The Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood

Virgin

Can we start by calling them the greatest dance act of all time? After a string of genre defining hits, intact credibility and the greatest live show known to man, I believe we can. Given that they’re yet to deliver a duff single or even a patchy album, it can also be said that few acts, dance or otherwise, have been quite as consistent.

And check out the variation here – ‘Galvanize’ and ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’ are practically hip-hop tracks, yet they’re still enormous, dance floor-destructing monstrosities. ‘Star Guitar’ is pure happiness on disk, while ‘Setting Sun’ and ‘The Golden Path’ are among the finest collaborations of all time. A suitably nasty new track, ‘Keep My Composure’, and the always astonishing ‘Saturate’ remind us that unlike their pals from back in the day, Tom and Ed aren’t anywhere near losing it.

And that’s before you even get to disc two, which collects the ten ‘Electronic Battle Weapons’, each originally released as a white label 12” before a new album. Some never even made it on to disc, notably numbers 7 (the Nightmare on Elm Street-sampling ‘Acid Children’) and number 9, both techno monsters even casual Chemical Brothers fans shouldn’t be without. Number 10, known as ‘Midnight Madness’, is a bass rolling face melter and a welcome addition to the series. Two brand new tracks and those Battle Weapons finally on CD together makes this worthwhile, even though Singles ’93-‘03, the original best of, is only five years old. In fact, not so much worthwhile, as utterly essential. Rigsy

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DOWNLOAD: ‘STAR GUITAR’, ‘EBW 7’, ‘SATURATE’.
FOR FANS OF: KRAFTWERK, NEW ORDER, DAFT PUNK.

Issue #50 - The Power To Know

Featuring The Top 50 NI Songs of Our Lifetime, The Streets, Deerhoof, Seasick Steve, Fucked Up, Garth Ennis and more.