The Chemical Brothers
No Geography

With the release of the inspired Further, the Chemical Brothers redeemed a rather disappointing decade from a musical standpoint. The cosmic atmospheres of “Another World” and “Escape Velocity” delivered a revitalized duo, far from the dance incursions of Come with Us or the too lightweight sounds of Push the Button and We Are the Night. The subsequent Born in the Echoes, although bizarre and at times experimental, failed to meet expectations and proved to be significantly inferior to its predecessor. Four years later, the chemical brothers announce the release of No Geography, which appeared in the spring of 2019 and was preceded by the single “Free Yourself”, an anthem to the liberating power of music with its associated beautiful video.

For this work Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands decide to go big and dust off the equipment used to record Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole. The goal is to create a little journey through time, to return, at least romantically, to the years of big beat and the “chemical generation”. Adding elements of interest is the cover image, taken from the booklet of Consequences, debut of Godley & Creme, almost as if to reiterate the excavation into memory (or the two's vinyl collection, given the massive presence of samples in the tracks). The title also plays its part, with its reference to the poem Geography by Michael Brownstein, which "lends" its voice to the title track to confirm one of the album's theses: the possibility to overcome any obstacle through love and sharing emotions.

Listening to No Geography, one gets the impression that Ed and Tom's nostalgia is not entirely out of place: the apocalyptic “Eve of Destruction”, although looking back, sounds current thanks to the feature by Norwegian AURORA, present in two other tracks of the tracklist (the engaging breakbeat of “Bango” and the spatial “Universe Has Sent Me”). “We’ve Got to Try” can also be considered successful and what's striking, this time, is the ability to blend vocal samples and an acid sound that seems to come directly from Surrender. Returning to the origins implies pleasant feelings of déjà vu, as happens in “MAH”, heir to the various “Hey Boy Hey Girl” and “Out of Control” (its beautiful “I’m mad as hell!” sampled from the eponymous song by El Coco). The album does not contain only dancefloor-oriented tracks but also reflective moments like “Gravity Drops” and the love song “Catch Me I’m Falling”, with its mix of soft drums and analog synths. There are a few flaws: the changes of pace in “Eve of Destruction” can be disorienting or annoying, while the bells in “Got to Keep on” are indeed a bit excessive, but they don't disturb the journey too much.

The result is positive, especially when compared to the flops of the 2000s: No Geography indeed appears enjoyable, free of blunders or embarrassing moments. A cohesive and uniform work, that does not sound like a tribute to the 1990s (at least not entirely), but as a work that manages to combine past and present, vintage and contemporary. Sure, one might expect something more from the Chemical Brothers and it's necessary to add that not only does it not reach the levels of Dig Your Own Hole, but neither does it reach those of Further, the best effort in their recent discography.

No matter, because with the six minutes of “Universe Has Sent Me” Ed and Tom demonstrate they are still capable of taking the listener by the hand and leading them toward unknown galaxies. Worlds without limits, to which only the magic of music seems able to access.

And that's just fine, at least for now.

Rating: 4-