The Chemical Brothers
Born in the echoes

When I was a teenager, I used to listen to the Chemical Brothers on headphones or stereo.
They were a pretty cool band because they mixed electronic brashness with the hardness of psychedelic rock. Yes, because it's always been said that the Chemical Brothers are psychedelic, you know? Well, I didn't really know because, in truth, I didn't often find myself listening to their records with drugs. No, not even a spliff was rolled with their records. Then the duo started to age, and in "We are the night" they sounded like they were playing country, a new idiotic term was coined to define their realm - edm - which didn't exist in their time and musically had nothing to do with them. And it still is. Then the excellent "Further" came out, where the fusion of rock and electronics is complete, and now this.

"Born in the echoes" is the most drugged album by the Chemical Brothers. Perhaps today's ultra-commercial electronic music has ended up screwing even me, but the heaviness of this album seems unheard of to me. Or maybe they have always been this heavy, and it would have been better if I had dedicated a few joints to them in my life. It certainly makes sense to have one with this album. Here the Chemical Brothers return to the times of Dig Your Own Hole and Surrender, but they up the ante. More predominance of bastard techno (EML Ritual, Just Bang, and Reflexion almost lined up, a triptych that would floor a bull) kraut-rock tracks so on a tear that Can are comfortably evoked (I'll see you there, a doped version of Setting Sun) tracks without any center (Under neon lights, which they had the balls to release as a single) and sudden bursts of guitar cacophony (the heavily armored Taste of honey, my favorite track of the batch).

It almost seems like the two wanted to confirm their identity because there really is nothing new in the sound of this album, unlike in Further where they refined the kraut-cosmic dimension unheard of until then from them. What stands out, therefore, is the spontaneous rusticity with which everything seems packaged, going against both current trends and their own discography. In fact, there has always been a certain degree of perfectionism in CB's records, so despite the sudden lysergic bursts, the tracks had a rather repetitive structure, often to the point of overkill (see Push the button and We are the nights but also the same Dig Your...). Born in the echoes breaks the formula a bit, presenting imperfect, unpredictable, jammed pieces. More rock than electronic.

This new approach doesn't seem to always work for me - I have yet to fully come to grips with Under Neon Lights and don't know how to appreciate the new ignorant pogo track Just Bang, but when it works, it's a delight - see the title track and the subsequent Radiate, which winks at post-rock. In any case, at this point, I don't think it would make any sense to judge the album without a joint, so make sure to also stop by your dealer when you return home with the album.

In the meantime, I'll listen to it again like this, sober, happy to know that the Chemical Brothers are still here, still brothers and mates, and still playing music for addicts and assorted thrill-seekers. Things that always fill the heart with joy.