OK, time to convert the masses.
Chemical Brothers - Come With Us
If Prodigy are the badboys of dance music channelling everything that is dark rock and hiphop and Fatboy Slim is the coolest old man in dance, then the Chemical Brothers are without doubt the acid-tripping Gurus of dance music.
Come With Us is their fourth album. Their first,
Exit Planet Dust ***
1/2 arrived in 1995 and made their mark as the ones to watch with their own take on "big beat" dance music which the Prodigy first introduced in 1994s classic
Music For The Jilted Generation *****.
Then in 1997 they released
Dig Your Own Hole****
1/2 the album that really launched them to fame and marked them as definers and benchmarks of the whole dance genre while making their mark on the sub-genre that would be known as "big beat" which Fatboy Slim would then capitalise on with his
You've Come A Long Way Baby album.
1999 saw the release of
Surrender ***, the Brother's least well received album. Mainly because rather than sticking to the modern trend of knocking out two or three albums of the same ol' same ol' like many artists they started pushing the more trippy swirling scope of their tracks rather on the heavy electronica beats of much of Dig Your Own Hole.
Then in 2002 the Brothers released Come With Us which took the original big beat sound and blended it much more interestingly with their continuing experimentation with their new and expanding acid-trip sound. Blending mellow out with dance hall rockers, Come With Us is an album everyone whos ever been to a nightclub must own.
Tracks (rating: out of *****)
1.
Come With Us (4.57) ****
The title track is a brash and persistant announcement letting the world know that the Brothers are back and they're not taking any prisoners - especially where your bass bins are concerned.
2.
It Began In Afrika (6.16) ****
Going old skool, the Brothers sample an old school 80s experimental dance track and turn it into a tour-de-force house rocker.
3.
Galaxy Bounce (3.27) *****
Tom and Ed channel the spirit of Freddy Mercury for a tune designed for playing on the dance floor. Bouncy and funky it's one of those tracks you can't help but find yourself rocking along to whether you like dance music or not.
4.
Star Guitar (6.27) ****
1/2
After the three track opening assault the Brothers bring it down a bit with a more jangling which sounds like the theme to some spaced out train-journey. Also a little bit of drug referencing with it's
"You should feel what I feel. You should take what I'm taking" lyrics.
5.
Hoops (6.31) ***
1/2
Much trippyness and unintelligable lyrics.
6.
My Elastic Eye (3.41) **
1/2
More tinkly tripiness and odd sounds and another bassline designed to test your sound setup.
7.
The State We're In (6.26) *****
One thing has always stuck out on every Chemicals album and that is their collaborations with singer/songwriter Beth Orton. This is no exception, another lazy day loll which grows into a more upbeat dancer only in it's last minute.
8.
Denmark (5.07)***
Another bassline pumper for those high speed pursuit cases. Only too classy for a Neal H. Morwitz movie scene.
9.
Pioneer Skies (4.04) ***
Stars off another jangler complete with samples of everything from a train to an alarm clock but settles into another spaced out trip-scape. One of those 4am sunrise drive home tunes.
10.
The Test (7.46) *****
On Dig Your Own Hole, Tom and Ed closed their album with
The Private Psychedelic Reel and epic 9 minute track that set a new benchmark for dance music that nothing touched. Except this. A collaboration with musician Richard Ashcroft which plays like TPPS's younger but just as powerful brother. The perfect close to the album.
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