Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons are the musical geniuses responsible for the British Electronic outfit known as The Chemical Brothers. Tom and Ed grew up in South England and met during their high school years listening to groups such as Kraftwerk, New Order, Cabaret Voltaire, Heaven 17, Public Enemy and some gothic rock like Sisters of Mercy and Fields of Nephalim. With an eclectic, open-minded taste in music, they both drew inspiration from a wide array of genres such as Hip Hop, Rock, Psychedelic and Experimental forms of music. Along with artists such as The Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, The Crystal Method and others, they are responsible for shaping the sound of the genre known as “Big Beat”.
Tom and Ed started their careers as nighttime DJs at a club called “Naked Under Leather”. They spun Hip Hop, Techno and House music under the alias of “The 237 Turbo Nutters”, a name that symbolically referred to their old “Blackburn raving days”. Around 1992, Tom and Ed started making their own music using synthesizers, samplers, a computer and a cheap Hitachi hi-fi system for monitors. They now called themselves “The Dust Brothers” and recorded their first song called “Song to the Siren” which they released on their own record label called “Diamond Records”. The song was offered to the public as a limited edition release with only 500 white label copies pressed. Considering the song was set at a very low BPM of 111 Beats per minute, they saw minimal interest from record shops around London at that time. They slowly found support from a London based DJ called Andrew Weatherall, who frequented their song on all his sets. After getting signed to his label Junior Boy’s Own, Tom and Ed released their first EP called the ‘Fourteenth Century Sky’ in January 1994. This EP contained the ground breaking single ‘Chemical-Beats’, which was responsible for defining the genre known as “Big Beat”.
With their rising popularity they soon faced legal threats for their artist name, from the original duo that used it offshore in America. The American counterparts also known as “The Dust Brothers”, were successful musicians composing music assets for the Beastie Boys, Beck and movies like the Fight Club. Tom and Ed quickly decided to call themselves as “The Chemical Brothers” drawing inspiration from their song ‘Chemical Beats’. They released their debut album ‘Exit Planet Dust’ with the same alias, which would quickly become a chart topper at No.9 on the UK charts. With the wide spread success of ‘Exit Planet Dust’ in 1995, The Chemical Brothers were signed to Virgin Records and given their own record label called “Freestyle Dust”. They quickly released the single “Life is Sweet” featuring vocals from their friend Tim Burgess, the lead vocalist from “The Charlatans” and with its success would start to remix tracks from famous artists such as Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Paul Weller, Manic Street Preachers, The Prodigy and many others.
Their collaboration with vocalist Noel Gallagher on the song ‘Setting Sun’ would put them on the UK Charts with the first number one single ever. As their song ‘Setting Sun’ had extremely identical musical composition to The Beatles’ song ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, it was suspected to have unauthorized samples by The Beatles’ lawyers. This would end up having Virgin Records hire a musicologist to prove that they did not sample material from the original recording. By the beginning of 1996, their album ‘Exit Planet Dust’ went gold, now making it their highest selling album to date.
With the release of their second album “Dig your Own Hole” in 1997, The Chemical Brothers were once again chart toppers with the song ‘Block Rockin’ Beats” at No.1 on the UK Charts. It would become the album that would pave the way for the British Electronic Group to build a large fan base in America. During this time The Chemical Brothers extensively toured around America and received countless offers for remixes from artists even such as Metallica. Turning down the offer, they concentrated heavily on touring to build a larger fan base in America. Their song ‘Block Rockin’ Beats’, would win them a Grammy Award the same year for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance.
To add to their success, The Chemical Brothers released their follow up albums Surrender (1999), Come with Us (2001), Push The Button (2005) and We are the Night (2007). All the albums were chart toppers on the UK charts and have proved them to be amongst the most talented musicians that Britain has to offer to the world. They have continued to make collaborations and remixes with famous artists such as Fatboy Slim, Kylie Minogue, Klaxons, Midlake, Ali Love and others. Their work is spotted in countless video games such as Project Gotham Racing, Burnout Revenge, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, Lumines II and WRC: Extreme. In Recent times, The Chemical Brothers have made their way in to film composing for the movies Hanna and Black Swan. Their live shows continue to be groundbreaking presentations of electronic music and visuals that have fans mesmerized around the world. Their albums have been highly influential candidates at impacting pop culture and influenced the sound of mainstream electronic music, as we know it today.
As a professional in this industry, I find the creative developments in production performed by The Chemical Brothers as milestones followed by many of the “new school” electronic music producers. Some of the techniques such as “mashed up drum beats”, granular synthesis, “glitching” musical parts and stuck notes were first found featured in sections of their songs. In my opinion and others I feel that they were extremely influential in shaping the sound of electronic music today, contributing with both abstract and melodious musical ideas to pop music. Their incorporation of arrangements characteristic of House music, has popularized the genre and has made Pop Music more dance oriented in todays time. In my opinion it is off great importance to study the musical trail of The Chemical Brothers to understand the changes in Pop Music and its evolution. They will always be a great source of inspiration for countless producers to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment