Saturday, December 3, 2011

The Chemical Brothers Take It Further


In listening to the Chemical Brothers latest album, Further, it's glaringly obvious that these guys have matured a bit. By that I mean, Further is anything but eight bangers lined up back to back but rather the most ethereal and err...mature, record they've ever done. This is a swirly, almost completely different, sounding record for them that's more in touch with their musical ideas then 4/4 pumping rhythms. Further is an intriguing record by a duo that that's been around the block a few times and is clearly allowed to do whatever it wants at this point in their career. After fifteen years and practically inventing a genre all their own who's going to deny them to make a bit of an arty album?

Beginning with the five minute epic intro of, “Snow,” the album explodes into a quite literal epic song somewhat appropriately named, "Escape Velocity." While these guys have gotten older, more open minded, and mellowed a bit, it's apparent by this tune that they haven't forgotten everything that made them who they are. With loops swirling off into space, beats bigger than the sun and a song that's so wide screen and so long that it consumes eleven minutes of your time, The Chemical Brothers prove that they clearly still have what it takes to write a proper dance floor stormer. While this tune is mind-numbing stadium techno at its finest what's really of more interest is how The Chemical Brothers manage to slow things down from here and actually create songs that are somewhere just south of being like the Cocteau Twins.

It might sound scary that the Chems have finally embraced their inner-shoegazer but they sort of have. Songs like "Swoon," and "Dissolve," are so much more than beats and breaks, and seem to be full on guitar pop songs that at times sound so un-Chems-like that you'll have a hard time believing it's still them. Further as a result of all this distortion, vocalizing, guitars, stadium techno, swirling atmospherics, and a post club haze is a truly fascinating record. It might at times be a bit inconsistent but this is the Chems trying all sorts of different ideas and as a result sounding like some sort of prog-rock-dance monster with enough distortion and mayhem to leave those in their wake deaf and dazed.

Is Further their best album? No, not by a long shot. But it is an impressive, nearly experimental effort that shows that The Chemical Brothers still have some life left in them. They might be older and wiser, but they're still trying to make songs that are timeless and for that you have to give them credit. Nice work guys.

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