Having listened to this a couple of times I've decided that it isn't
nearly as enjoyable as I'd first hoped.
The title track is probably my favourite on here. The groove is strong
and the beats are interesting. Occasionally, like elsewhere on this ep.,
I found the beats kinda stilted - like they'd tried to cut up existing
breaks into weird rhythms and it hadn't quite paid off. I preferred the
bits where it sounded like they'd just sequenced their own.
I can imagine the second track would be _HUGE_ in a club, but I wouldn't
rate it as pure "listening music". As far as I noticed, there is no
"music" in it, in terms of notes and melodies at all - it's all beats and
scratching. The beats are bloody enormous, though, so it certainly isn't
all bad.
The third track sounds like the Chemical Bros are having a little
excursion into old fusion samples - plenty of really familiar sounding
brass hits and fast funk bass, and a conga line, even. The distorted acid
lines they use everywhere are still here, but with plenty of crazy pitch
bends - almost like a ripping guitar line from an old disco track. All in
all I still thought the track was an utter mess, though. 10 out of 10 for
style, but minus several million for good thinking.
I thought 'Chemical Beats' was about the weakest track on 'Exit Planet
Dust', and as far as I am concerned the remix here does little to change the
situation. What bugged me about it (and still does) was that it only has
one riff and basically never changes... Even on the dancefloor I reckon a
track almost always needs more than just changing beats to keep it enjoyable.
(Polygon Window's 'Quoth' and Autechre's 'Flutter' being notable exceptions)
It seems to me that the Bros have taken their music further into a fairly
obvious direction, and so although they're reaching, the end result is
that they sound like they're desperately trying to be as hard as
possible. As far as I'm concerned, all the hard scratches, wild distortion
and full on beats have started to go beyond fun and into the realm of
macho posturing a la cock-rock.
Michael
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scrot@sans.vuw.ac.nz (Michael Upton)
"Doo doo doo" - Beach Boys
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