet on whether the original tracks not by Mansell would be given a release or not.
images, strobe lights, and laser
s that project over the crowd. There has been speculation over how much of their live gigs are pre-recorded, although they insist (on their official website FAQ) that they have a mere outline of track order and the rest is mixed live. This would seem to be confirmed by concertgoers who have seen gigs on consecutive nights and have posted notable differences between the sets played.
The Brothers have also played at many major festivals, including Glastonbury
, Reading, the HFStival
, and Leeds
festival. They currently hold the record for most gigs performed in a year at the Brixton Academy. The brothers have infamously, despite their high status in the mainstream, never appeared on Top of the Pops
, with the use of music videos to replace the performance, sometimes accompanied by a video apologising for their absence. In 1999, a live US tour video of "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was shown, even though the song was not in the top 40 at the time, and also released other singles before then at the time.
In addition to performing their own music, they also hold regular DJ nights where they mix other artist's tracks (in the style of Brothers Gonna Work It Out).
As with their recorded albums, The Chemical Brothers are well-known for their incorporation of guest vocalists into their live performances. Notable appearances in recent gigs have included Bernard Sumner
of New Order
, who sang on the original "Out of Control", Wayne Coyne
of The Flaming Lips
, and Tim Burgess.
The duo also played at the launch event for the Wii
video game console.
On the night of 1 September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played at the main stage of the Electric Picnic
to a crowd of around 20,000.
The Chemical Brothers appeared in Los Angeles on 29 September 2007, headlining the 13th Annual Nocturnal Wonderland Festival.
The duo was one of the headliners for Roskilde Festival
2008 in Denmark. The festival is held from 3–6 July and is the biggest festival in Northern Europe.
The Chemical Brothers played at London's Olympia Grand Hall
on 30 August 2008. This was the first time any major band has played at Olympia's Grand Hall in over 10 years.
On 18 April 2009, The Chemical Brothers performed a DJ Set at the Coachella Festival
, at which they premiered two previously unnamed new tracks. The tracks were the bonus track "Don't Think" and "Escape Velocity", both of which were later included on the album Further.
On 8 February 2010, they confirmed their presence at Sónar
Festival in Barcelona in June 2010. They also announced they would be performing another two nights at the London Roundhouse in Camden, on 20 and 21 May. Due to phenomenal demand, as tickets sold out within two minutes, they added a further two nights; 22 and 23 May.
On 3 September 2010, they performed at North Coast Music Festival in Chicago. The following day they performed at Electric Zoo festival in New York City.
On 4–14 March 2011, they headlined the Future Music Festival in five cities across Australia.
On 27 March 2011, they headlined Ultra Music Festival in Miami, FL and closed out the Main Stage for the weekend. They also were the closing performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
on Friday 15 April 2011.
The Chemical Brothers headlined the UK dance festival Creamfields
in Cheshire on 27 August 2011.
The band also played at the 'Other Stage' at Glastonbury Festival 2011
as that stage's lead headliners.
in 1992. The Chemical Brothers' original logo differs only in a few details from orthodox Sho, e.g. in the letters a and b. Mergenthaler Linotype Company holds the licence for this typeface.
Soundtrack albums
Main compilation albums
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
duo comprising Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons. Originating in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
in 1991, along with The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
, Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...
, The Crystal Method
The Crystal Method
The Crystal Method is an American electronic music duo that was created in Los Angeles, California by Ken Jordan and Scott Kirkland in the early 1990s. The Crystal Method's music has appeared in numerous TV shows, films, video games, and advertisements. The most prominent is the US television...
, and fellow acts, they were pioneers at bringing the big beat
Big beat
Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...
genre to the forefront of pop culture.
Background (1984–1991)
Ed Simons was born in Herne HillHerne Hill
Herne Hill is located in the London Borough of Lambeth and the London Borough of Southwark in Greater London. There is a road of the same name which continues the A215 north of Norwood Road and was called Herne Hill Road.-History:...
, South London
South London
South London is the southern part of London, England, United Kingdom.According to the 2011 official Boundary Commission for England definition, South London includes the London boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Southwark, Sutton and...
on 9 June 1970 to a barrister mother and a father who was not around much when Simons was growing up. Simons' two main interests when he was young were aeroplanes and musicals. Simons attended two South London public schools, Alleyn's School
Alleyn's School
Alleyn's School is an independent, fee-paying co-educational day school situated in Dulwich, south London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of the historic Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundation, which also included James Allen's Girls' School , Dulwich...
and Dulwich College
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is an independent school for boys in Dulwich, southeast London, England. The college was founded in 1619 by Edward Alleyn, a successful Elizabethan actor, with the original purpose of educating 12 poor scholars as the foundation of "God's Gift". It currently has about 1,600 boys,...
. During his school years, he developed a fondness for rare groove
Rare groove
Rare groove is defined as very hard to source or relatively obscure soul or jazz music. Rare groove is primarily associated with funk, jazz and pop, but is also connected to sub-genres including jazz fusion, Latin jazz, soul, R&B, northern soul, and disco. Vinyl records that fall into this...
and Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
music, having frequented a club called The Mud Club from the age of 14. By the time he left school, his two main musical interests were two Manchester bands, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
and The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
. After finishing school with 11 O
General Certificate of Education
The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...
levels and three A-levels, he continued on to study history, especially late medieval
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
history, at the University of Manchester
University of Manchester
The University of Manchester is a public research university located in Manchester, United Kingdom. It is a "red brick" university and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive British universities and the N8 Group...
.
Tom Rowlands, a childhood classmate of Simons', was born on 11 January 1971 in Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames
Kingston upon Thames is the principal settlement of the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames in southwest London. It was the ancient market town where Saxon kings were crowned and is now a suburb situated south west of Charing Cross. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the...
, London. When Rowlands was very young, his family relocated to Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames
Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...
. He later attended Reading Blue Coat School
Reading Blue Coat School
Reading Blue Coat School is a boys' independent school in Holme Park in the village of Sonning, in the English county of Berkshire, to the east of the town of Reading...
in Berkshire
Berkshire
Berkshire is a historic county in the South of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1957, and...
, during which time he became obsessed with Scotland, developing a fondness for the bagpipes in particular. In his early teens, his interest in music broadened to other genres. Initially, some of his favourites included the Oh What a Lovely War soundtrack, 2 Tone
2 Tone
2 Tone is a music genre created in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae, and New Wave. It was called 2 Tone because most of the bands were signed to 2 Tone Records at some point. Other labels associated with the 2 Tone sound were Stiff...
, the nascent gothic rock
Gothic rock
Gothic rock is a musical subgenre of post-punk and alternative rock that formed during the late 1970s. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes...
genre (Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim) and the electro
Electro
Electro or Elektro may refer to:* Electro , the name of various fictional villains from Marvel Comics and Timely Comics**Electro , from the Spider-Man comics being the best known...
sounds of artists such as Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
, New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
, Cabaret Voltaire
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire were a British music group from Sheffield, England.Initially composed of Stephen Mallinder, Richard H. Kirk and Chris Watson, the group was named after the Cabaret Voltaire, a nightclub in Zürich, Switzerland that was a centre for the early Dada movement.Their earliest performances...
, and Heaven 17
Heaven 17
Heaven 17 are an English synthpop band originating from Sheffield in the early 1980s. The trio comprises Martyn Ware , Ian Craig Marsh and Glenn Gregory...
. He described the first
Yo! Bum Rush the Show
* Q magazine - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...a stunning opening...just the first, in retrospect almost shy, step on a remarkable journey...a hard, droning extension of the basic drum`n'scratch Def Jam template that had served LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys so well."* Melody Maker - Recommended - "It...
Public Enemy album as the record that probably changed his life, and commented that "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" was one of the most amazing tracks he had ever heard. Rowlands also started collecting hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
records by artists like Eric B and Schoolly D
Schoolly D
Jesse B. Weaver Jr. , better known by the stage name Schoolly D, is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.- Career :...
. Rowlands left school with similar accomplishments to Simons', achieving nine O levels and three A levels. For university, he followed Simons to Manchester primarily to immerse himself in its music scene in general and the Haçienda in particular.
