Chemical Brothers s/d

Some version of the opener, “Eve Of Destruction”, has been done for awhile, as evidenced by its presence as a vocal snippet (complete with visuals) in the setlist last summer w/ all the No Geography tracks that have come out by now, plus this recording from a DJ set a bit before the tour started:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/110uhJIYNjsTSLqb8tOp1SzfL3C2V6o3x/view

So yeah, it seems weird to me that we’ve gotten a track that wasn’t previewed at all (apart from a short cameo in a bbc mix) before “Eve Of Destruction”. Maybe it’s gonna be their “big single” (heavy airquotes for a Chemical Brothers song coming out in 2019) to coincide with the album rollout?

Played "Got To Keep On" at a party last weekend, it went down a storm!

just put on Don't Think, their live CD/DVD from the Further era. I'd forgotten how good this was - like Everything, Everything or Alive 2007, it's basically a continuous mix of their best stuff. I didn't really see it get much fanfare but it's incredible.

The concert film is especially a treat - not that 2007 Daft Punk or 1999 Underworld didn’t have brilliant live visuals, but Adam Smith just ties everything good about what a Chemical Brothers show meant by 2011, both in terms of their music and his visual accompaniment, into such a neat little package, with the focus on the audience being a satisfying extra twist on the format.
The only thing that lets it down for me is that it comes from a festival gig, and therefore doesn’t have one of the best encores they’ve ever assembled on top of the already-strong setlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q604uTA9vPI

Alright so the record’s out and I’m impressed by it, albeit in kind of a different way that I was expecting. It’s a very emotive album - really gives off the sense, more than usual, that Tom Rowlands is FEELING EMOTIONS and using the venue of The Chemical Brothers to express them. The sequencing is a pleasantly headlong rush. The Aurora tracks are pretty uniformly the highlights of the stuff that didn’t come out beforehand, tho the title track is also very strong.

Album is surprisingly fun. It's like the uptempo parts of 'Since I Left You' crossed with Orbital's Wonky'.

And yeah I'm hearing "Got To Keep On" at basically every party/club I go to, which maybe says something about those parties/clubs.

That you’ve got good taste in parties? ;)

just put on Don't Think, their live CD/DVD from the Further era

Thanks for the heads up. Had no idea this existed and it made my commute home in the Easter traffic last night much more enjoyable.

The final third or so certainly bangs.

after the first listen...yeah, this is much better than Born in the Echoes. this would've made a great follow-up to Surrender.

This surprised me with how much I liked it.

Album is surprisingly fun. It's like the uptempo parts of 'Since I Left You' crossed with Orbital's Wonky'.

yeah! I hear the same vibes of both Avalanches albums actually. And it's a lot like Wonky in that it compacts the classic sound into a modern era and also functions as a showcase of their talents.

Played it 3 times today. haven't done that with a new album in forever. I'll see how I feel about it in a year but for now I think it's up there with Dig and Further. It's so much fun and feels like an album they actually wanted to make (which I haven't gotten from some CB albums). I remember getting Surrender on release day and waiting until when my parents weren't home so I could crank it loud in the living room. today I did the same in my own place, with my kids (they really like the "I ain't gonna take it no more" bit)

They've been on a roll lately

I love the part of 'Eve of Destruction' where it changes up from late 80's house-stab vibes to that almost Maximum Joy esque live bass and female vocal combination. This is way better than I has expected, I was a huge fan of the first 2 albums and stopped paying attention when I got into more specialised stuff.

Shazam'd a track the other day and it was, surprisingly, 2015's Go. A great sounding track that.

Chemical Brothers winning Glastonbury at the moment

They are playing in my neighborhood in august but I'll be out of town. Sort of curious how much of their show is playing the old hits vs more recent material

xxp "Go" is so good, agree that they seem to be on a roll

Sort of curious how much of their show is playing the old hits vs more recent material

Full current setlist here, non-spoilery summation if you care about that sort of thing:
If your cutoff for “the old hits” is at or around the end of the Surrender era, they don’t fall back on those past glories too hard - there’s a large and varied array of material from all the subsequent albums, with an obvious emphasis on whatever they’re touring to promote - but unless you’re a diehard for “Setting Sun”, which got dropped again after an early-2010s revival, pretty much anything you’d care to hear from their moment of peak 90’s visibility is represented, along with some deep cuts for the diehards (esp. if you go to a show where there’s enough time for an encore).

imo their adamance for keeping at least a few songs from every album in heavy setlist rotation has done wonders for their rep as an act whose discography you can’t just tune out of at some decided-on cutoff point - especially as their live shows are probably the most front-facing part of the whole Chemical Brothers operation at this stage. Like, even if you want to argue that - say - Push The Button is a career low, it’s still where beloved setlist staple “Surface To Air” came from (plus “Galvanize” etc.), and there isn’t an album of theirs that doesn’t have at least one (or probably several) of those moments.

Got To Keep On is in my head every day now, it's one of the best things they've ever done

They are playing in my neighborhood in august but I'll be out of town. Sort of curious how much of their show is playing the old hits vs more recent material

Loved the segue from that into Hey Boy Hey Girl on Saturday xp

oh my god that setlist looks insane

would really love to see these guys one day but I live in the Midwest so uhhh

I actually gave up on the Glastonbury show and went to see Hot Chip instead - it felt like watching a film I'd seen a few too many times before and I couldn't get close enough for it to feel fully immersive.

