London (dpa) – Joy, hope, happiness, melancholy: The Chemical Brothers’ new album “For That Beautiful Feeling”, which will be released this Friday (September 8th), awakens a whole spectrum of feelings.
In the past few weeks and months, electronica pioneers Tom Rowlands (52) and Ed Simons (53) have proven that they still captivate masses of people with their big beat sounds even after three decades. Over the summer they toured various festivals in Europe. And it continues almost seamlessly: with the new album they are going on tour through Great Britain and Ireland in the fall. This will be followed by appearances in Australia.
“For That Beautiful Feeling” is the British duo’s first album since 2019. The record was created in the pair’s own studio in southern England. They keep the exact location of the song factory, registered as Rowlands Audio Research Ltd in the commercial register, top secret, as if they were guarding the recipe for a magical potion. One of the rare glimpses of their stomping grounds they’ve shared so far is a video of a cat wandering across a landscape of keyboards, amplifiers, switches and cables, as seen on their Facebook account.
Chemical Brothers auf Youtube
The single “No Reason” is a track – like so often with the Chemical Brothers – that you can’t listen to without wanting to move to the rhythm. Every place inevitably becomes a dance floor. The title song “For That Beautiful Feeling” is a rather dreamy, melancholic piece. “Goodbye” sounds wistful, as if it were dedicated to a love long gone but never overcome. “Fountains” is a light, funky hip-hop sounding song. The passionate “Live Again” – also released as a single – sounds like hope and departure. In short: the album does not disappoint. Fans can look forward to eleven songs (including the intro) with which the Chemical Brothers build on their previous work without repeating themselves.
Almost invisible on stage
Who are the two who have been among the greats of their genre in the club scene in Manchester for so long? It doesn’t matter, at least that’s what the unpretentious artists think. “We’ve skipped the cult of personality. We’ve never been those kind of people and that’s why we’ve avoided a lot of press and stuff like that. That’s not our strong point,” Rowlands recently told the Sydney Morning Herald, adding: “The music is more interesting than we are.”
One of the things about their live performances is that you hardly see anything of themselves, but instead you get a stunning psychedelic spectacle in the form of projections and light effects. The two of them are not yet revealing what to expect at future shows, only this much: it actually can’t be big and spectacular enough for them, as Rowlands told the “Morning Herald”.
Another trademark of the Chemical Brothers is that they are not afraid to cross genre boundaries. For their new album they worked with US artist Beck for the second time – on the track “Skipping Like A Stone”. For the first time they also brought the Frenchwoman Halo Maud on board (“Live Again”, “For That Beautiful Feeling”). The collaboration with ex-Oasis guitarist and singer Noel Gallagher for their second album “Dig Your Own Hole” is legendary.
By the way, the book “Paused in Cosmic Reflection” is scheduled to be published in October, in which the two will look back on their three-decade career. Even if their work and performances still seem futuristic, they are already part of music history.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230905-99-80532/2
2023-09-08 21:20:12
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