The Chemical Brothers - Further Review

Posted by Lenny Vowels on 06.22.2010

The British house duo have returned with their first album of the new decade, and they truly knocked one out of the park. Find out why inside.

I feel like I'm late to the party on this one, but I wouldn't consider myself a longtime Chemical Brothers fan. I remember seeing a couple of their videos on MTV back in the '90s, like “Block Rockin' Beats” and “Setting Sun,” and thinking they were pretty good. It wasn't until I heard later singles like “Let Forever Be” and “Galvanize” that I really started to take notice, especially with the latter being among my favorite songs of the 2000s. I hadn't really taken the time to listen to the rest of their catalog, but after recently getting into other house and electronica bands like Daft Punk and Infected Mushroom, it seemed like as good a time as any. I gotta say... I couldn't have picked a better time to do so than with the release of Further.



Track Listing

1. Snow
2. Escape Velocity
3. Another World
4. Dissolve
5. Horse Power
6. Swoon
7. K+D+B
8. Wonders of the Deep


First of all, it's to my understanding that this is the first Brothers album to not feature any outside vocal collaborations. This is a huge step away from their previous work with the likes of Noel Gallagher of Oasis, Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, and folktronica superstar Beth Orton. In fact, aside from a few vocal tracks from band member Tom Rowlands and one key vocal track from longtime friend and collaborator Stephanie Rosen, the Chems pretty much let their beats do all the talking. Even the few vocal bits are there only for repetition and trance. It's the kind of album that requires some patience to really sink yourself into, but once it sinks in, it's that much easier to just let the sound take you away.

Starting with the shakingly moody “Snow,” it's easy to tell that Further certainly makes no attempts to start itself off with a bang. It begins with nothing more than some ambiance, low humming bass, and bleeps and bloops in the form of guitar feedback. This is where patience truly is a virtue, because I can promise you that it's all building to something. The overlapping female lyrics of “Your love keeps lifting me/lifting me higher” brings the song to another level at about the halfway mark, where it begins to ascend into a truly beautiful electronic masterpiece. But, much like the first half of the song built to the second, the first song really only serves to build to the second.

The second song, and first-and-only on the album with an epic length, is entitled “Escape Velocity” and I'm truly amazed that this was the first single on the album. It almost makes me wonder what the world would be like if all new radio singles were twelve minutes long. Of course, then we'd have to assume that all of them would be as good as this one, and that certainly isn't likely. “Escape Velocity” is the kind of song that I could write an entire review about, but in the confines of a paragraph, let's just say that there's never a dull moment in its ever-changing landscape of sound. The highs only hit as high as they do so they can go back down to low, and the same is true of the opposite, and anyone who doesn't want to get up and move to it may just be lacking a soul.



“Another World” can be considered something of a downswing after a song like that, but it's still good. It's the kind of song you could listen to on the way to a club or a rave just to get into the right mind frame. If “Another World” is the song you listen to en route, then “Dissolve” is the song you want to hear once you step in the front door. It has the perfect feeling of a beginning mixed with arrival. The super-catchy drum beat doesn't hurt, either.

If you want heavy on an album like this, look no further than “Horse Power.” I'll give fair warning in that it's probably the most bizarre song I've heard in a long time, with not only repeating distorted vocals, but the sound sampling of a horse whinnying once the music really kicks in. That doesn't change the fact that it's 100% infectious and a phenomenal dance groove all rolled into one. “Swoon” is the only other single released from the album so far, and it's a lot more fitting in the role. As another great dance track, “Swoon” has a lot more new listener-friendly sound to it then “Escape Velocity,” which requires a bit more focus.



The last two tracks are probably the weakest of the bunch, but still stellar in their own right. “K+D+B” is a song that I labeled as “futuristically tribal” after hearing it for the first time, thanks to the familiarity of the drum beat. “Wonders of the Deep” is decent as well, but it just comes off as standard techno to me, unlike most of the rest of the record.

Overall, the album really hits the high mark, but there is one last tidbit I feel I should mention to you would-be listeners of Further. Much like one of my favorite albums of the 2000s, this is an album that begs to be listened to from beginning to end with no interruptions, as if it were one long song. Every song links to the next, and it just creates a much more enlightening mood in the same regard. Try it sometime, and you won't regret it.

Recommended tracks: “Escape Velocity,” “Horse Power,” “Swoon.”

The 411: I wasn't really expecting anything going into listening to this album, but maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. Listening to Further was a surprisingly enjoyable experience, and anyone who's ever enjoyed listening to techno, house, electronica, trance, or rave music definitely needs to give this album their time. It's pure bliss in wall-to-wall sound, auditory explosiveness, and basically just being amazing. I can't praise this album enough. Buy it. Download it. Do what you have to do. Just experience it.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]