Chemical Brothers
Surrender
[Astralwerks]
Rating: 9.0
The poster boys of big beat, that hip amalgam of electronica and rock that
has dug its way into the national consciousness via "The Rockafeller Skank,"
have been busy since their 1997 breakthrough, Dig Your Own Hole.
Maybe last year's DJ mix album, the reasonably decent Brothers Gonna
Work It Out, should have been the clue, but Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons
have clearly been raiding a library- sized record collection since their
last offering of "original" music.
"Music: Response," the album's leadoff, starts like a ride on the Autobahn
with Kraftwerk circa the mid '70s, with its analog synth blips and monotone
computerwelt voices, before tossing in some ferocious beats to bring
Krautrock into the new millennium. The mood carries through on "Under the
Influence" with more Kraftwerk- styled noodlings. Meanwhile, their best
instrumental effort is "The Sunshine Underground," an eight- and- a- half
minute ride through chiming tones, wafting flute- like sounds, and sputtering
and gurgling synths that intertwine with the briefest of dreamy vocals.
Actually, it wouldn't have been out of place on the last Orbital album.
Surrender will receive a ton of hype based on its superstar guest
appearances, and none more historically relevant than "Out of Control" with
New Order's Bernard Sumner on vocals. Being electronic dance music freaks
from Manchester, New Order is like the holy grail to the Chemical Brothers
and it's easy to see why. The Chemicals share with their Manchester
predecessors an obsession with hypnotic, melodic, dance beats. "Out of
Control" works so well it could be a lost track from Low Life.
After his turn on "Setting Son" with the Chemicals in 1996, Oasis'
terminally out- of- style Noel Gallagher returns for another psychedelic,
Beatles-esque anthem on "Let Forever Be," again snagging the rhythm track
from "Tomorrow Never Knows" off Revolver.
Surrender is both the Chemical Brothers most immediately satisfying
work and, perhaps not coincidentally, the most like a rock album of their
career. Unlike a fair share of techno, these songs feel like "songs,"
not a collection of clever samples and a race to the fastest BPM on the
planet. Yeah, you can go out and buy your jungle, your trance, your
trip-hop and your ambient, but why would you when you'd be sacrificing
the greatest gift of all: Surrender's love and understanding.
-Sarah Zupko