The Chemical Brothers

This powerful second outing sees Tom and Ed going large with "Block Rockin' Beats," "Setting Sun" and the magnificent "The Private Psychedelic Reel," This is a big loud album for big loud clubs and it marks the point where they really took off. Oasis's Noel Gallagher's vocals bridge the rock/electronica divide, as do the use of (shock) "real" instrumentation throughout.

The list of ingredients reads like some techno nerd's record collection run amok. But the
whole thing roars like the Massed Turntables of the Apocalypse: a high-stepping bass and
drop-kick beats that sound like a speed-and-ecstasy spin on Sly and the Family Stone's
wicked '69 jam "Sex Machine"; the reverb-and-percussion voodoo of reggae-dub wizard
Lee Perry; a death-throe synth that howls like Jimi Hendrix's Strat in feedback p... More >

Their secret isn't technowizardry, formal daring, or Lord help us eclecticism. As with so many pop wunderkinds, it's spirit--generous, jubilant, unfazed by industrial doom, in love with energy and sound. Noel Gallagher only wishes he had their heart; they say more with a borrowed catch-phrase--"Who is this doin' this type of alphabetapsychedelic funkin'?"--than he can with a whole album of verse-chorus-verse. Of course it matters that they're not retro. But it matters even more that their futurism is neither exclusionary nor puritanical. (Grade - A-)