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New Chemical Brothers (feat. Alan Partridge)

Started by Captain Z, February 21, 2019, 09:05:42 PM

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Captain Z

Tom & Ed have a new album out in April called 'No Geography'.



The first single 'Free Yourself' sonically and visually puts me in mind of 'Hey Boy Hey Girl'. As an interesting aside, the video is interrupted midway to cut to a security guard who is listening to a clip of Alan Partridge's Mid Morning Matters (3:20).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wzR_BVFsUU

The second single 'Got To Keep On' is my favourite of the two, and also has a cool music video directed by Michael Gondry, who famously did the video to my favourite C Bros song 'Star Guitar'.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSYwtllbweY

I never really kept up to date with their output beyond Push The Button (I didn't even know Mutya had left the Sugarcubes), but I'm liking what I hear so far.

Have you ever had an opinion about the Chemical Brothers? If so why not post that here.

purlieu

I have two opinions on them:
They haven't released a consistently listenable album since Surrender (although Further comes close);
I love the fact they haven't changed their logo (although Further ruins a run of albums with it placed top-right, which is a shame)

Captain Z

I think those are good observations, yes.

I also just spotted this underneath 'The Salmon Dance' which seems to build on a trend for fictional characters commenting on Youtube videos:


BlodwynPig

Yeh, but Super Hans nicked it from Steve Hillage.

rue the polywhirl

Best way to create excitement about an album? Put out two awful singles. First one is ersatz version of Hey Boy Hey Girl. Second one is ersatz version of Star Guitar with a hint of Avalanches' comeback sound. This observation is in itself a ersatz version of the ones that Captain Z has already put forward. Ersatz is a great word.

alan nagsworth

get that fucker in the terrible album covers thread

Absorb the anus burn

They've nicked the cloud face from Godley and Creme, surely?

buzby

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on February 22, 2019, 06:55:58 PM
They've nicked the cloud face from Godley and Creme, surely?
It's a British Army Challenger 1 tank, and the presence of blue berets on the crew indicates it would be on UN IFOR duty in Bosnia in 1995/96, but the white lines on the road don't look quite right for Bosnian roads.

You forgot this one. Released before 'Got To Keep On' It's a bit of a beast! Love the vocal hook, bassline combo along with that intense acid sound.

https://youtu.be/XH4mats5f-U

Absolutely love The Chemical Brothers and they just keep getting better and better, so I am very excited about the new album.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: buzby on February 23, 2019, 12:15:35 AM
It's a British Army Challenger 1 tank, and the presence of blue berets on the crew indicates it would be on UN IFOR duty in Bosnia in 1995/96, but the white lines on the road don't look quite right for Bosnian roads.

https://www.discogs.com/Lol-Creme-Kevin-Godley-Consequences/master/66025

Absorb the anus burn

Quote from: buzby on February 23, 2019, 12:15:35 AM
It's a British Army Challenger 1 tank, and the presence of blue berets on the crew indicates it would be on UN IFOR duty in Bosnia in 1995/96, but the white lines on the road don't look quite right for Bosnian roads.

As OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead says, the face in the clouds looks like the Consequences cover.


Pauline Walnuts


Absorb the anus burn

Thank you OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead - just dug out my consequences boxset and yes, it is an exact copy of one of the inner sleeve images that feature the 'Consequences Cloud Face' motif.

ajsmith2

But rum that, eh? Just lifting a pre existing bit of peripheral artwork from someone else's album and slapping on the front cover of your own. What's that about then?

Absorb the anus burn

Quote from: ajsmith2 on February 23, 2019, 08:25:30 PM
But rum that, eh? Just lifting a pre existing bit of peripheral artwork from someone else's album and slapping on the front cover of your own. What's that about then?

Maybe Messers Creme et Godley were paid....?

Sides 1 'n' 2 of Consequences are brimful of interesting and adventurous music.... I guess the Chemical Brothers are fans.

Norton Canes

'Things to Come' by Bauhaus artist Herbert Bayer



Cover of the Chemical Brothers album 'We Are The Night' by Kate Gibb


purlieu

Before it was changed to remove all that for the second pressing.

rue the polywhirl

That has really soured my opinion about them further. Who'd have thought a 90s dance act who've been creatively derelict for well over a decade would be lifting other people's artwork for their album covers with little spin or deviation. I like covers of theirs such as Born In The Echoes which are a vibrant technicolour hotbed of inventiveness and imagination and reflect the true unbridled free-reign of their expressivity.

buzby

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on February 23, 2019, 08:10:25 PM
From the booklet of that,


Ah, in that case it must be a Chieftain Mk5-standard tank (it's got the later barrel introduced in the 1975 upgrade programme - the Challenger 1 used a very similar hull and turret with extra armour attached to it), and the presence of blue berets in that time frame probably puts it on the A1 in Cyprus.

It' is a bit rum just using an image from another record though.

