The Chemical Brothers comprise Tom Rowlands and Edward Simons, two former students of Manchester University who met there in the late 1980s. Their interest was peaked by the music scene in Manchester of the time, and they immersed themselves in the life of the regular clubber. It wasn't long before the pair were acting as DJ at house parties, mixing a fusion of Acid House Techno and Hip-hop in a style that has become one of the most distinctive of the dance scene today.
Initially naming themselves The Dust Brothers after the west coast hip-hop producers of the same name, the duo began getting regular work at a Manchester club called Naked Under Leather, where they started composing their own tracks. First to come out of this creative streak was Song to the Siren in early 1993. One copy of this track was sent to Andrew Weatherall who signed the two to his Junior Boys Own label. The band were subsequently invited to a number of remixes for other artists including Leftfield/John Lydon and Republica.
In 1994 the Brothers began to take their place among dance groups of the time, with the release of Chemical Beats and My Mercury Mouth EPs. They also started reworking anyone they felt worth the treatment, from The Manic Street Preachers to Saint Etienne. Finally for thirteen weeks over summer and autumn they were residents at London's Heavenly Social every sunday, introducing such guests as Paul Weller and Primal Scream to their undeniable talents, remixing Barry White, Oasis, Eric B & Rakim.
The Band signed to Virgin Records in 1995, renaming to the Chemical Brothers after complaints from the original Dust Brothers. Their debut album, Exit Planet Dust featured trademark styles such as heavy guitar, heavier breakouts and analog noise, not to mention the start of a series of very successful collaborations with vocalists, namely on this album Tim Burgess from the Charlatans ("Life is Sweet") and Beth Orton ("Alive: Alone"). The album was hugely popular and sold over a million copies worldwide.
A number of huge successes followed: The band released the single Setting Sun featuring Noel Gallagher on vocals, which went to number 1 in the UK charts. Their second album, Dig Your Own Hole was nominated for both the Mercury and BRIT awards while the single Block Rockin' Beats won a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental. The Brothers hadn't been aware that they made rock isntrumentals, but they graciously accepted the award anyway.
The Brothers' third album, Surrender, brought the band back to the top-ten charts, hitting the high spots with the number 3 single Hey Boy Hey Girl. The album also featured vocals from New Order's Bernard Sumner, Primal Scream's Bobby Gillespie and Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval.
The latest album, Come With Us, was released in early 2002, and features the singles It Began in Afrika and Star Guitar. This album continues the psychedelia train of thought explored in previous albums and features collaborations with Richard Ashcroft and a reprise from Beth Orton. The album serves to demonstrate the bands growing mastery of the technology in Techno, and an appreciation of beats which has survived from their earlier club gigs.
For possibly the most comprehensive discography I have ever seen anywhere, ever, see Zerotime's write-up below*.
* The initial plan was to incorporate a discography into my writeup, but his is so beautiful and puts my paltry effort in the shade. It's better to let it stand on it's own. It is a masterpiece of research.
Info from : http://www.thechemicalbrothers.com http://www.chemicalbrothers.net http://uk.music.yahoo.com
A pretty much complete discography. The only thing I haven't included are a lot of the compilations - because there probably isn't enough space on E2 to store a list of them all, and they all use standard album/single tracks anyway. I know that I'm missing the Japanese single with the song Trance and Roll on it at the very least; please /msg me if you know what it is.
Their debut album as the Chemical Brothers, and, in my opinion, their best.
Probably their second most famous album (after Come with us), because their two most famous tracks are on it. Tweaked scratchy breakbeats start here!
Track 10 might be called "Racing the tide" or "Surrender", depending on which country you bought it in. Track 2 might also be called "Influenced" instead of "Under the influence".
Some rare B-sides and remixes. There appears to be at least three different releases of this album.
A departure from the tweaky screeching beats on their previous albums, this is more of a psychedelica feel. Best song is probably The Test, with vocals recorded by Richard Ashcroft.
A compilation containing all the Brothers' singles from the last ten years, plus two new tracks, and a bonus disc with remixes and rare (I'd-never-even-heard-of-the-damn-things-before-this-came-out rare) tracks from the period. It'll also be released on DVD, so you'll be able to see all those cool video clips again. Bonus tracks are The golden path and Get yourself high.
An even more radical departure from their previous breakbeats. This one contains more hip-hop and guitar-esque numbers, but can't really pull anything particularly impressive off. The only real reason for buying this is to not feel guilty for downloading Flip The Switch.
One day I will actually listen to this, though I've been told that it's more like their older, bigbeat stuff than their newer, psychedelic stuff.
(As the Dust Brothers.) A specially recorded mix, given away on the cover of the New Musical Express magazine in December 1994.
An hour of a night the 'Brothers played while resident DJs at The Heavenly Social. Brothers gonna work it out before that sort of thing was popular, kinda.
Another mix album, proving that they're so, so very much better at DJ'ing than people like Fatboy Slim (and they can make their own music!). Compare and contrast with The Prodigy's Dirtchamber Sessions.
(As the Dust Brothers.) Released as a green label in 1992, and again after being signed on JBO in 1993.
