In superstar DJ terms, the Chemical Brothers are old-school purists. Not for them the Skrillex spaceship, the Flying Lotus cuboid net or the Calvin Harris approach of marking every drop with several grand’s worth of pyro and demanding “put your hands in the air right now!” like he’s doing over a Barclays.
No, they’re of the pressing-boxes-in-the-dark school, eschewing Ronson’s special-guest bonanzas for taped appearances from Noel Gallagher (Setting Sun), Q-Tip (Galvanize) and Kele Okereke (Believe), letting their monstrous beats provide the fireworks. At one point a gigantic clockwork robot is lowered from the heavens as if to mock the EDM wedge-pocketers and their ridiculous onstage toys.
Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands also refuse to acknowledge that their cultural kudos isn’t what it was. Once they were the indie-dance gatekeepers, a guest spot on one of their tracks considered a real mark of respect. Today they’re still courting cult alternative names – St Vincent guests on the upcoming new album Born in the Echoes – but the tunes, though still impactful, have no such crossover clout. Instead, the Chemical Brothers’ shtick has become increasingly terror-tronic: “Help me Lord, I found myself in some kind of hell!” rants a lost soul on Golden Path, and the visuals are straight out of Insidious. On Elektrobank, an increasingly irate Gollum figure rants down the phone, presumably at a particularly aggravating customer services department, while psychedelic hippy wig-out I’ll See You There features voodoo images of skeleton masks and a bizarre man-cow with two-foot fingernails.
Though it’s frustrating that they’ve gone off their churchy show-stopper The Private Psychedelic Reel (on a good night, the best bit of the 90s) they can still hammer out enough hits in Hey Boy Hey Girl, Galvanize, Believe and Block Rockin’ Beats to inspire a hefty nostalgic frug. Irrelevant? Maybe. Impressive? Undoubtedly.