Regarding them being 'influenced' by other artists, The Private Psychedelic Reel has a number of similarities to the Bonzo's What Do You Do.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Absorb the anus burn on February 23, 2019, 08:23:11 PM
Thank you OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead - just dug out my consequences boxset and yes, it is an exact copy of one of the inner sleeve images that feature the 'Consequences Cloud Face' motif.

What's the Peter Cook stuff like?

I've never heard that album, but I have seen the artwork, and it would have bugged me remembering where I'd seen that image before.

Absorb the anus burn

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on February 24, 2019, 08:23:50 AM
What's the Peter Cook stuff like?

I've never heard that album, but I have seen the artwork, and it would have bugged me remembering where I'd seen that image before.

The Peter Cook segments are simultaneously fascinating and irritating.... At one point he seems to be doing impersonations of his three Beyond The Fringe colleagues which is fun, but is something of a distraction from the music and apocalyptic theme of the LP.

Here is side one of Consequences https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDTzAfEow2c which uses the pioneering gizmo to its full effect. The production detail and soundscapes are like nothing I've ever heard.....

11CC.

Quote from: buzby link=topic=71825.msg3752004#msg3752004 date=1550968711
Regarding them being 'influenced' by other artists,
url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdT7GEhpM9A]The Private Psychedelic Reel[/url] has a number of similarities to the Bonzo's What Do You Do.

They've got form for being 'influenced' by other artists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRyyJ_fY0S0. I Sit on Acid 2000 - Lords of Acid. I don't have to point of the CB track.

Norton Canes

'Sampled' album cover controversies aside I've loved the Chems right from their early remixing days. Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Home are almost perfect, genre-defining albums. Surrender was great too but Come With Us was a bit of a dip in form, fortunately they hit the mark again with Push The Button which is probably my favourite LP of theirs; We Are The Night was solid too and Further was a brilliant collection of straight-up dance tracks. Shame Born In The Echoes didn't quite gel, despite perhaps their most impressive list of collaborators. I guess Ed is back for No Geography? Even though he's got a reputation for being the duo's Andrew Ridgeley, perhaps his input counted for more than people thought.

It's true that these days some of their tracks are a bit by-numbers but even on their default setting they're a great listen. 

Norton Canes

'Dig Your Own Home'?

That was the Hobbit remix

mobias

I've liked all the singles so far and it all sounds shit loads better than anything off Born in the Echo's (which was basically a Tom Rowlands solo album since Ed was off doing a PHD apparently). So yeah I've got high hopes for this album.

Quote from: Norton Canes on February 24, 2019, 05:11:52 PM
I guess Ed is back for No Geography? Even though he's got a reputation for being the duo's Andrew Ridgeley, perhaps his input counted for more than people thought.


From what I've gathered over the years the Chems are very much a 50/50 collaboration. Tom does a lot of the technical stuff where as Ed is more of an ideas guy, but they both come together for the writing.

Quote from: Special K on February 24, 2019, 05:04:46 PM
They've got form for being 'influenced' by other artists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRyyJ_fY0S0. I Sit on Acid 2000 - Lords of Acid. I don't have to point of the CB track.

The version you posted is a little unfair as they've added a HBHG element to that 2000 live version.

The CB's definatly cribbed from this '89 version which was huge in UK clubs.

https://youtu.be/ob3VStzoSws

Norton Canes

Quote from: mobias on February 26, 2019, 08:04:51 PM
I've liked all the singles so far and it all sounds shit loads better than anything off Born in the Echo's (which was basically a Tom Rowlands solo album since Ed was off doing a PHD apparently). So yeah I've got high hopes for this album.

From what I've gathered over the years the Chems are very much a 50/50 collaboration. Tom does a lot of the technical stuff where as Ed is more of an ideas guy, but they both come together for the writing

I was just going by the notorious Popbitch story from a few years ago saying that only one of the duo did much and the other pretended to press buttons (NB quote from memory). When it was announced Ed wasn't involved with Born in the Echos I assumed he was the 'Fletch'.

Schnapple

Quote from: Norton Canes on February 27, 2019, 09:11:02 AM
When it was announced Ed wasn't involved with Born in the Echos I assumed he was the 'Fletch'.

Nah. Pop trivia: Ed is some of therapist these days on the side, and I believe he took the time off touring that LP to complete his studies.

I thought Ed was present during the recording of 'Born in the Echoes' but absent during the live shows.

Great album that too. 'Taste of Honey' the only stinker for me.

McFlymo

I loved all of Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. They were both very significant albums when I was 15 / 16.

But even when Hey Girl, Hey Boy was released as a single, I just couldn't get on board.

Every time they release something new, I want to like it, so much, but I never do. Which is a shame.

Re: pinching album (and single) artwork, I thought that was always their schtick and I quite liked their selection of random images. I remember thinking that was very groovy and understated in the mid 90s