(As the Dust Brothers.)
The first single released as the Chemical Brothers. The UK/European 12" included a rare B-side called "Let me in mate", which bears quite a resemblance to the remix they did of The Prodigy's "Voodoo people" a few years later.
Two CD set, containing the B-Side If you kling to me I'll klong you. The Daft Punk remix was the first time they ever remixed another artist.
Technically a single, but the title track wasn't released on an album (if you don't count WipEout XL). Contained the B-Side (The best part of) Breaking up.
Contained The buzz tracks, later a song on the album Exit Planet Dust.
The song that really made the boys famous. Two CD set, with Prescription beats and Morning lemon (from Brothers gonna work it out).
Two CD set. Came with Not another drugstore (from Brothers gonna work it out) and These beats are made for breakin'.
Limited edition, containing a live version of Setting sun, recorded at the Lowlands Festival in Holland. Also came with a bonus sticker and poster of most of the album covers that had been released.
The "other" big hit. B-sides were Flashback and Scale (which sounds a lot like a song from Come with us, don't you think?)
Contained Studio K, a remix of The sunshine underground.
Enjoyed was just a remix of Out of control (okay, so it was a pretty damn good one, with the intro done on a sitar. But still a remix). The Japanese version had no remixes, but two new live tracks instead.
French-only release.
Most of the info for Electronic Battle Weapon #5 is applicable here. The US version was released on September 11.
Available in CD, DVD, 12-inch vinyl, and e-card formats.
Came with either The test, a live version of Hey boy hey girl, or H.I.A., depending on which format you got it on.
A US-only release that contains remixes of Star Guitar and The Test, plus the videos for them, plus a live version of Temptation/Star Guitar, plus H.I.A. and EBW 6.
A rather bizzarely poppish sound completely unlike anything they've done before, with pseudo-religious vocals (probably really about heroin or something) provided by Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips. The b-side is Nude night, and there's remixes by Ewan Pearson and Dexter. Quite strangely, the single came out after The Singles 93-03, which also includes a version of the song.
I haven't heard this yet, but it seems to be some bizzare guitar-ish thing.
Haven't heard this yet.
Haven't heard this yet, either..
Ditto.
A four-part set, with each part being 29 minutes or so long. Very nice, fairly eclectic set, with everything from The Beatles, to the Beastie Boys, to cowboy movie soundbites over breakbeats, to Daft Punk.
The same as Live at the Social..., but given different track names for some idiotic reason.
A warmup set at the 'Brothers played at Creamfields. Mostly techno/bigbeat, but there's a bit of hip-hop in there, too. Pete Tong is uncharacterisically non-annoying in this, managing not to talk right through the best bits (because most of the "announcement" bits are done as vocal samples played between songs).
This appears to be another mix set done for the BBC's Radio 1 and also released on CD. I haven't heard it yet, and I don't really have much info on it because the only place I've seen it mentioned is entirely in Russian, and it somehow seems to make slightly less sense when translated into English.
A complete remix of Push the button, done by the same people responsible for Always Outsiders, Never Outdone, the remix of the Prodigy's album, Always outnumbered, never outgunned. Every single track on the remix, and I am not kidding here, is approximately one hojillion times better than the original.
Featured a track called "Dust Up Beats"... which, after I'd bought Exit Planet Dust, sounded suspiciously exactly the same as the track "Fuck up beats". I'm guessing it was renamed so it could actually be put on the track listing without parents calling in legal action against Psygnosis for corrupting their children's tiny fragile minds. Loops of fury was also included, and this is pretty much the only other place to get it if you missed the single.
Under the influence, and then some. Featured the full album version of the song - surprising, as the Underworld track Kittens ended up as a three-minute "short" that doesn't sound much like the original.
Featuring Tom Rowlands on drums.
Featuring Tom Rowlands on harpsichord... er, I mean, drums.
A four track 12", with all tracks engineered by Tom Rowlands
US-only release, with production and remixing by the 'Brothers. The 2000 re-release added the remix of Patrol.
A song done for the War Child charity album Help. I haven't as yet heard this one. Thanks to CloudStrife for pointing it out to me.
Tom supplied loops for three tracks on the album.
Mixing and production on the track "Daybreaker", as a return favour for appearing as a vocalist on three of their albums.
A nice, old-school 80s synth pop and guitar number. New Order's new single, released in early 2002. The 'Brothers did mixing and production on the track.
Another possible single or track for the new album, recorded with Kevin Brereton from the hip-hop group k-os.
Appears on the second disc of the album Singles 93-03.
See the notes under the "singles" section.
Don't stop the rock and It doesn't matter. Later featured on the album Dig your own hole.
Under the influence, everyone's favourite woofer-killing track. Made it onto Surrender.
Freak of the week. Ended up as a B-side on the Music:Response single.
It began in Afrika. Was treated so well by clubbers that it was given a proper release, and reached #8 in the UK singles charts.
Hoops. Or, rather, a very rare acid house remix of it.
Aww, thanks, nkrblue. *blushes*
References:
printable version chaos
Everything2 Help
