at a glance...

Hometown: Manchester, England
Formed: 1992

Personnel:
Tom Rowlands -decks, effects
Ed Simons -decks, effects

Bands in the family :
Oasis, Justin Warfield, Mercury Rev, The Charlatans, Primal Scream, Spiritualized, Beth Orton

Notes:
Tom and Ed, then trading as the Dust Brothers as a tribute to the heroic production minds behind Paul's Boutique, made their name first as party DJs extraordinaire at Manchester's Naked Under Leather and Heavenly Records' nascent Sunday Social in London. As they ran out of records bangin' enough for their parties, they turned their hands to remixology, including stellar turns on Bomb the Bass' "Bug Powder Dust" and Deep Throat's "Mouth Organ." Debut single "Song to the Siren" impressed Andy Weatherall enough to start dropping it at his Sabresonic nights, and big beat manifesto "Chemical Beats" paved the way for the first Chemical Brothers album, Exit Planet Dust. Soon a whole new club culture emerged in the wake of the Brothers and their Social sets, and dozens of indie and techno acts dumped their old tools for breakbeats and 303s. Second LP Dig Your Own Hole saw Tom and Ed perfecting their head-mashing template while at the same time hinting at a more experimental muse.

Links:
Chemical Brothers Mothership
Chemical Brothers at Red Rocks
We Love The Chemical Brothers

As an exciting breakbeat sound emerged from London's clubs and threatened the upper regions of the charts, Tom and Ed Chemical were anointed Godfathers of Big Beat. They responded to expectations with a record that simultaneously seized the party by the throat and left its gatecrashers behind.

Dig Your Own Hole, like so many great albums, begins with a statement of intent and closes with a statement of ambition. "Block Rockin' Beats" is the perfect opening volley, an even-better-than-the-real-thing big beat monster, packing the EC limit of breaks, stupidly funky bass and wailing sirens, all capped by Schooly D's call-to-arms. "Dig Your Own Hole" and "Elektrobank" raise the stakes, pushing maximum dancefloor tempo and featuring some truly ear-splitting effects.

"Setting Sun" expands the agenda, Noel Gallagher's pop song doing battle with the Chemicals' freakbeat tribute to "Tomorrow Never Knows." A couple of mechanized acid tracks push the boat out further before Beth Orton returns for another slice of delicious comedown future folk on "Where Do I Begin?"

Yet it's all virtually overshadowed by "The Private Psychedelic Reel." Featuring astral clarinet and tape-loop input from Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, this is the monolith the Brothers always threatened to build. The clattering drums and droning sitar unwind like a 24th-century cover of The Stone Roses "I Am the Resurrection": dynamic, urgent and more emotive than you ever thought machine music could be. Tom and Ed said this song pointed to their future. Everyone else could only try to keep up.