The Chemical Brothers - Brotherhood

Posted by Jesse Coy on 09.07.2008

With over a decade of electronica grooves under their belt, the Chemical Brothers check in with some of their best hits.

The Chemical Brothers
Brotherhood
September 2008
Astralwerks Records

While normally not a fan of best of releases, I find myself about to plunge into a third review of a best of release (the first was Billy Idol, but that came with a bonus DVD with nearly all of his music videos, so that’s worth it) (the second was Little Richard, but that included all he originally recorded for Specialty Records). This one is the Chemical Brothers.

Best of releases can serve one of three purposes. At their most basic level, maybe you (the listener) have nothing by a particular band, or at best, only one album, and you want a nice overview, hence a best of. Other times, you (the listener) are a fan of said band, have everything by them, and then along comes a best of release with one track contained nowhere else. Damn! Finally, you occasionally have a best of release that comes with a tasty extra, like a bonus DVD of videos.

While Brotherhood does fall in the second and third categories, because there is one new track, “Keep My Composure,” which features electronica hip hop rapper Spank Rock, and is a pretty slick mash-up of styles, and there also is a second Electronic Battle Weapons musical experimentation bonus disc… for me, this Chemical Brothers best of release falls in the first category. So when I got a chance to review the Chemical Brothers in such a format, a nice overview of the band, I thought, cool.

I like that Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique and Beck’s Odelay.

Wrong group! That was the Dust Brothers, a producing duo. Yet I can claim some justification for the mix-up, because I discovered that at the onset, the Chemical Brothers, a duo from the UK, actually went by the name of the Dust Brothers, in homage to the actual Dust Brothers, until they were threatened with a lawsuit by the Dust Brothers. At first, it was a bit confusing, because I thought, why would a band name itself the same name as another band to pay homage to them? But then I understood… the Dust Brothers were never a band themselves, just a producing duo.

The first thing I did with this release was to look up how many albums the Chemical Brothers had under their belt. There’re six albums proper between 1995 and 2007. Next, it was time to rearrange the track order, because on Brotherhood, it does not follow a timeline. Likely, it’s done for the sake of the flow of the material. After all, it probably doesn’t make sense to stick “Chemical Beats,” where toward the end of the tune, it sounds like your CD player is going all wonky… doesn’t make sense to have that as the second track, does it? No, they stick this track from their first album (titled Exit Planet Dust, in reference to their name change) as their closing track on this 15-song CD.

So what do you have per each album? Off their debut, there’s “Leave Home” (rest assured, “the brother’s gonna work it out”) and “Chemical Beats.” “Block Rockin’ Beats” and “Setting Sun” (the hit single written and featuring vocals by Oasis’ Noel Gallagher) are in place to represent Dig Your Own Hole. From Surrender, there’s “Out of Control” (guitar and vocal work courtesy of New Order’s Bernard Sumner), “Let Forever Be” (Noel returning for vocals and co-writing credit), and “Hey Boy Hey Girl” (a cool, dark electronica groove). Okay, there’s only on track present from Come with Us, that being “Star Guitar” (a little less memorable for me).

“The Golden Path” is actually a single, featuring the Flaming Lips’ vocalist, Wayne Coyne. It’s an interestingly odd techno ditty. Push the Button is the band’s fifth album, which won a Grammy in ’06. Both tracks off this, “Galvanize” (electroica hip hop) (Q-Tip, formerly of A Tribe Called Quest) and “Believe” (vocals by Bloc Party’s Kele Okereke) are quite good. Finally, from We Are the Night, there’s the instrumental, “Saturate,” and “Do It Again,” which may very well be my favorite pick off this collection. Its “all I wanted was a little fun, got a brain like bubble gum” refrain is infectious. Rounding out this collection, in addition to the extra track I mentioned, is “Midnight Madness,” one of the band’s experimental club promo cuts.

I always wanted to get into some electronica, especially some of the stuff that had darker grooves. Being a big fan of 80’s industrial acts, some electronica is likely distantly descended from acts like Front 242, Skinny Puppy, Ministry, and Revolting Cocks. In the early 90’s, I heard the Lords of Acid. I wanted more along those lines, but never found it. The Chemical Brothers’ Brotherhood might open a nice Pandora’s box to not only more of their music, but also other electronica bands.

The 411: I’m just calling it purely as I hear it. And I will say that first off, I like that each of the six releases gets nearly equal representation. Secondly, what I hear, I like. A Chemical Brothers fan might argue over what should and shouldn’t have been included. But then again, if you’re a Chemical Brothers fans, you probably have most of their CD’s, so why are you weighing in on this best of release?

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]