Rowlands was also in a band called Ariel prior to meeting up with Simons. Ariel was formed in London by Rowlands and his friends Brendan Melck and Matt Berry. Their first single was "Sea of Beats", which was essentially a white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
. Before Philip Brown set up Echo Logik Records, their first promo was "Bokadilo". Other songs, released on 12", included "Mustn't Grumble" and their most well-known, "Rollercoaster". After a year on Echo Logik they signed to the record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
deConstruction
Deconstruction Records
Deconstruction Records is a record label founded in 1987 by Pete Hadfield and Keith Blackhurst in the United Kingdom. Distribution was via label deals with Parlophone Records, for acts such as K-Klass and Bassheads), and RCA Records for everybody else....
. They insisted that they get a female singer and they recruited former Xpansions frontwoman Sally Ann Marsh
Sally Ann Marsh
Sally Ann Marsh is a British singer and actress who came to fame originally as a member of a short lived girlband with Diana Barrand and Dani Behr called Faith Hope & Charity, .-Performing career:...
, and after some disappointing songs like "Let It Slide" (Rowlands would later describe it as "a stinker") the band fell apart. One of the last things Ariel did was the song "T Baby" which was remixed by the pair.
Rowlands and Simons then started to DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
at a club called "Naked Under Leather" in the back of a pub in 1992 under the alias of "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). The pair would play hip hop, techno, and house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
.
The Dust Brothers (1992–1994)
Rowlands and Simons called themselves The Dust Brothers, after the US production duoDust Brothers
The Dust Brothers are the Los Angeles, California based, Grammy Award winning producers, E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo , famous for their sample-based music in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on the albums Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Odelay by Beck, and the soundtrack to...
famous for their work with the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
. After a while, they began to run out of suitable instrumental hip hop tracks to use, so they started to make their own. Using a Hitachi
Hitachi, Ltd.
is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...
hi-fi system, a computer, a sampler, and a keyboard, they recorded "Song to the Siren", which sampled This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil
This Mortal Coil was a gothic dream pop supergroup led by Ivo Watts-Russell, founder of the British record label 4AD. Although Watts-Russell and John Fryer were technically the only two official members, the band's recorded output featured a large rotating cast of supporting artists, many of whom...
. "Song to the Siren" was released on their own record label, called "Diamond Records" (after Ed's nickname). In October 1992, they pressed 500 white label copies and took them to various dance record shops around London, but none would play it, saying that it was too slow (the track played at 111 BPM). They sent a copy to London DJ Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall
Andrew Weatherall is a DJ, producer, and remixer.Andrew, Terry Farley, Cymon Eckel and Steve Mayes started Boy's Own initially as a fanzine commenting on fashion, records, football, and other issues...
, who made it a permanent fixture in his DJ sets. Weatherall also signed the band to his Junior Boy's Own
Junior Boy's Own
Junior Boy's Own is a London, UK-based record labelTerry Farley joined Andrew Weatherall, Cymon Eckel, Pete Heller and Steven Hall to form Boy's Own Recordings , then in 1992 Terry Farley and Steven Hall began Junior Recordings Ltd., which started to use the label Junior Boy's Own. The label is...
label. In May 1993, Junior Boy's Own released "Song to the Siren".
Around June 1993, the Dust Brothers did their first remixes. The first was "Packet of Peace" for Justin Robertson's Lionrock
Lionrock
Lionrock was a British big beat group, comprising record producer Justin Robertson, MC Buzz B, and Roger Lyons. Lyons replaced recording engineer Mark Stagg in 1995...
outfit, followed by tracks for Leftfield
Leftfield
Leftfield are a British duo of electronica artists and record producers, namely Paul Daley and Neil Barnes, who formed in 1990 in London, England...
, Republica
Republica
Republica are an English alternative rock band formed in 1994. The height of their popularity spanned from 1996 to 1999. The Republica sound was described by the band as "techno-pop punk rock"...
, and The Sandals
The Sandals
The Sandals, also known as The Sandells, were an early, influential surf rock band formed in 1964. They are most famous for scoring the surfing documentary The Endless Summer.-History:...
. Late in 1993, The Dust Brothers completed work on their Fourteenth Century Sky
Fourteenth Century Sky
Fourteenth Century Sky is an EP by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, their second release under the name The Dust Brothers. The EP contains "Chemical Beats" and "One Too Many Mornings", later released on the Brothers' debut album Exit Planet Dust."One Too Many Mornings" found fame in 2001...
EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, released in January 1994. It contained the ground-breaking "Chemical Beats", which epitomized the duo's genre-defining big beat
Big beat
Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...
sound, later taken up by Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...
and many more. The EP also contained "One Too Many Mornings", which for the first time showed the less intense, more chilled-out side of The Dust Brothers. Both "One Too Many Mornings" and "Chemical Beats" would later appear on their debut album. Fourteenth Century Sky was followed later in 1993 by the My Mercury Mouth EP
My Mercury Mouth EP
My Mercury Mouth E.P is an EP by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, and their final release under the name The Dust Brothers. The EP contains two new songs, "My Mercury Mouth" and "Dust-Up-Beats", as well as the B-side "If You Kling To Me I'll Klong You", later released on the Japan "Leave...
. "Chemical Beats" was also part of the soundtrack for the first edition of the Wipeout games series, having been featured in Wipeout for the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
in 1995.
In October 1994, The Dust Brothers became resident DJs at the small, but hugely influential Heavenly Sunday Social Club at the Albany pub in London's Great Portland Street
Great Portland Street
Great Portland Street is a street in the West End of London. Linking Oxford Street with Albany Street and the busy A501 Marylebone Road and Euston Road, the road forms the boundary between Fitzrovia to the east and Marylebone to the west...
. The likes of Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
, Paul Weller, James Dean Bradfield
James Dean Bradfield
James Dean Bradfield is the lead guitarist and vocalist for the Welsh rock band Manic Street Preachers.- Early life :...
, and Tim Burgess were regular visitors. The Dust Brothers were subsequently asked to remix tracks by Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers
Manic Street Preachers are a Welsh alternative rock band, formed in 1986. They are James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards and Sean Moore. The band are part of the Cardiff music scene, and were at their most prominent during the 1990s...
and The Charlatans
The Charlatans (British band)
The Charlatans are an English alternative rock band. The band's line-up currently comprises Tim Burgess , Mark Collins , Martin Blunt , Tony Rogers and Jon Brookes .Former members of the band include guitarist Jon Day , vocalist Baz Ketley...
, plus Primal Scream
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
's "Jailbird" and The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
's "Voodoo People". These two remixes received television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
exposure, being playlisted by MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
Europe's "The Party Zone" in 1995. Early in 1994, The Dust Brothers were approached in the club one Sunday by Noel Gallagher, from Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
, who at the time were becoming one of the most prominent guitar bands in Britain. Gallagher told the duo that he had a Balearic
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
-inspired track which he had written and would like the Dust Brothers to remix. However, over time, Gallagher changed his mind, and in the end the Brothers did not remix it. The track was "Wonderwall
Wonderwall (song)
"Wonderwall" is a song by English rock band Oasis, written by the band's guitarist and main songwriter Noel Gallagher. The song was produced by Owen Morris and Gallagher for their second album, Morning Glory?...
".
In March 1995, The Dust Brothers began their first international tour, which included the United States – where they played with Orbital
Orbital (band)
Orbital are a British electronic dance music duo from Sevenoaks, England consisting of brothers Phil and Paul Hartnoll. Their career initially ran from 1989 until 2004, but in 2009 they announced that they would be reforming and headlining The Big Chill, in addition to a number of other live shows...
and Underworld
Underworld (band)
Underworld are a British electronic group, and principal name under which duo Karl Hyde and Rick Smith have recorded together since 1980.- Early years: 1979–1986 :...
– then a series of European festivals. Also around this time, the original Dust Brothers
Dust Brothers
The Dust Brothers are the Los Angeles, California based, Grammy Award winning producers, E.Z. Mike and King Gizmo , famous for their sample-based music in the 1980s and 1990s, and specifically for their work on the albums Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys, Odelay by Beck, and the soundtrack to...
threatened legal action over the use of their name, and so Rowlands and Simons had to decide on a new name quickly. They decided to then call themselves "The Chemical Brothers" after "Chemical Beats" (Simons' grandmother had suggested they call themselves "The Grit Brothers").
