2011.12.10
Artist Spotlight: The Chemical Brothers
It was inevitable that I would eventually write a post about The Chemical Brothers. Any serious attempt at discussing electronic music as a whole cannot possibly ignore them, given that they were an early influence on the scene in North America.
One of my few musical regrets (if you can call it that) of 2011 is not going to Coachella and seeing the Chemical Brothers perform live. Simply put, The Chemical Brothers are one of the powerhouses of electronic music for a reason. They’re awesome, both live and recorded.
One of the things I find interesting about their recorded work is that their albums follow a particular structure that will feel oddly familiar to fans of rock / pop / alternative music. They all start off somewhat middle-of-the-road in terms of tempo, and quickly ramp up to some hard-banging big-beat tracks to get you moving. You get a bit of a break in the middle, a brief return to booty-shaking madness, then end on a very spatial / mind-expanding note. This structure isn’t the same as a pop album, but fans of that genre will feel right at home after listening to an album or two.
The fact that the Brothers can consistently turn out solid albums is a testament to their staying power as an electronic music act. They just won’t die, and I wouldn’t want them to. I’m going to buck the trend of listing favorite tracks in this blog entry, because the list can be summed up like this, more or less:
All of them
If you’re new to the genre, you owe it to yourself to listen to The Chemical Brothers. You can literally pick any of their albums and you won’t go far wrong; if you want a recommendation, I would suggest the following three albums to start with:
- Surrender
- Push the Button
- Further
For me, these three typify the Chemical Brothers album experience. And for you skeptics in the crowd, know this: The Chemical Brothers, unlike many electronic music artists, produce albums that are meant to be enjoyed as an album, not a collection of singles bought individually a la iTunes. This is a rare and unique thing in the electronic music world where the single is king, followed by the EP, and it’s something that should be savoured.
As a closing note, even if Daft Punk headlines Coachella 2012 and I get to enjoy their robotic madness in person, I will never be able to forget the fact that I missed the Chemical Brothers at Coachella 2011.
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