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Album Review
by SaschaS
22-9-2003
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More on: The Chemical Brothers
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| The Chemical Bros' 'Singles 93 - 03' set |
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The Chemical Brothers: 'Singles 93 - 03'
(Virgin)
The Chemical Brothers re-sound our (recent) past
Ten years, then: when we were young and where we’ve been in meantime. The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Singles 93 – 03’ is a timely reminder to the way them and us were. How have the memories survived? Very much intact and still fragrant. The two-man operation, plus guest vocalists, has accumulated an impressive array of songs that, perhaps, didn’t sound that ‘evergreeny’ in the first place.
Now, and this is in no way a reflection on the ChemiBros, the standards have fallen further into disrepute, and even passed mediocrity sounds brilliant. Anyhow, even when something really vivid and über-cool surfaces, such as Alfie’s recent album, how many people take notice? Appreciation of the brave, innovative and invigorating has certainly petered out surreptitiously. As mentioned in Dame Bowie’s feature, no long-distance heroes are needed anymore but instant, sexy and as disposable as season’s fashion.
What has the world been doing during this decade? A number of concerns about the world’s mission have arisen. As time and the world accelerate, ChemiBros freeze and slo-mo time at will, dropping out of the flow and re-appearing at will, seizing time in order to discard it. During their decade of activity, the millennium bug came and went but so did the dot.com utopia that survives as the last bastion of underground and mainstream-subversion (major labels still can’t get to grips with) and the dawn of the new century did not bring salvation.
The mask of politicians’ caring and representing nations’ views has slipped and wars have become real action heroes in real-time ‘movie’. No stuntmen, no CGI, all-fooked reality-TV! The desert explodes and burns, countries vanish, Shuttle crashes back to earth and all the while the media monolith is observing, lurking at the heart of the culture industry, waiting for reality to catch up with its demise. The ‘Burning of Rome’ is transmittable, over and again.
The future tense, according to Tom Rowland and Ed Simons, is indicated on a couple of new tracks: ‘The Golden Path’, with Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and ‘Get Yourself High’. The former, also a single, it is a disco-poppy delight, the latter more Krautrockish, with heavy beats and waves of keyboards… As clear as a frosted-glass view!
The Chemical Bros are already online for the second compilation.
8/10
SaschaS
22-10-2001
The Chemical Brothers’ compilation ‘Singles 93 – 03’ is released 22 September 2003 by Virgin
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