In June 1995, they released their fourth single, the first under their new identity. "Leave Home" was released on Junior Boy's Own, as a preview of the imminent debut album and became the band's first chart hit, peaking at No. 17. It stayed at number 17 for 8 weeks, the most weeks a record has stayed at the same place in the charts (apart from Number 1's).
Exit Planet Dust (1995–1996)
In July 1995, The Chemical Brothers released their debut album Exit Planet DustExit Planet Dust
Exit Planet Dust is the debut album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, released in the UK on 26 June 26 1995 and the US on 15 August 1995. The title is a reference to their departure from their earlier name "The Dust Brothers"....
(the title inspired by their name change) on Freestyle Dust/Junior Boy's Own. It entered the UK charts at No. 9 and featured guest vocalist Beth Orton
Beth Orton
Beth Orton is a BRIT Award–winning English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers in the mid 1990s. However, these were not Orton's first...
on the song "Alive Alone". It eventually went on to sell over a million copies worldwide, and was used on the soundtrack of the science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
TV series pilot Virtuality
Virtuality (TV series)
Virtuality is a television pilot co-written by Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor and directed by Peter Berg that aired on the Fox network. Since the show was never picked up as a television series, the two-hour pilot episode aired as a movie on June 26, 2009.- Plot :The story is set aboard the...
. Shortly after its release, The Chemical Brothers signed to Virgin Records
Virgin Records
Virgin Records is a British record label founded by English entrepreneur Richard Branson, Simon Draper, and Nik Powell in 1972. The company grew to be a worldwide music phenomenon, with platinum performers such as Roy Orbison, Devo, Genesis, Keith Richards, Janet Jackson, Culture Club, Lenny...
, to which they took their own offshoot label, Freestyle Dust. For their next single, "Life Is Sweet
Life Is Sweet (song)
"Life Is Sweet" is a song by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released as the second single from their debut album, Exit Planet Dust. It features Tim Burgess from The Charlatans on vocals...
", released in September 1995, they again used a guest vocalist, featuring their friend Tim Burgess, singer of The Charlatans. It reached No. 25 in the singles charts. The single was also Select magazine's "Single of the Month" for October. The release included a Daft Punk
Daft Punk
Daft Punk are an electronic music duo consisting of French musicians Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter . Daft Punk reached significant popularity in the late 1990s house movement in France and met with continued success in the years following, combining elements of house with synthpop...
remix of "Life Is Sweet".
In August 1995, The Chemical Brothers DJ'ed for Oasis at a Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
gig. The gig began to backfire when it became apparent that Liam Gallagher
Liam Gallagher
William John Paul "Liam" Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, the former frontman of the English rock band Oasis and currently of the band Beady Eye. Gallagher's erratic behaviour, distinctive singing style, and abrasive attitude have been the subject of commentary in the press...
didn't seem to like any of the tracks they were spinning. The closest that they could come to pleasing him was the Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays
Happy Mondays are an English alternative rock band from Salford, Greater Manchester. Formed in 1980, the band's original line-up was Shaun Ryder on lead vocals, his brother Paul Ryder on bass, lead guitarist Mark Day, keyboardist Paul Davis, and drummer Gary Whelan...
' "Wrote for Luck". Gallagher proceeded to kick The Chemical Brothers off the turntables and procured a friend from The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
to continue to DJ. He subsequently favoured psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
material to the displeasure of the crowd.
Around this period, The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses
The Stone Roses are an English alternative rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s...
asked the Chemical Brothers to remix "Begging You", from their Second Coming
Second Coming (album)
Second Coming is the second studio album by The Stone Roses, released through Geffen Records on 5 December 1994 in the UK and in early 1995 in the US. It was recorded at Forge Studios in Oswestry, Shropshire and Rockfield Studios near Monmouth in Wales between 1992 and 1994...
album. After beginning work on a remix which they viewed as having potential, The Stone Roses changed their minds and the project was cancelled.
In October 1995, the duo returned to the Heavenly Sunday Social for a second and final run of DJ dates. They then became residents at the Heavenly Social on Saturdays at Turnmills. In November, The Chemical Brothers played the Astoria Theatre in London. At this time the Brothers usually used a fusion of "Chemical Beats" and The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Tomorrow Never Knows" as their encore. During the encore, however, Keith Flint
Keith Flint
Keith Charles Flint is a dancer and vocalist of the British Electronica band The Prodigy.- Early life :Flint was born in Redbridge, London, England, to Clive & Yvonne Flint and initially raised in East London; in the mid-1970s his parents moved out to Springfield, Essex, but due to his parents'...
from The Prodigy
The Prodigy
The Prodigy are an English electronic dance music group formed by Liam Howlett in 1990 in Braintree, Essex. Along with Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, and other acts, The Prodigy have been credited as pioneers of the big beat genre, which achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s and 2000s...
jumped up on stage to dance, wearing a T-shirt sporting the slogan "Occupation: mad bastard". A few from the crowd subsequently joined in. This resulted in a power cable being kicked loose, bringing the show to a temporary close. The Chemical Brothers confessed to not being too bothered; "because he's Keith from the Prodigy, and he can do whatever the fucking hell he likes". Just before Christmas, 1995, they played their biggest gig to date, with The Prodigy, at the Brixton Academy.
In January 1996, Exit Planet Dust went gold. The Chemical Brothers released their first new material in six months on Virgin, the Loops of Fury EP. The four-track release was limited to 20,000 copies, but is now available for digital download. It entered the UK charts at No. 13. NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
described the lead track as "splashing waves of synths across hard-hitting beats". The EP also contained a Dave Clarke remix of "Chemical Beats", and two other new tracks, "Get Up on It Like This" and "(The Best Part Of) Breaking Up".
In February 1996, Select magazine published a list of the 100 best albums of the 1990s thus far. Exit Planet Dust was listed at Number 39. In August 1996, The Chemical Brothers supported Oasis at Knebworth
Concerts at Knebworth House
The grounds of Knebworth House near the village of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England has become a major venue for open air rock and pop concerts since 1974 when The Allman Brothers Band attracted 60,000 at the first large concert held at the venue....
, where 125,000 people attended each of the two shows.
During the 1995 Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, Rowlands and Simons had another conversation with Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
. Gallagher told them how much he liked Exit Planet Dust, and asked if he could sing on a future track, similar to the way Tim Burgess had worked on "Life Is Sweet". They didn't think much of the offer at the time, given how busy Gallagher would be with the release of Oasis' (What's the Story) Morning Glory?
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?
Morning Glory? is the second studio album by the English rock band Oasis. It was released on 2 October 1995 through Creation Records. The album was Oasis' most enduring commercial success, charting at number one in the UK and number four in the U.S...
, plus the complexities of dealing with each others' record companies. However, the duo later worked on a track which they thought would benefit from having a vocal on it. They sent Gallagher a tape of what they had done so far. He worked on it overnight, and left a message with them early the next morning that he was ready to record it. The track was called "Setting Sun
Setting Sun
"Setting Sun" is a song by The Chemical Brothers, released as a single in 1996 from their second album Dig Your Own Hole. With vocals by Noel Gallagher, it reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart and number 80 on the US Billboard Hot 100, their highest position there so far. The song sampled The...
" and was finally released in October 1996. It entered the UK charts at the top, giving the duo their first ever Number One single. "Setting Sun" was backed by a longer instrumental version, and also a new track "Buzz Tracks", which was not much more than a DJ tool. The three remaining members of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' lawyers later wrote to The Chemical Brothers, mistakenly claiming that they had sampled "Tomorrow Never Knows
Tomorrow Never Knows
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is the final track of The Beatles' 1966 studio album Revolver but the first to be recorded. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon...
". Virgin Records hired a musicologist to prove that they did not sample the classic 1960s psychedelic
Psychedelic music
Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...
song.