The cover star as such of Surrender has passed on (article from a couple of years ago but an updated section at the end has more details).

https://medium.com/@JPRobinson/the-mystery-of-jesus-the-naked-hippie-dancer-9822c0da8765

that was great, thanks

Yeah Gary Kemp shared out the news and a lot of the replies have been great in terms of sharing stories -- including one from Chris Difford!

Just heard that ‘Jesus’ William Jellett died today. He was at every gig I ever went to in the 70s, doing his groovy dancing and blessing us all with his happy presence. We’d call his name from the bleachers. He was validation that the artist was worth seeing. #Jesus 🙏 pic.twitter.com/bxvyM83NlW

— Gary Kemp (@garyjkemp) January 10, 2021

Used to see him shaking his maracas everywhere back in the 80s/90s, last gig I saw him at was a Hawkwind tribute band in about 2003 (I was depping the audio generators in the support band is my excuse for being there). He wasn't looking great even then, but sad to see him gone all the same. No idea about his views on stadium techno, I think he preferred Blue Öyster Cult.

New track out today, just in time for the summer, hopefully a harbinger of better times. I can’t find any information about the vocalist, sounds a bit like Sarah Nixey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-mGA4V2LK0

I was 13 and hooked when Surrender came out. I used to watch a bunch of MTV during certain times trying to catch the "Let Forever Be" video. (well, that and "Body Movin" by Beastie Boys) I saw it twice and thought it was really freaky. Never occurred to me that I could just YouTube it now, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5FyfQDO5g0

it's a lucid dream, right? still one of the most hypnotic videos I have ever seen. who's the actress??

the girl is played by actress and dancer Stephanie Landwehr

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Forever_Be

great tune

when I saw it at first I was convinced it was someone famous who I figured I would've forgot about now. she's such a great casting for it, all the smooth but imperfect movements

my first real dose of online culture came from following like, the "techno" email groups around its release. when "Hey Boy Hey Girl" came out the fans fucking hated it. but I thought it was funny! like the Chems doing "Cotton Eyed Joe"! I admit it might not have been the best choice for the first single though

Gondry, man. Genius.

I thought "Hey Boy, Hey Girl" was a great opening salvo for Surrender. If you listen to all the tracks that were originally released as "Electronic Battle Weapons" (e.g. "It Doesn't Matter", "Under the Influence") - at least through to about 2002 - it presents this alternate history of the group as this slamming bleepy house act, which seemed much more in-tune with the turn of the millennium than rock-aligned big beat. "Hey Boy Hey Girl" (though not an EBW track) leaned into that vibe in the most populist manner possible. If anything, I found "Let Forever Be" to be a disappointing retrenchment (as a song - the video clip is great) - "Setting Sun" redux but lesser in every way possible.

ooh that's harsh, I like it more than that but I do respect yr take

it's the on with "Go" and "Horse Power" that I really love as far as post-90s work

"It Doesn't Matter" = maybe my fave track of theirs ever

has there ever been an artist poll?

on one

another related memory is that when the college station that I have DJd on since 1998 first got their license in '93 or '94, we would listen to the station back then at the bakery I worked at (I did radio then, but on a different station) and they played "Setting Sun" like 10 times a day

I actually do like "Let Forever Be". I think it wouldn't have been so much of an issue if they hadn't opted to work with Noel again.

Arguably the "working with male rock singers" gambit was almost a straight line of diminishing returns: "Life Is Sweet" = "Setting Sun" > "Let Forever Be" > "The Acid Test" > "The Golden Path".

If you played those in succession there would be a clear encroaching vibe I would compare to regulatory capture: the CBs gradually forgetting that the point was to take the rock-association and forge something new with it, rather than just come up with an arrangement that would complement the peccadillos of the guest vocalist.

otm imo

One thing about Let Forever Be is it does not buzzsaw through your skull the way Setting Sun does. It’s also a way more overt Tomorrow Never Knows rip

The line “how does it feel like?” bothers the shit out of me though

Fwiw I really like “The Acid Test”. “Golden Path” sucks though.

you mean The Test, right? or is there another track called The Acid Test?

ok so I never actually bought a copy of Come With Us, I downloaded it way back when MP3s were always mistagged so I assumed that was just the actual name of the song

Yeah I just mean "The Test" - when I think of the song all I can hear in my head is Richard Ashcroft asking "did I pass the acid test?", and it's up there with "how does it feel like?" as one of the more annoying questions asked in modern music.

otm, I like The Test apart from that so if is a bummer

all the lyrics in that song are annoying but the pure beauty of the "are you feeling me like I'm feeling you" part makes up for it

interesting to compare all these to Out of Control which seems to be the opposite, the boys just enjoying themselves

You know what other song sounds like the boys just enjoying themselves, is "The Salmon Dance"

lol

The Salmon Dance sounds like the boys trying to write Gorillaz song. Possibly even a Plastic Beach song, 3 years before that album even came out.

Salmon Dance is fun I just wish the album it was on was better

That album is good, though. “We Are The Night” and “Battle Scars” are fantastic and I am not part of the posse that dislikes “The Salmon Dance”