The Chemical Brothers
Live 05

THE REVIEW

In 2005, "Push The Button" was released, an album that caused many fans who loved the previous sound to turn away from the Chemical Brothers. Even today, it is, so to speak, repudiated.

During the promotional tour, a kind of Live EP was digitally released, containing three tracks from this latest effort.

This "Live 05," perhaps unknown to many, encapsulates the best that "Push The Button" managed to produce.

We're talking about "Close Your Eyes", born from the collaboration with the Magic Numbers, back then an emerging Indie Rock group. A track that doesn't have the Big Beat atmosphere we're used to hearing from the brothers, but expresses itself excellently through almost Post-Rock, dreamy sounds that invite us to close our eyes to the sound of a glockenspiel. The voices are soothing to the soul, at times poignant.

"Surface to Air", or the best track the album had to offer. To describe it, I'll share a personal experience: it's summer and it's 5:20 in the morning. I take my beat-up bike and start my daily ride around the island where I live. 4,000 inhabitants but the road is deserted for almost all of its 11 km. I've found the right rhythm and the track begins. I want to let myself go to its traveling atmosphere but my mind is already elsewhere. The bike is lifting off the damp asphalt, gaining even more speed, and I become a speck in the sky...

The other chosen track is "The Big Jump", just to remind everyone that they still know how to blow the speakers with depth and grit as always. For the live occasion, it's cut and reduced to a modest 3 minutes, but it's enough to make a mark.

Great offerings from "Push The Button," I recommend re-evaluating it.