CHEMICAL BROTHERS [27.06.07] THEIR CAREER WEIGHS A TON Has anyone done more for dance music in the last twelve years than Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands? I don't think so. Hopefully they can confirm it with their new album, 'We Are The Night'. It's been a long time since I listened to 'Exit Planet Dust'. Since the album's release in 1995, the world has changed. Back then, Diana Spencer and Tupac were still alive and dance music was dead and buried. Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands were some of the few who resurrected it and changed it forever. But here's the thing I've been wondering: have The Chemical Brothers changed? Is their music still relevant or are their best days behind them? Since most of their songs are instantly recognizable to most of the western world, I'd like to find out. "Because we've been around quite a long time now, people can, you know, put certain music to certain periods in their lives," Simons says, obviously aware of their influence. "There are a lot of people who've grown up with us, I suppose. But, you know, like when we play live, people always remember, like say, where they were, when they saw us play and who they were with, it's kind of nice." I remember buying 'Dig Your Own Hole' the day it was released in 1997. Playing every track ad nauseam became a daily occurrence. There can be no doubt that this was the London duo's peak. Containing 'Block Rocking Beats', 'Electrobank' and the world-devouring 'Setting Sun', the album changed them from successful DJs to superstars. Their use of guest artists became more apparent and still is a key factor in their music today. Simons elaborates on their methods. "The people we work with are chosen because we love the music that they're making and their ideas and we want to, you know, sort of reach some sort of collaborative point. But, you know, we've run out of people, idols maybe and now we want to work with people that, you know, are contemporaries of ours, that are making, you know, exciting music and there's something good about them." The slant towards house music was immediately noticeable when I heard 'Hey Boy Hey Girl' for the first time in 1999. It was a grower of a track, not all-consuming like their previous tracks and I considered it a risk. But with its experimental parent album 'Surrender', they managed to pull it off. Rowlands explains the importance of evolving. "Experimental music is just like music you can't really listen to, you know, and that's fine and people get enjoyment from making it - not so much from listening to it - but from making it, it's interesting. So we'd never consider ourselves experimental music on that level. The duality of something like 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' - you understand it as this sort of song but actually if you hear it at 4 o'clock in a nightclub and it's the sort of creeping paranoia and this voice commanding you to do something." The 21st century was the beginning of a downhill slope. After 2002's 'Come With Us', 2003's greatest hits package and 2005's 'Push The Button', something was missing. 'It Began In Afrika' had a catchy chorus and 'Galvanize' picked up a Grammy, but the mind-blowing urgency of their music was lost. But as Rowlands points out, the influence over other artists still continued. "You know it's quite interesting now working with like, say you're working with The Klaxons or something and you know, they came to our gigs and stuff and they were into what we were doing. You know, now you're working with these people and it's like, obviously in some way you've sort of influenced what they're doing. You know when we started they weren't in bands and stuff, and it's interesting, you know, to now work with people who have been influenced by what you've done." So now in 2007, I'm looking forward to the duo's sixth album 'We Are The Night'. There's rumours of a new direction in sound and a sense of hope that one of dance music's most innovative acts can reinvent themselves for a whole new audience. Rowlands makes me wait with baited breath. "Obviously, the music we make and the desire and the sort of compulsion to make this music comes from somewhere. What I like about this record is that it can have (wildly different tracks) on the same record, you know. Only in our sort of little universe that we make on an album can these things happily co-exist." David Rayfield 'We Are The Night' is released through Virgin Records in July. back to top ^

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