Turning Beats To Bucks: 'Work' Well Worth the Labor

BROTHER'S GONNA WORK IT OUT

Chemical Brothers

Astralwerks

In Dust We Trust? You'd better this time. Mad beats, ingenious mixing and more mad beats make Brother's Gonna Work It Out, the new DJ mix album by the Chemical Brothers a magnificent record. The Chemical Brothers sampled from and remixed songs by a number of other bands: The Micronauts, Spiritualized, Unique 3, Willie Hutch and Manic Street Preachers to name a few. Listening to this compilation of house techno gives an impression of an actual live performance of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, the duo who are the Chemical Brothers.

Rowlands and Simons weren't always the Chemical Brothers. When they hit the Manchester club scene in the early '90s, the two DJs were the Dust Brothers, attracting a cult following at the clubs Naked Under Leather and Most Excellent. Their mixing philosophy and music choice at the time are best described by Rowlands himself, "Big Bass, Big Drums, Siren, Mad." Brother's Gonna Work It Out includes several songs frequently mixed by the Dust Brothers during their early shows. Samples from DBX, Serotonin Project and Dubtribe Sound System all provide glimpses into the past of the Chemical Brothers.

Brother's Gonna Work It Out starts off with Willie Hutch's 1973 Motown Records song which lends its title to this album. The song commences the record the same way it kicked off the Chemical Brothers' Dig Your Own Hole tour shows: by easing the listener into the complex drum and bass rhythms which are the defining characteristic of Tom Rowlands' and Ed Simons' music. Shortly, a dazzling fusion of "Block Rockin' Beats" and "Not Another Drugstore" dominate the play-back as the well-known beats from the U.K. chart-topper mix with the dope rap lyrics from the song originally found on the "Electrobank" E.P. One of the greatest moments of the album occurs about eight minutes into the first track--an intense distortion is imposed on "Block Rockin' Beats" as it crescendos and eventually relinquishes its dominating role.

The almost 69 minute album of 23 mixed songs is divided into only five tracks; even the boundaries between the tracks are not at all distinct. It should be listened to in its entirety as it's pretty much non-stop mad beats from start to finish. The themes introduced at the end of the first track continue into the second as the familiar vocals blend with a prominently repeated bass riff. A few minutes later, the mix takes on a retro feel while incorporating samples from Kenny Dope, Badder Than Evil and Unique 3. This sound--which mixes several samples and songs together--is omnipresent in Brother's Gonna Work It Out and gives the record its live DJ performance feel. "It's brought alive some of the tracks that, maybe, weren't quite as powerful in their isolated form," Simons commented in a recent interview. "That's one of the good things about the mix record."

One of the downsides to Brother's Gonna Work It Out is that the average listener will not recognize many of the original records that the Chemical Brothers have mixed. It is hard to appreciate a remix without ever having heard the original version. For these people, tracks three and four may drag on. However, the album does finish with mixes of two very familiar songs: Manic Street Preachers' "Everything Must Go" and Spiritualized's "I Think I'm In Love." The effects and rhythms sampled into "Everything Must Go" make it stand out as a great moment in the record. Just as Brother's Gonna Work It Out started out with the same opening number as a live show, it concludes with one of the usual ending songs. "We normally end with this or 'Private Psychedelic Reel,'" commented Simons. "This time we plucked for the spiritualized."

Overall, Brother's Gonna Work It Out is a lot easier to listen to than Dig Your Own Hole was. The Chemical Brothers seem to have abandoned the absolutely straining-to-the-ear style of their 1997 break-through album. This is not to say, though, that Brother's Gonna Work It Out is soothing. It is still complex rhythmic dance music, but the cacophonous sound that dominated Dig Your Own Hole is for the most part gone.

Definitely a unique album, the DJ mix project incorporates the work of a number of artists into continuous dance music. For those of us that didn't make it to Glastonbury this year, Brother's Gonna Work It Out provides us with a glimpse of how the Chemical Brother sound on stage.