{"id":67434,"date":"2023-08-29T20:40:12","date_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/likecelebwn.com\/?p=67434"},"modified":"2023-08-29T20:40:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T20:40:12","slug":"electronic-music-veterans-the-chemical-brothers-return-with-new-album-australian-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/likecelebwn.com\/lifestyle\/electronic-music-veterans-the-chemical-brothers-return-with-new-album-australian-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic music veterans The Chemical Brothers return with new album, Australian tour"},"content":{"rendered":"
By <\/span>Michael Dwyer<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Chemical Brothers, Ed Simons (left) and Tom Rowlands are releasing their tenth album.<\/span><\/p>\n Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n If Doctor Who ever regenerates as a DJ, his TARDIS stands ready somewhere in the south of England. The precise location of Rowlands Audio Research, the Chemical Brothers\u2019 retro-futuristic music facility, is top secret. But the photos in their forthcoming book, Paused In <\/em>Cosmic Reflection<\/em>, depict an electro-playground from another dimension.<\/p>\n Wall-to-wall silver knobs and plug holes, cascading cables of many colours, towering banks of keyboards, guitars and machines with glinting meter windows await the twiddle of fingers and wiggle of waveforms.<\/p>\n In their midst this early morning sits Tom Rowlands. His partner Ed Simons is \u201con leave\u201d. But machines don\u2019t do holidays. \u201cIt\u2019s how most days start for me,\u201d he says. \u201cToday it\u2019s just an hour and a half earlier than usual.\u201d<\/p>\n This is because the band is announcing two things: A brand new album, For That <\/em>Beautiful Feeling,<\/em> their tenth, and an Australian tour next February and March in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. But let\u2019s stay here at the source for a moment.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Chemical Brothers will perform live in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Luke Dyson<\/cite><\/p>\n This is \u201cwhere everything has been made since 2003,\u201d Rowlands says. \u201cI think it would qualify for one of those hoarder TV programs. I\u2019ve still got keyboards that I used when I was 16\u2026 I always feel like, \u2018oh, maybe that will be the thing that will unlock this idea…\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThere are lots of rare and strange instruments in here. It\u2019s a lifetime of collecting things and being intrigued about making sounds and processes. Every day is spent experimenting with that, really.\u201d<\/p>\n Innovation was easier, he concedes, back in the Dust Brothers days. That was the name he and Simons borrowed from a pair of LA hip-hop producers they never thought they\u2019d meet, much less eclipse as they rose from Manchester club DJs to heroes of the \u201990s dance music revolution.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the studio, in the act of creation, you\u2019re trying not to think about music you\u2019ve made before,\u201d Rowlands says. \u201cThat\u2019s one of the things we\u2019ve tried to ban in the last ten years. You\u2019re never allowed to say, \u2018Oh, well, it sounds a bit like thingy,\u2019 or \u2018That idea worked better when we did it in 1993…\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cBoth of us feel that we\u2019ve come this far so we only want to put out records that we feel connected to, and that we love, but also not to feel impaired by the weight of what we\u2019ve made. Music is fun\u2026 it\u2019s a positive thing.\u201d<\/p>\n For That Beautiful Feeling<\/em>, as a title, glows with reaffirmation. Rowland and Simons didn\u2019t know each other growing up in Greater London, but as students in Manchester they bonded over a shared feelgood backstory. For a moment there, the raves they\u2019d experienced as teens felt like a transformation of society itself.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were a fan of indie music in the \u201980s, as I was, like The Smiths and the Jesus and Mary Chain or whatever, and then suddenly in 1988 you got out of your long black coat and turned up to an event wearing a dayglo t-shirt and purple tracky bottoms and a bandana then yeah, something had shifted here,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the rave scene there was a generosity of spirit. I don\u2019t know if egalitarian is the right word, but it was about the democracy of the dance floor; that moment of community\u2026 Those early experiences of going to those raves and hearing really wild, odd music playing to 20,000 people in a field, there\u2019s enough latent energy in that experience to power the reactor for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s 28 years since the first Chemical Brothers album, Exit Planet Dust<\/em>: an immediate classic that would light a fire under Fatboy Slim and Daft Punk and countless others emerging with the suddenly accelerating genre.<\/p>\n From the outset, the Chemical Brothers had a winning distinction that straddled the perceived dance\/ rock divide. Singers. Beth Orton and the Charlatans\u2019 Tim Burgess on that first album. Noel Gallagher featured on their second, Dig Your Own Hole<\/em>.<\/p>\n For That Beautiful Feeling<\/em> finds the cross-pollination thriving. Beck returns for his second Chemical Brothers collaboration, Skipping Like A Stone<\/em>. A new French singer, Halo Maud, features on several tracks including the exhilarating single, Live Again<\/em>.<\/p>\n Whether looping in Mazzy Star, Primal Scream, New Order, Mercury Rev or myriad \u2018found\u2019 voices, the emphasis is on song-like structures: not always a given in club music. Outsourcing personalities also has the advantage of leaving Rowlands and Simons as silhouettes in the blinding lights of their escalating live shows.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve sidestepped the cult of personality,\u201d Rowlands says. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been those kinda people and because of that we\u2019ve avoided a lot of doing press and stuff. That\u2019s not our strongest point. Growing up with bands like New Order, they all seemed quite mysterious. It was good that you didn\u2019t know much about them. The music is more It\u2019s a feeling, not a haircut, that the Chemical Brothers and their fans are chasing; \u201cthat kind of transformative immediacy,\u201d Rowlands says, striving for the words. \u201cThe thing that holds all these ideas together is that, for me.<\/p>\n \u201cThat beautiful feeling isn\u2019t just constrained to something outwardly pretty or melodic or harmonious. It can be that horrible white noise mess that\u2019s out of control. That\u2019s also an overwhelming feeling.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always that first moment of creation in the studio, of finding this new combination of sounds or emotions or something. Then the next phase is when you actually play it to people, live, and you build that kind of environment\u2026 to maximum effect.\u201d<\/p>\n The duo\u2019s legendary light and video spectaculars have been designed since \u201994 by filmmaker Adam Smith (whose resume, incidentally, includes several episodes of Doctor Who<\/em>). Rowlands won\u2019t be drawn on next year\u2019s doubtless retina-scorching update, except to say, \u201cevery time we do it, we want it bigger.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe one time we\u2019ll answer, like, \u2018No, we\u2019ve decided just to come back with a light bulb and a drum machine\u2019, but not quite yet\u2026 I mean, we\u2019re not gonna take the easy way of telling you to put your hands in the air. We\u2019re just gonna try to suggest it through all means necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n For That Beautiful Feeling<\/em> is out on September 8. Paused in Cosmic Reflection<\/em> is out October 26. <\/strong>The Chemical brothers will play at Riverstage, Brisbane, on February 27, at Sydney Showground on February 29 and at <\/strong>Mt Duneed Estate, Geelong,<\/strong> on March 2. Presales <\/strong>start Wednesday, September 6 at 2pm.<\/strong><\/p>\nSave articles for later<\/h3>\n
interesting than we are.\u201d<\/p>\nMost Viewed in Culture<\/h2>\n