Meanwhile, in 1996, Live at the Social Volume 1
Live at the Social Volume 1
Live at the Social Volume 1 is a mix album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released in the UK in May 1996 as its only release...
was released by Heavenly Records
Heavenly Records
Heavenly Records, aka Heavenly Recordings, is a London-based record label, distributed by EMI. Founded by Jeff Barrett, a former press officer for Creation Records and many successful indie bands of the time including Happy Mondays, Heavenly Recordings' first releases were 7" and 12" singles for...
, which became The Chemical Brothers' first mix CD (excluding Xmas Dust Up, a free album that came in a 1994 issue of NME). It was also the duo's first and only live album (excluding the EP Live 05
Live 05
Live 05 is a digital-only EP by The Chemical Brothers released in 2005. It contains live tracks recorded during the band's 2005 tour, promoting their album, Push the Button.-External links:***...
).
Dig Your Own Hole (1997–1998)
In March 1997, the Brothers released the second track from their forthcoming album, to give the world a further taste of what to expect. "Block Rockin' BeatsBlock Rockin' Beats
"Block Rockin' Beats" is a song by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers. It was released as the second single from their second album, Dig Your Own Hole, in March 1997. It reached number 1 on the UK Singles Chart, and number 40 on the American Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart...
" went straight to No. 1 in the UK, possibly thanks, this time, to its Schoolly D
Schoolly D
Jesse B. Weaver Jr. , better known by the stage name Schoolly D, is an American rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.- Career :...
vocal sample and re-working of the bassline from 23 Skidoo's single "Coup". The NME named it "Single of the Week" and said "It throbs like your head might if you had just done a length underwater in a swimming pool full of amyl
Alkyl nitrites
Alkyl nitrites are a group of chemical compounds based upon the molecular structure R-ONO. Formally they are alkyl esters of nitrous acid. They are distinct from nitro compounds ....
." It later won them a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
In the US at this time, "Setting Sun" was sitting at Number 80 in the Billboard Top 100, after selling around 80,000 copies, an uncommon achievement for a European "dance" act. Sales from Exit Planet Dust were also around 150,000.
On 7 April 1997 The Chemical Brothers released their second album, Dig Your Own Hole
Dig Your Own Hole
Dig Your Own Hole is the second studio album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 7 April 1997. It features Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Beth Orton as guest vocalists...
. It was recorded at the band's own south London studio, with the title taken from graffiti on the wall outside. The album was well received, with Mixmag rating it 10/10 and calling it "mad enough to be thrilling, slick enough for not even remotely trendy coffee tables".
During the summer of 1997, the Brothers toured extensively, particularly in the United States. They also became residents at Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
's Liquid Rooms. In August, The Chemical Brothers achieved rapprochement with the US Dust Brothers, and asked them to remix the forthcoming single "Elektrobank
Elektrobank
"Elektrobank" is a song by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers. It was released as a single from their second album, Dig Your Own Hole, on September 1997. It peaked at number 17 on the UK Singles Chart. Spike Jonze directed the music video, which depicted a rhythmic gymnastics competition...
". They themselves also became highly sought-after for remixes for other artists. Metallica
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California. Formed in 1981 when James Hetfield responded to an advertisement that drummer Lars Ulrich had posted in a local newspaper. The current line-up features long-time lead guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo ...
asked the Brothers several times to remix "Enter Sandman", but were repeatedly turned down. In September, the next single from Dig Your Own Hole, "Elektrobank" was released. In November, the pair played at Dublin's Point Theatre, with support from Carl Cox
Carl Cox
Carl Cox is a British techno and house music DJ.-Biography:Cox grew up in Oldham, Lancashire, before attending Glastonbury High Boys secondary modern school on Glastonbury Road in Morden. Cox began his career as a hardcore and rave DJ in the mid 1980s...
. They also began a US tour in Detroit.
At the end of the year, Dig Your Own Hole
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, also known as simply Lowlands, is a music festival, held annually in the Netherlands in August. Lowlands has about 55,000 visitors, over 200 acts and more than ten stages every year which are named according to the NATO phonetic alphabet apart from the Grolsch...
, Netherlands on 24 August 1997. Also in December, following four sold-out US shows, The Chemical Brothers toured the UK, finishing with a sold-out gig at London's Brixton Academy.
In 1998, they concentrated more on DJ'ing, although some remixes did see the light of day, including "I Think I'm in Love" from Spiritualized
Spiritualized
Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3...
. Both a vocal remix and an instrumental remix were included in the single release. Each came in at over seven-and-a-half minutes. Another remix completed by the Brothers was "Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp" by Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is an American alternative rock group, that formed in the late 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker , Jonathan Donahue , Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a...
. This was another extension in the association between the two bands, since Mercury Rev's Jonathon Donahue contributed to "The Private Psychedelic Reel" on Dig Your Own Hole.
In September 1998, a second mix album, Brothers Gonna Work It Out, was released. It contains some of their own tracks and remixes, as well as songs from artists who have influenced their sound, such as Renegade Soundwave
Renegade Soundwave
Renegade Soundwave was an electronic music group. Formed in London in 1986, the group originally consisted of Gary Asquith, Carl Bonnie and Danny Briottet.-History:...
, Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto
Meat Beat Manifesto, often shortened to Meat Beat or MBM, is an electronic music group originally consisting of Jack Dangers and Jonny Stephens formed in 1987 in Swindon, UK...
, Carlos "After Dark" Berrios, and Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales
Kenny 'Dope' Gonzales
Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez is an American dance musician. He is also one half of the Masters at Work musical production team with Little Louie Vega....
.
In May 1999, The Chemical Brothers played three UK dates in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Sheffield
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
and Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, their first since December 1997. Also that month, they released their first new original material in two years, a track called "Hey Boy, Hey Girl". This was more house
House music
House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago, Illinois, United States in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in mid-1980s discothèques catering to the African-American, Latino American, and gay communities; first in Chicago circa 1984, then in other...
-influenced than hip hop. In interviews at the time, Rowlands and Simons indicated that the track was inspired by nights out at Sheffield club Gatecrasher. The track was also one of their more commercially accessible tracks and went to number 3 in the UK charts.
Surrender (1999)
The third album, SurrenderSurrender (The Chemical Brothers album)
Surrender is the third studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 21 June 1999. It features Noel Gallagher , Hope Sandoval , and Bernard Sumner as guest vocalists...
, was released in June 1999. It featured vocals from Noel Gallagher, Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue
Jonathan Donahue
Jonathan Daniel Donahue is an American rock musician. He has been an integral member of two of North America's more influential indie/experimental bands of the 1990s; The Flaming Lips and Mercury Rev....
, and Mazzy Star's
Mazzy Star
Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica, California, in 1989 from the group Opal, a collaboration of guitarist David Roback and bassist Kendra Smith...
Hope Sandoval
Hope Sandoval
Hope Sandoval is an American singer-songwriter who is the lead singer for Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions....
. As "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" had suggested, the album was more house-oriented than the previous two. On one of the album's stand out tracks, "Out of Control", New Order's
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner , also known as Bernard Dickin, Bernard Dicken and Bernard Albrecht is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and producer....
supported by Primal Scream's
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish alternative rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie and Jim Beattie and now based in London. The current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes , Martin Duffy , and Darrin Mooney...
Bobby Gillespie
Bobby Gillespie
Robert Bernard Andrew "Bobby" Gillespie is a Scottish musician. He is the lead singer and founding member of the alternative rock band, Primal Scream. He was also the drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain in the mid-1980s.- Early life :Born and raised in the south side district of Mount Florida in...
provided vocals. It reached No. 1 in the UK album charts, and was widely praised in the print media. The Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
-directed music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Let Forever Be", which utilized ground-breaking video and film effects in its depiction of a young woman's nightmares, also received a lot of attention.
Later that summer, The Brothers headlined the Glastonbury
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
dance tent on the Friday night, followed by a UK tour which ended in December and included Homelands
Homelands
Homelands was a British music festival which consisted mainly of Dance music, both live acts and famous DJs. The event was held at Cheesefoot Head near Winchester, Hampshire, and was one of the most popular British festivals of this genre. It was run by Live Nation UK.A Scottish edition of the...
