The Chemical Brothers

It’s not very often that a band can create a sound, use it, abuse it, set the ball rolling for a new scene and go on to push their way to number one in the UK singles chart. It’s not very often that two ex-students can take their mostly instrumental music to the masses, shifting proper amounts of records to everyone from clubbers to students, skate kids to metal heads and all points in between. In the space of three years, The Chemical Brothers achieved this, loads more besides and still had time to record two mind blowing albums, remix anyone who mattered and play incendiary DJ sets in pubs and clubs and divebars the world over.

The Chemical Brothers’ story starts in Manchester at the turn of the decade. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, a pair of acid house kids, met while studying history in university. Tom (tall blonde Ramone) was a member of Balearic combo Ariel. Ed (curly hair, cheeky grin) wasn’t. The pair bonded through a mutual love of hip hop, house, techno and fucked up American rock ‘n’ roll, regularly propping up the bar/stage diving at the city’s premier acid house dive, Most Excellent (run by guru and all round chap, Justin Robertson). They started DJing at parties, christened themselves the Dust Brothers (in tribute to the West Coast hip hop producers of the same name), and eventually recorded a track, “Song To The Siren” as a reaction against what was going on around them. (They thought there weren’t enough records with big beats and sirens on them. They were, of course, right).

After being picked up on by Andrew Weatherall, “Song To The Siren” was reissued on Junior Boys Own (complete with two fucked up acid house mixes from Weatherall’s Sabres Of Paradise). After recording a further two EPs of looped up insanity (“14th Century Sky” and “My Mercury Mouth”) and remixing, among many others, Manic Street Preachers, The Charlatans, Justin Warfield, Leftfield and Primal Scream, a major label scramble unprecedented in dance music is witnessed. As the band rise in popularity, the U.S. Dust Brothers decide to claim back their birth right. In May 1995, The Chemical Brothers sign to Virgin Records, set up their own Freestyle Dust imprint and release the breakbeat punk rock mash up of “Leave Home”. The UK Top 20 beckons. The Chemicals’ debut album, “Exit Planet Dust”, recorded the previous winter, is released in June.

“Exit Planet Dust” goes on to sell 130,000 copies in Britain in just over a year (it has currently sold around 200,000). The album, featuring guest vocals from The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess (“Life Is Sweet”) and Heavenly body Beth Orton (“Alive: Alone”), sets the blueprint for The Chemical’s sound bone crushing break beats, space monster noises and all sorts of other fuzz’d up and funky shit.

Meanwhile, everyone seemed to be fired up by the thought of the next British invasion of the USA. Over there, the stagnant music scene needed a lift. The climate was right. Unfortunately, hopes were pinned on the wrong bands. Alongside Underworld & Orbital, The Chemicals quietly made their mark in the States with “Exit Planet Dust” selling over 150,000 in it’s first year on the shelves, crossing over big style in a way that none of their contemporaries have so far managed.

The first post -“Planet Dust” recordings are released as the limited edition pure dancefloor “Loops Of Fury” EP, selling out all 20,000 copies in four days (“Loops Of Fury” only rears it’s head again on the soundtrack of the top racing-and-shooting-things Sony Playstation game, “Wipeout 2097”).

After huge success at Tribal Gathering (taking the stage in the main tent rocking well after official headliners Black Grape had left the area and blowing away everything in their path). The Brothers go on to rock every site they turn up at (T In The Park, Phoenix, Lollipop in Sweden, etc), bludgeoning the crowd into dribbling danced out submission with an hour of whirlwind Chemical frenzy.

B etween 1995/96, they only reconstruct three people’s records (Dave Clarke’s “No One’s Driving”, Method Man’s “Bring The Pain”, Manic Street Preachers’ “Everything Must Go”). Most of 1996 working on their second album and working Saturdays as resident DJs at The Heavenly Social. As the clubs main draw and focal point, they pack it out every week, pulling in over 1000 punters a night, airing newly recorded album tracks and rockin’ the set with everything from Schooly D to Oasis.

Autumn 1996 saw The Chemical Brothers turn over the first leaf in their new manifesto. Pairing up with total man of the moment Noel Gallagher, they throw down a single, “Setting Sun” (the sound of stampeding elephants on biker speed listening to pumped up techno and ’60’s garage bands, originally recorded in February, released in October), which enters the UK chart at that most respectable of positions, number 1. The band set out on a UK tour (four dates which sell out in a matter of days) and then prepare to return to America, flying the flag for the British invasion, part two.

Spring 1997 and the next stage of the Chemical world domination plan is achieved. The second album, “Dig Your Own Hole” arrives, preceded by the most aptly titled single this decade, “Block Rockin’ Beats”, which, following the pattern, goes straight in the UK charts at number 1. As does “Dig Your Own Hole”. The album is fast approaching platinum status in the UK and has sold 1.7 million copies world wide. “Dig” was nominated for both the Mercury Music Prize and a Brit Award. 1997 also sees the Brothers play two sold-out UK tours and an arena tour of the US, pausing only to revive spirits at a soggy Glastonbury with a trademark blistering set.

The Grammy Award winning (for “Block Rockin’ Beats” – Best Rock Instrumental) Chemical Brothers latest effort is a DJ mix album for their own Freestyle Dust label.