Latest Release
- MAY 24, 2024
- 1 Song
- Push the Button · 2005
- Dig Your Own Hole · 1997
- Surrender · 1999
- Surrender · 1999
- No Geography · 2019
- Born in the Echoes (Deluxe Edition) · 2015
- Brotherhood · 2004
- For That Beautiful Feeling · 2023
- Exit Planet Dust · 1995
- For That Beautiful Feeling · 2023
Essential Albums
- For a short, glorious period in the 1990s, big beat ruled Britain. And The Chemical Brothers—a Manchester duo consisting Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands—were one of the sound’s most successful ambassadors, rapidly looping breakbeats, synths, and samples into a solid wall of pulsing sound that provided a backing track for England’s endless raves and festivals. The Chemicals spent much of the early 1990s working as DJs on the club circuit, where the two dubbed themselves “the Dust Brothers”—an homage to a US production duo of the same name, best known then for working with the Beastie Boys. (You can hear that American influence all over The Chemical Brothers’ work: The guitar licks looped over hip-hop beats; the left-field samples tweaked beyond recognition.) By 1994, Simons and Rowlands had become resident DJs at Heavenly Sunday Social Club, a hugely influential watering hole in London's Britpop and indie-rock scene. Oasis' Noel Gallagher and The Jam's Paul Weller were regulars, and the proximity to some of England's heavy hitters helped The Chemical Brothers develop both a sound and an audience. But it wasn’t until the duo’s sophomore album, 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole, that Simons and Rowlands established themselves as one of big beat’s most vital acts. This is a record that defined a sound—and an era: The album’s opener, “Block Rockin’ Beats,” charted globally when it was released as a single, and the rest of Dig Your Own Hole bounds gleefully between jazzy downtempo (“Piku,” “Lost In the K-Hole”) and rave-ready club jams (“Elektrobank,” “Don’t Stop the Rock”). Dig Your Own Hole won The Chemical Brothers a Grammy and went to the top of the charts in the UK, putting the duo—and their beloved big beat—on the top of the world.
- 2019
Artist Playlists
- The biggest beats from these rowdy, genre-bending UK dance legends.
- Slamming tracks sparked by the UK duo's block-rocking beats.
- Listen to the hits performed on their blockbuster tour.
- Meet the artists on Tom and Ed's private psychedelic reel.
More To Hear
- The artist on “Cheat On Me (feat. Dave).”
- The Chemical Brothers play their latest single "The Darkness That You Fear".
- The duo open up on their ninth album, No Geography.
- The British artist's Mura Masa collaboration "Doorman" is Added.
- The British duo's track MAH is World Record.
About The Chemical Brothers
Electronic music's '90s glory days played out differently in the UK and the US, but The Chemical Brothers are one of the few acts of the era whose influence was equally weighty on both sides of the Atlantic. The Manchester duo of Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands came up in the Wild West of rave's early years, pressing up white-label 12-inches ("Song to the Siren," an early underground hit, made breakbeat mayhem out of This Mortal Coil) and remixing acts like The Prodigy. They were also eager students of Public Enemy's potent, rugged approach behind the boards, which might help explain why their debut album, 1995's Exit Planet Dust, was one of the first examples of British electronic dance music to captivate American ears. One listen to the gargantuan drums, synths, and sample play of signature tunes like "Chemical Beats" and "Block Rockin' Beats" shows how thoroughly they integrated rock, rave, and hip-hop, but they quickly moved beyond the sound called ""big beat."" By 1999's Surrender (which featured the unhinged hip-house smash "Hey Boy Hey Girl"), they'd begun giving free rein to their psych- and alt-rock leanings, dipping into hippie pastoralism on ""The Sunshine Underground"" and recruiting Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, New Order's Bernard Sumner, and even Oasis' Noel Gallagher for guest vocals. They've remained one of electronic music's most consistently adventurous big-ticket acts, their output bouncing between throwback party jams ("Go"), quirky pop ("The Salmon Dance"), underground club fare (the "Electronic Battle Weapon" series), and even soundtracks (2011's Hanna). In the process, they've become something few of early rave's bootlegging beatmakers ever dreamed of being: a bona fide institution.
- ORIGIN
- Manchester, England
- FORMED
- 1989
- GENRE
- Electronic