Scotland on 4 September. In November, "Out of Control", featuring Sumner and Gillespie on vocals, was released as a single. The release also contained the Sasha
Sasha (DJ)
Sasha is a Welsh DJ and record producer. Sasha began his career playing acid house dance music in the late 1980s...
remix. The final single from Surrender, in February 2000, was the five track "Music: Response" EP, containing the title track and two remixes, plus Electronic Battle Weapon 4
Electronic Battle Weapon
"Electronic Battle Weapon" is a series of singles by The Chemical Brothers made for DJs to play in clubs. The songs have been used as tracks in several albums as well as b-sides of other singles.-Singles:...
, named "Freak of the Week", and a track called "Enjoyed", which was essentially a remix of "Out of Control" by the Brothers themselves.
A CD copy of Surrender was placed in the third Blue Peter
Blue Peter
Blue Peter is the world's longest-running children's television show, having first aired in 1958. It is shown on CBBC, both in its BBC One programming block and on the CBBC channel. During its history there have been many presenters, often consisting of two women and two men at a time...
time capsule
Time capsule
A time capsule is an historic cache of goods or information, usually intended as a method of communication with future people and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians...
, buried in January 2000. That same month, they appeared on Primal Scream's album Xtrmntr
XTRMNTR
XTRMNTR is a 2000 album by Primal Scream. In a departure from Primal Scream's earlier hedonistic recordings, the band took a more political stance, attacking government, police, and multinational corporations...
at track 11 with a remix.
Come with Us (2000–2003)
In June 2000, Tom and Ed played the Pyramid stage at the Glastonbury Festival pulling in the largest audience ever seen in the Festival's history. In August 2000 they played to a large crowd at the main stage at Creamfields festival, IrelandRepublic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. In December 2000, The Chemical Brothers aired one of their new tracks, "It Began in Afrika" at their New York DJ gigs, supporting U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
.
In 2001, they were quite active with releases and live performances. Early in the year, they began working on a fourth album, provisionally titled Chemical Four. The first track which fans got a taste of was "It Began in Afrika", as previously played in their DJ set in New York. The track would make its live debut in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in April 2001, at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
. Another new track, "Galaxy Bounce", also got its public debut at Coachella. As had become customary for their releases and experiments, "It Began in Afrika" was first pressed as a promo, as part of the "Electronic Battle Weapon
Electronic Battle Weapon
"Electronic Battle Weapon" is a series of singles by The Chemical Brothers made for DJs to play in clubs. The songs have been used as tracks in several albums as well as b-sides of other singles.-Singles:...
" series. It received much airplay on dance music radio shows in the UK, and became more and more popular in clubs over the course of the summer. It also became one of the "anthems" in Ibiza
Ibiza
Ibiza or Eivissa is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea 79 km off the coast of the city of Valencia in Spain. It is the third largest of the Balearic Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. With Formentera, it is one of the two Pine Islands or Pityuses. Its largest cities are Ibiza...
as the summer progressed. It was given a full commercial single release in September, reaching No. 8 in the UK singles chart, even though no promotional video was made for the track.
Rowlands and Simons also remixed a track from Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...
's Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars
Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars is the third studio album by British big beat artist Fatboy Slim, released in 2000. It features Macy Gray, Ashley Slater, Bootsy Collins, Roland Clark, Jim Morrison, and Roger Sanchez as guest contributors...
, entitled "Song for Shelter". This remix was released as a single on 3 September 2001 (one week before "It Began in Afrika") as the CD2 single for "Song for Shelter / Ya Mama
Song for Shelter / Ya Mama
"Song for Shelter" / "Ya Mama" is a song by British big beat musician Fatboy Slim, released as a double A-side single in September 2001. Both songs are on his 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars and "Ya Mama" is on the Charlie's Angels soundtrack and film. The single peaked at No...
". It reached No. 30 in the UK Singles Charts (sales were combined with the CD1 single).
The Chemical Brothers finished work on another album, Come with Us
Come with Us
Come with Us is the fourth studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 28 January 2002. It features Richard Ashcroft and Beth Orton as guest vocalists. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart...
, in October 2001. It featured collaborations with Richard Ashcroft
Richard Ashcroft
Richard Paul Ashcroft is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer and occasional guitarist of alternative rock band The Verve from their formation in 1990 until their split in 1999, and continues as a lead vocalist working with guitars and keyboards...
of The Verve
The Verve
The Verve were an English rock band formed in 1989 in Wigan by lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft, guitarist Nick McCabe, bassist Simon Jones, and drummer Peter Salisbury. Guitarist and keyboardist Simon Tong later became a member. Beginning with a psychedelic sound indebted to shoegazing and space...
("The Test"), and long-time collaborator Beth Orton
Beth Orton
Beth Orton is a BRIT Award–winning English singer-songwriter, known for her 'folktronica' sound, which mixes elements of folk and electronica. She was initially recognised for her collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers in the mid 1990s. However, these were not Orton's first...
("The State We're In"). The album was released in January 2002, preceded by a single, "Star Guitar", a melodic Balearic beat
Balearic Beat
Balearic Beat or either Balearic House and Balearic Trance is an eclectic blend of DJed dance music that originally emerged in the mid-1980s. It later became the name of a more specific style of electronic dance music that was popular into the mid-1990s...
number, with a promotional video by Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry is an Academy Award winning filmmaker, whose works include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène. - Life and career :...
that featured passing scenery synchronized to the beat viewed through a train window. What would be the second track on the album, "It Began in Afrika", was released 10 September 2001 to be circulated around the clubbing scene where it was a popular hit. "Star Guitar" was also released as a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
single, the pair's first.
The album, Come with Us, was less well received than their previous albums, but nonetheless went straight to No. 1 in the UK album charts in the first week of its release, selling 100,000 copies. In April, the title track from the album was released as a single with remixes by Fatboy Slim
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook better known by his former stage name Fatboy Slim, is a British DJ, electronic dance music musician, and record producer. He is a pioneer of the big beat genre that achieved mainstream popularity in the 1990s...
as part of a double-A sided release with "The Test".
During the summer of 2002, The Chemical Brothers traveled the festival circuit to promote the album. Later in 2002, they released two EPs, one specifically aimed at Japan and the other the US (entitled AmericanEP
AmericanEP
AmericanEP is an EP by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released in 2002 following the release of their successful fourth studio album Come with Us.- Track listing :# "Star Guitar " – 7:06...
). Both contained remixes, live versions and B-sides. Additionally, the band produced New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
's final non-album single "Here to Stay
Here to Stay (New Order song)
"Here to Stay" is a song by New Order, produced by The Chemical Brothers, which was released as a single in 2002. Unavailable on any album, it was available both as a single and as a track on their compilation International...
", and remixed the song as well.
One of their other major songs from this album was "Galaxy Bounce", which was popular and featured as the main title music for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
game Project Gotham Racing
Project Gotham Racing
Project Gotham Racing is a racing game, the first in its series, developed by Bizarre Creations and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox gaming console, and released on 9th November 2001 in North America, and 14th March 2002 in Europe.The first title in the franchise, Project Gotham...
. It was also included on the soundtrack for the movie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider is a 2001 adventure thriller film adapted from the Tomb Raider video game series. Directed by Simon West and starring Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, it was released in U.S. theaters on June 15, 2001. The film was a commercial success...
. "Star Guitar" was featured as a song on the PSP
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
's Lumines II
Lumines II
Lumines II is a sequel to the puzzle game Lumines. The game was released in November, 2006 in Europe and North America, and in February 2007 in Japan.-Gameplay:The gameplay in Lumines II is very similar to its predecessor, Lumines...
.
Two other songs, "Come with Us (Introduction)" and "Star Guitar (Title Screen)", were featured on a PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
racing game titled WRC II: Extreme. Both songs are instrumental.
The Song My Elastic Eye from the Come with Us album was played in the 2004 movie The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect
The Butterfly Effect is a 2004 American sci-fi psychological thriller film that is written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber and starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart...
starring Ashton Kutcher
Ashton Kutcher
Christopher Ashton Kutcher , best known as Ashton Kutcher, is an American actor, producer, former fashion model and comedian, best known for his portrayal of Michael Kelso in the Fox sitcom That '70s Show...
and Amy Smart
Amy Smart
Amy Lysle Smart is an American television and film actress and former fashion model.-Early life:Smart was born in Topanga, California. Her mother, Judy Lysle , worked at a museum, and her father, John Boden Smart, was a salesman...
