walking upstream…
The Chemical Brothers
photo: alterna2 (flickr) · cc by 2.0 ↗The Chemical Brothers
sourcesThe Thin Air — Ed Simons interview (2016), indie/Jesus and Mary Chain/My Bloody Valentine into acid house and the Hacienda · The Talks — interview on loving My Bloody Valentine and Public Enemy as "two unique worlds" fused into one sound · Wikipedia — The Chemical Brothers (formation, Manchester, Naked Under Leather, name change from the Dust Brothers)
Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons met at the University of Manchester in 1989 and began DJing together at the Naked Under Leather night in 1992, mixing hip-hop breaks and acid house under the name the Dust Brothers before a naming dispute with the American production duo of the same name forced a rename. As the Chemical Brothers they built what critics dubbed "big beat" out of crunching breakbeats, acid squelches, and hip-hop's noise-collage sampling piled into maximalist, festival-scaled productions, breaking through worldwide with 1995's Exit Planet Dust and the chart-topping, Noel Gallagher-featuring "Setting Sun." Across eleven studio albums since, they've remained one of electronic music's most durable live acts, pairing relentless studio experimentation with some of dance music's most disorienting stage shows.
the sound in question
1997
Block Rockin' BeatsThe Chemical Brothers
walk the tributaries ↓
Public Enemy1980s · Hip hop / Political hip hop / Conscious hip hop
Rowlands has called Public Enemy's debut LP the record that changed his life, singling out "Miuzi Weighs a Ton" as one of the most amazing tracks he'd ever heard. The duo mined the Bomb Squad's dense, noise-collage production behind Public Enemy's records — sirens, scratches, and distorted samples stacked in layers — as a direct blueprint for what they and the UK press would later call big beat.
listen: upstream & heresource: AllMusic — The Chemical Brothers biography (Public Enemy/Bomb Squad influence, Yo! Bum Rush the Show as a life-changing record, Cabaret Voltaire/My Bloody Valentine framing) ↗
1987
Miuzi Weighs a TonPublic Enemy
1995
Chemical BeatsThe Chemical Brothers
listen forListen for stacked, distorted samples and wailing siren loops piled on top of a booming breakbeat — the same layered noise-as-instrument production trick the Bomb Squad pioneered, chopped up and pointed at a festival crowd instead of a boombox.
My Bloody Valentine1990s · Shoegaze / Noise pop / Dream pop
Ed Simons has described growing up on "indie music, the Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine and loud guitar music" before finding a connection between that wall-of-noise sensibility and the acid house they discovered in Manchester's clubs — loving My Bloody Valentine and loving Public Enemy, two seemingly distant worlds the Chemical Brothers set out to fuse into one sound.
listen: upstream & heresource: self-titled magazine — Tom Rowlands interview (2008), "We love acid house, techno, hip hop, My Bloody Valentine, Skinny Puppy, New Order, psychedelia" quote ↗
1990
1996
Setting SunThe Chemical Brothers
listen forListen for swirling, pitch-bent guitar-like textures and a blown-out wash of noise draped over a steady beat — My Bloody Valentine's glide-guitar wall of sound reappears as a psychedelic haze over the Chemical Brothers' dance productions.
Skinny Puppy1980s-1990s · Industrial / Electro-industrial / Industrial rock / EBM
Rowlands has directly named Skinny Puppy among the group's touchstones: "We love acid house, techno, hip hop, My Bloody Valentine, Skinny Puppy, New Order, psychedelia — all these things feed into our approach when we are in the studio." It's the industrial extremity in that list — the Vancouver duo's abrasive, distorted electronics — that surfaces in the Chemical Brothers' harsher, more aggressive productions.
listen: upstream & heresource: self-titled magazine — Tom Rowlands interview (2008), "We love acid house, techno, hip hop, My Bloody Valentine, Skinny Puppy, New Order, psychedelia" quote ↗
1985
AssimilateSkinny Puppy
1997
ElektrobankThe Chemical Brothers
listen forListen for grinding, distorted synth stabs and a mechanized, almost punishing low end pushed past comfort — the industrial harshness Skinny Puppy pioneered resurfaces in the Chemical Brothers' most abrasive electro-stomp tracks.