.
Late 2002 and early 2003 saw Rowlands and Simons back in the studio working on new material, including "The Golden Path", a collaboration with Wayne Coyne
Wayne Coyne
Wayne Michael Coyne is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
, the lead singer of The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
. This was released in September 2003, at the same time as a "best of" album, entitled Singles 93–03, marking ten years of The Chemical Brothers' releases. Singles 93–03 included most, but not all, of their singles. A second new track, in addition to "The Golden Path", was included on the album, called "Get Yourself High". Singles 93–03 was also released on DVD, with extra features including selected live performances and interviews with Rowlands, Simons, and many of their collaborators from throughout the period. "Get Yourself High", which featured Canadian rapper k-os
K-os
Kevin Brereton , better known by his stage name k-os , is a Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter and record producer...
on vocals, was released as a single in November 2003.
In late 2003 and 2004, The Chemical Brothers continued to work in the studio on new material and a remix of "Slow
Slow (song)
-Charts:-Year-End charts:-Chart procession and succession:-Release history:...
" by Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
. After being released on rare white label vinyl, it was subsequently given a commercial release in March on CD (on her next single "Red Blooded Woman") and on exclusive 12" vinyl picture disc (containing two other Kylie remixes). In Summer 2004 they returned to the festival circuit, including appearances at the Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, Tokyo, Scotland, and Ireland. They also visited South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
for the second time (the first time being in 1999), arriving at Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, and Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
. It was during these sets that they played new material, including "Acid Children", which proved to be one of the most popular new tracks.
In September 2004, The Chemical Brothers released the seventh "Electronic Battle Weapon". "Electronic Battle Weapon 7" was being released as a one-sided promo-only 12", containing "Acid Children". A marked departure from the Chemical Brothers' previous musical endeavours, it featured a screeching 303
303
Year 303 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valerius and Valerius...
bassline and a distinctive vocal sample; a pitch-altered vocal sample proclaiming "You Are All My Children Now!", which is lifted from the horror film A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge
A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge is a 1985 American slasher film and the second film in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series. The film was directed by Jack Sholder and stars Mark Patton, Kim Myers, Robert Rusler and Robert Englund as Freddy Krueger. Despite the film's title,...
. It was coupled with the projection of a sinister clown mouthing these same words at their live gigs.
The Electronic Battle Weapon series of promo releases have typically been newly recorded Chemical Brothers tracks, released on promo to allow DJs to test them in a club environment, and to gauge their popularity.
Push the Button (2004–2006)
In 2004, The Chemical Brothers began work on Push the Button, their fifth studio album, which features collaborations with Tim Burgess, Kele OkerekeKele Okereke
Kelechukwu "Kele" Rowland Okereke is a British musician, best known as the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the indie rock band Bloc Party.-Early life:...
, and Anwar Superstar
Anwar Superstar
Anwar Superstar, born Anwar Khalil Prescott, is an American hip hop artist. He began rapping at the age of 14 on the streets of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Anwar has battled MCs from across the US and abroad....
, amongst others. The album was released on 24 January 2005.
"Galvanize
Galvanize (song)
"Galvanize" is a song by British electronic duo The Chemical Brothers and the first single released from their 2005 album Push the Button. It was released a week before the album's release and peaked at No. 3 in the UK charts . It won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording in February 2006...
", which features rapper Q-Tip
Q-Tip (rapper)
Kamaal Ibn John Fareed , better known by his stage name Q-Tip, is an American hip hop artist, producer, singer, and actor from St. Albans, Queens, New York, part of the critically acclaimed group A Tribe Called Quest...
on vocals, was the first single to be taken from Push the Button, and premiered exclusively on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
. The single was released on 17 January 2005, and entered the UK chart at No. 3. The second single, "Believe
Believe (Chemical Brothers song)
"Believe" was the second single from The Chemical Brothers 2005 album Push the Button. The single was released in early May 2005 and peaked at #18 in the UK charts . The song features Bloc Party's Kele Okereke on vocals...
" (featuring Kele Okereke from Bloc Party
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are a British Indie rock band, composed of Kele Okereke , Russell Lissack , Gordon Moakes , and Matt Tong...
), failed to crack the top 10, but still made it into the top 20, peaking at No. 18. "The Boxer", featuring Tim Burgess, became the duo's first single to fail to crack the top 40.
The album and single "Galvanize" won a Grammy at the Grammy Awards of 2006
Grammy Awards of 2006
The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Irish rock band U2 were the big winners, winning five awards including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey, John Legend, and Kanye West each were nominated for eight awards and won three,...
. One of the songs in this album, "The Big Jump", appears in the video game Burnout Revenge
Burnout Revenge
Burnout Revenge is the fourth video game in the Burnout series of racing games, released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on September 13, 2005 and Xbox 360 on March 7, 2006, alongside the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS title Burnout Legends....
, as well as Project Gotham Racing 3
Project Gotham Racing 3
Project Gotham Racing 3 is an arcade-style racing game that was released with the launch of the Xbox 360 on November 22, 2005 for the US market and December 2, 2005 in Europe, and was released on January 12, 2006 in Japan. Developed by Bizarre Creations, it is the third installment in the Project...
. The track "Surface to Air" features a pulsing chord progression and bassline reminiscent of the intro to the Strokes
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
song "The Modern Age".
An unofficial, remixed version of the album entitled Flip the Switch was released as a free download, along with the Believe EP, featuring six further remixes of "Believe".
In September 2006, The Chemical Brothers were revealed as the first musicians to be involved in Tate Tracks. Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
invited various groups and songwriters to choose a work that inspired them from the gallery's collection of modern art and then write a track about it. The Chemical Brothers' submission, Rock Drill, was inspired by the Jacob Epstein
Jacob Epstein
Sir Jacob Epstein KBE was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the United States, and moved to Europe in 1902, becoming a British citizen in 1911. He often produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter...
sculpture Torso in Metal from The Rock Drill, and can be heard on headphones in front of the work in the gallery. From October 2006, it also became available to hear online at the Tate Tracks website.
We Are the Night (2007–2009)
The Brothers announced in June 2006 on their official web forum that the duo had been working on fresh material, specifically an album, codenamed "Chemical 6". Simons also wrote that the band would be playing select venues in the Summer 2007 season, specifying Rome, and also FabricFabric (club)
Fabric is a nightclub in London, United Kingdom. It was voted number 1 in DJ Magazine's "Top 100 Clubs in the World" poll in 2007 and number 2 in 2008, 2009 and 2010...
in London. Simons is also quoted as saying that the duo are "hoping to put a battle weapon out for the summer", possibly referring to the Electronic Battle Weapon series, the somewhat experimental tracks the band occasionally release on white label
White label
White label records are vinyl records with adhesive plain white labels affixed. Test pressings, usually with Test Pressing written on the label, with catalogue number, artist and recording time or date, are produced in small quantities to evaluate the quality of the disc production...
.
Electronic Battle Weapons 8 & 9 were debuted on Pete Tong
Pete Tong
Peter "Pete" Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for...
's BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
show on 8 December 2006. The double sided vinyl was finally released just before The Chemical Brother's much anticipated New Year's Eve gig at the famous Turnmills
Turnmills
Turnmills was a London nightclub on the corner of Turnmill Street and Clerkenwell Road in the London Borough of Islington. It closed on the morning of 24 March 2008....
in London. The vinyl had a limited edition release worldwide and has been received well by fans, DJs, and critics alike. Electronic Battle Weapon 8, at about six and a half minutes, is very distinct from the "big acid" style that the earlier Battle Weapons adhered to. It is characterised by 'thundering' drums with a rising synth line. A version of this track features on the We Are the Night album and is entitled "Saturate". "Electronic Battle Weapon 9" is a typical Chemicals dancefloor track with their trademark vocoder
Vocoder
A vocoder is an analysis/synthesis system, mostly used for speech. In the encoder, the input is passed through a multiband filter, each band is passed through an envelope follower, and the control signals from the envelope followers are communicated to the decoder...
vocals coupled with sirens and a basic 'tribal' melody.
At the same Turnmills
Turnmills
Turnmills was a London nightclub on the corner of Turnmill Street and Clerkenwell Road in the London Borough of Islington. It closed on the morning of 24 March 2008....
gig, the Brothers also played a previously unreleased song at midnight to welcome 2007, which went down well with the crowd. This track eventually emerged as "Burst Generator", found on the forthcoming album We Are the Night. Many were left wondering if the latest in the Electronic Battle Weapon series were simply one off experiments or signal a new direction they could take with the new album, perhaps swaying from their genre defining big beat
Big beat
Big beat is a term employed since the mid-1990s by the British music press to describe much of the music by artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers, The Crystal Method, and Propellerheads typically driven by heavy breakbeats and synthesizer-generated loops and patterns in...
albums of the past. The song was also the band's 100th released song.
On 21 March 2007, The Chemical Brothers officially announced their forthcoming album on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
. The new album, entitled We Are the Night
We Are the Night
We Are the Night is the sixth studio album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 27 June 2007. The record entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and debuted at number 65 on the Billboard 200...
, was released on 2 July 2007 in the United Kingdom and 17 July 2007 in the United States. The Chemical Brothers cited a delay in the production of artwork for this delay. EMI subsequently released an online Chemical Brothers computer game as an apology. The track listing was released to the fans on the official mailing list on 10 April. The new album is heavily collaborated, with the likes of Klaxons
Klaxons
Klaxons are a British indie rock band, based in London. Following the release of numerous 7-inch singles on different independent record labels, as well as the success of previous singles "Magick" and "Golden Skans", the band released their debut album, Myths of the Near Future on 29 January 2007....
("All Rights Reversed"), Midlake
Midlake
Midlake is an American rock band from Denton, Texas. The band first gained popularity in Europe, signing to Bella Union Records and playing at festivals such as Les Inrockuptibles, Wintercase, End Of The Road Festival and South by Southwest.-History:...
("The Pills Won't Help You Now"), Ali Love
Ali Love
Ali Love is a solo musician who was previously signed to Columbia Records.In 2006 Ali Love released his first two singles, "K-Hole" and "Camera on a Pole" on his own independent label "I Love Records". He rose to the limelight providing vocals for The Chemical Brothers hit, "Do It Again", for...
("Do It Again
Do It Again (The Chemical Brothers song)
"Do It Again" is a song by the English electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers and is the fifth track on their 2007 studio album We Are the Night. The song also features Ali Love and was released as the first single from that album in early June 2007 . It reached its highest chart position in...
"), and Willy Mason
Willy Mason
Willy Mason is an American singer-songwriter.- Early life :He was born in New York, the son of Jemima James and Michael Mason, both folk singers. When Mason was five, he and his family moved from New York to West Tisbury, Massachusetts on the island of Martha's Vineyard...
("Battle Scars").
On 12 April 2007, Pete Tong
Pete Tong
Peter "Pete" Tong is an English DJ who works for BBC Radio 1. He is known worldwide by fans of electronic music for hosting programmes such as Essential Mix and Essential Selection on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio streams, for his record label FFRR Records, and for...
again had the privilege of giving the world the very first preview of a Chemicals track. This time it was the first single "Do It Again" off their new album, aired on his BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
"In New Music We Trust" show.. The official release of the single was 4 June (digital download) and 14 June (12", 7", and CD). The album went on general release in the UK on 2 July 2007.
In September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played a free live gig in Trafalgar Square as part of the Becks Fusions event. All who attended were provided with 3D glasses to view the on-screen visual effects.
In 2008, The Chemical Brothers' music was featured in a movie adaption of Irvine Welsh's
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh is a contemporary Scottish novelist, best known for his novel Trainspotting. His work is characterised by raw Scottish dialect, and brutal depiction of the realities of Edinburgh life...
best-selling novel Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance
Ecstasy: Three Tales of Chemical Romance is a collection of three novellas by Irvine Welsh.-Lorraine Goes To Livingston:After suffering a stroke, Rebecca Navarro, a best-selling romance novelist, discovers the truth about her corrupt, pornography-loving husband...
.
The Chemical Brothers supplied a new track for the Heroes
Heroes (TV series)
Heroes is an American science fiction television drama series created by Tim Kring that appeared on NBC for four seasons from September 25, 2006 through February 8, 2010. The series tells the stories of ordinary people who discover superhuman abilities, and how these abilities take effect in the...
soundtrack, titled "Keep My Composure".
Further and motion picture soundtracks (2010–present)
On 30 March 2010, the band announced on their website that their seventh studio album will be titled FurtherFurther (The Chemical Brothers album)
Further is the seventh studio album by The Chemical Brothers, released on June 14, 2010. The album title and release date were announced on the band's official website on March 30, 2010. All 8 tracks from the album are accompanied by corresponding films, made specifically to match them, by Adam...
and will be released 22 June, adding that it will be "the band's first to be released with corresponding films made specifically to match each of the 8 audio tracks." The films have been made with long-time visuals collaborators Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall. The album has been described as their most "psychedelic and melodic to date". Before the release of the album, the band played four shows in May at the London Roundhouse where they played the album and its accompanying films in its entirety. The films will feature on a special edition DVD and on the iTunes LP edition.
Most reviews have been positive, with BBC Music
BBC Music
BBC Music is a team working in the department of Audio and Music Interactive at the BBC. Responsible for the BBC Music website - the portal site to music content across the BBC website....
declaring that "...synths are brutally manhandled and pushed to their limits across the eight tracks". The Irish Times
The Irish Times
The Irish Times is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Kevin O'Sullivan who succeeded Geraldine Kennedy in 2011; the deputy editor is Paul O'Neill. The Irish Times is considered to be Ireland's newspaper of record, and is published every day except Sundays...
reported that "This is a very impressive collection that is carried along with a stirring sense of velocity and momentum". However, praise hasn't been unanimous for the LP, with the American rock magazine Spin giving it a rating of three out of five stars.
At the New York Comic Con, on 10 October 2010, English film director Joe Wright
Joe Wright
Joe Wright is an English film director best known for Pride and Prejudice, Atonement and Hanna.-Early life and career:...
announced that The Chemical Brothers would be scoring the soundtrack to his upcoming film, Hanna
Hanna (film)
Hanna is a 2011 European-American action thriller film directed by Joe Wright. The film stars actress Saoirse Ronan as the title character with Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett...
. Joe Wright, who had worked with The Chemical Brothers in the past as a member of the visual company Vegetable Vision, expressed his feelings on the score, stating that he was "very excited to finally... work with a more modern beat. There's a lot of bass, it's very loud." The soundtrack was released exclusively on iTunes on 15 March 2011 and on CD on 4 July 2011.
Two weeks after the announcement regarding Hanna, rumors began circulating that The Chemical Brothers had recorded part of the score for the movie Black Swan
Black Swan (film)
Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological thriller film directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel and Mila Kunis. Its plot revolves around a production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet by a prestigious New York City company. The production requires a ballerina to...
, after a post in Ed Simon's Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account. A second post on the Chemical Brothers' own Twitter account seemed to confirm this. On 22 November 2010, a Black Swan music video was released along with the movie trailer. This music video featured a different version of the track "Don't Think
Further (The Chemical Brothers album)
Further is the seventh studio album by The Chemical Brothers, released on June 14, 2010. The album title and release date were announced on the band's official website on March 30, 2010. All 8 tracks from the album are accompanied by corresponding films, made specifically to match them, by Adam...
" and announced that the movie would feature new music from The Chemical Brothers, along with a handful of other artists. The next day, the names of the eight tracks not composed by Clint Mansell
Clint Mansell
Clinton Darryl "Clint" Mansell, is an English musician, composer, and former lead singer and guitarist of the band Pop Will Eat Itself....
– Black Swans main composer – were released, listing The Chemical Brothers as contributing three new songs for the movie. On 29 November, an exclusive video was posted on RollingStone.com
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
, containing more footage of the alternate version of "Don't Think". Mansell's work was released the next day. No announcement has been made yet on whether the original tracks not by Mansell would be given a release or not.
Live
The Chemical Brothers are credited as being one of the few truly arena-sized electronic acts. Their live acts comprise large screens displaying psychedelicPsychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
images, strobe lights, and laser
Laser
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of photons. The term "laser" originated as an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation...
s that project over the crowd. There has been speculation over how much of their live gigs are pre-recorded, although they insist (on their official website FAQ) that they have a mere outline of track order and the rest is mixed live. This would seem to be confirmed by concertgoers who have seen gigs on consecutive nights and have posted notable differences between the sets played.
The Brothers have also played at many major festivals, including Glastonbury
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, Reading, the HFStival
HFStival
The HFStival is an annual Washington, D.C. / Baltimore, Maryland rock festival. Held every summer from 1990 through 2006 by radio station WHFS, and annually since 2010 in commemoration of the now-defunct station's legacy, the HFStival was at its peak the largest yearly music festival on the East...
, and Leeds
Leeds Festival
Leeds Festival may refer to:*Reading and Leeds Festivals , a rock music festival in Leeds , West Yorkshire, England*Leeds Festival , European classical music festival in Leeds...
festival. They currently hold the record for most gigs performed in a year at the Brixton Academy. The brothers have infamously, despite their high status in the mainstream, never appeared on Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops
Top of the Pops, also known as TOTP, is a British music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly from 1 January 1964 to 30 July 2006. After 25 December 2006 it became a radio program, now hosted by Tony Blackburn...
, with the use of music videos to replace the performance, sometimes accompanied by a video apologising for their absence. In 1999, a live US tour video of "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was shown, even though the song was not in the top 40 at the time, and also released other singles before then at the time.
In addition to performing their own music, they also hold regular DJ nights where they mix other artist's tracks (in the style of Brothers Gonna Work It Out).
As with their recorded albums, The Chemical Brothers are well-known for their incorporation of guest vocalists into their live performances. Notable appearances in recent gigs have included Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner
Bernard Sumner , also known as Bernard Dickin, Bernard Dicken and Bernard Albrecht is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, keyboard player and producer....
of New Order
New Order
New Order are an English rock band formed in 1980 by Bernard Sumner , Peter Hook and Stephen Morris...
, who sang on the original "Out of Control", Wayne Coyne
Wayne Coyne
Wayne Michael Coyne is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter for the band The Flaming Lips.-Early life:...
of The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips
The Flaming Lips are an American alternative rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983.Melodically, their sound contains lush, multi-layered, psychedelic rock arrangements, but lyrically their compositions show elements of space rock, including unusual song and album titles—such as "What...
, and Tim Burgess.
The duo also played at the launch event for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
video game console.
On the night of 1 September 2007, The Chemical Brothers played at the main stage of the Electric Picnic
Electric Picnic
The 2005 festival took place on Saturday 3 September and Sunday 4 September. It is best remembered for Arcade Fire's performance which came before their subsequent mainstream success...
to a crowd of around 20,000.
The Chemical Brothers appeared in Los Angeles on 29 September 2007, headlining the 13th Annual Nocturnal Wonderland Festival.
The duo was one of the headliners for Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival
Roskilde Festival is a festival held south of Roskilde in Denmark and is one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe . It was created in 1971 by two high school students, Mogens Sandfær and Jesper Switzer Møller, and promoter Carl Fischer...
2008 in Denmark. The festival is held from 3–6 July and is the biggest festival in Northern Europe.
The Chemical Brothers played at London's Olympia Grand Hall
Olympia, London
Olympia is an exhibition centre and conference centre in West Kensington, on the boundary between The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham, London, W14 8UX, England. It opened in the 19th century and was originally known as the National Agricultural Hall.Opened in 1886,...
on 30 August 2008. This was the first time any major band has played at Olympia's Grand Hall in over 10 years.
On 18 April 2009, The Chemical Brothers performed a DJ Set at the Coachella Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
, at which they premiered two previously unnamed new tracks. The tracks were the bonus track "Don't Think" and "Escape Velocity", both of which were later included on the album Further.
On 8 February 2010, they confirmed their presence at Sónar
Sónar
Sónar is an annual three-day music festival held in Barcelona, Spain. It is described officially as a festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art. Music is by far the main aspect of the festival....
Festival in Barcelona in June 2010. They also announced they would be performing another two nights at the London Roundhouse in Camden, on 20 and 21 May. Due to phenomenal demand, as tickets sold out within two minutes, they added a further two nights; 22 and 23 May.
On 3 September 2010, they performed at North Coast Music Festival in Chicago. The following day they performed at Electric Zoo festival in New York City.
On 4–14 March 2011, they headlined the Future Music Festival in five cities across Australia.
On 27 March 2011, they headlined Ultra Music Festival in Miami, FL and closed out the Main Stage for the weekend. They also were the closing performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
on Friday 15 April 2011.
The Chemical Brothers headlined the UK dance festival Creamfields
Creamfields
Creamfelds is a large dance music festival featuring DJs and live acts. It is held annually on the August Bank Holiday weekend in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, just outside of Liverpool where it had previously been held for a number of years. It is renowned for being headlined every year by the...
in Cheshire on 27 August 2011.
The band also played at the 'Other Stage' at Glastonbury Festival 2011
Glastonbury Festival 2011
The 2011 Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts was held from 22–26 June 2011. Tickets for the festival went on sale from 9 am on Sunday 3 October 2010, over 37 weeks before the festival was set to begin, with a deposit of £50 being paid, while the whole cost of a ticket is £195...
as that stage's lead headliners.
Logo
The typeface used to write the typical "The Chemical Brothers" logo is derived from Sho, designed by Karlgeorg HoeferKarlgeorg Hoefer
Karlgeorg Hoefer was a German calligrapher and typographer.Hoefer was born in Schlesisch-Drehnow in Silesia. He taught typography at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach...
in 1992. The Chemical Brothers' original logo differs only in a few details from orthodox Sho, e.g. in the letters a and b. Mergenthaler Linotype Company holds the licence for this typeface.
Discography
Studio albums- Exit Planet DustExit Planet DustExit Planet Dust is the debut album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, released in the UK on 26 June 26 1995 and the US on 15 August 1995. The title is a reference to their departure from their earlier name "The Dust Brothers"....
(1995) - Dig Your Own HoleDig Your Own HoleDig Your Own Hole is the second studio album by British electronica duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 7 April 1997. It features Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Beth Orton as guest vocalists...
(1997) - SurrenderSurrender (The Chemical Brothers album)Surrender is the third studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 21 June 1999. It features Noel Gallagher , Hope Sandoval , and Bernard Sumner as guest vocalists...
(1999) - Come with UsCome with UsCome with Us is the fourth studio album by British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 28 January 2002. It features Richard Ashcroft and Beth Orton as guest vocalists. The album debuted at number 1 on the UK Albums Chart...
(2002) - Push the Button (2005)
- We Are the NightWe Are the NightWe Are the Night is the sixth studio album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on 27 June 2007. The record entered the UK Albums Chart at number 1 and debuted at number 65 on the Billboard 200...
(2007) - FurtherFurther (The Chemical Brothers album)Further is the seventh studio album by The Chemical Brothers, released on June 14, 2010. The album title and release date were announced on the band's official website on March 30, 2010. All 8 tracks from the album are accompanied by corresponding films, made specifically to match them, by Adam...
(2010)
Soundtrack albums
- HannaHanna (soundtrack)Hanna: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the soundtrack album to the 2011 American thriller film of the same name, directed by Joe Wright. The original score was composed by the British big beat duo The Chemical Brothers. Initially, the album was only released digitally, but it was released on...
(2011)
Main compilation albums
- Brothers Gonna Work It Out (1998)
- Singles 93-03Singles 93-03Singles 93–03 is a compilation album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on September 22, 2003. It is a collection of singles published by the band from 1993 to 2003 , plus new songs "Get Yourself High" and "The Golden Path". Early copies of the CD came with a bonus CD...
(2003) - BrotherhoodBrotherhood (The Chemical Brothers album)Brotherhood is a compilation album by English big beat duo The Chemical Brothers, released on . It is the second compilation spanning the band's greatest hits, after 2003's Singles 93–03...
(2008)