The Chemical Brothers
Push The Button

Chemists, psychedelics, sound manipulators, inventors of a cleverly "eardrum-busting" genre!, masters at blending a myriad of musical genres creating pure energy smoothies, inventors of the BIG BEAT, the phenomena of Rave Parties (the real ones! Not the ones we try to imitate so poorly!), the authors of "Exit Planet Dust" and "Dig Your Own Hole," two award-winning albums that changed the way dance/electronic music would be perceived forever!, it’s them... they are the wild DJs/musicians called "the chemical brothers," and in 2004 they returned with their latest and wild studio album.

When I review an album by the Chemical Brothers, I never make comparisons with the past! The chemical brothers throughout their flourishing career have always known how to evolve and change their musical style while maintaining a so-called "trademark" that distinguishes them. That's why in my opinion "Push The Button" cannot be compared to the previous masterpieces by the two musicians; as usual, this album shows their inimitable style but in a different way than in the past (thus incomparable), no longer Techno/acid house and rocky tracks, but in this case a mix of genres in a more commercial and catchy key.. but not for this reason any less significant! 11 tracks of high class, with perfect sounds, brilliant arrangements, and stratospheric power! An album, in my opinion, terribly underrated! After attentively listening to it a myriad of times with a great disco system, I can affirm that "Push The Button" is a KOLOSSAL! A Ben-Hur of commercial electronic music! A perfect continuation of a sparkling career, but let’s get to the core:

As I already mentioned, this album, compared to the past, has veered towards more commercial music, less rave and more melodic, less club and more disco for young teens, yet full of that energy that has always set the siblings apart from the rest.

The dances open with the super famous dancefloor-filler and phenomenal "Galvanize," an excellent mix of rap, house, and oriental music! The "chemical" component of this track highlights, as usual, the skill of the two DJs in sampling and perfectly interacting very different musical genres. The chorus of this track evokes oriental dances recognizable in the typical Egyptian, Moroccan musical style, and so on... yet the typically House base and the vocal part in pure rap style give life to a memorable song! (beyond its success!), but despite being the most famous track, I think it cannot stand the comparison with the other GEMS of the album! We indeed find in the subsequent "The Boxer" the psychedelic and electronic style typical of the Chemicals, a ballad with a minimalistic and repetitive start (it seems like a CD that gets stuck!) and an ending full of psychedelia and distorted sound effects, pure auditory involvement!

"Believe" is definitely the most "TUNZ TUNZ" track of the album, a medium-level Techno/Rock song that focuses more on the BOOM BOOM BOOM rather than on the sound arrangement, although some sounds (like the percussion and the distorted effects blared out) still make it interesting, ideal to listen to with a good stereo system to make noise with friends, but it remains one of the less interesting songs by the duo.

The first real gem of the album comes with "Hold Tight London" in my opinion literally phenomenal! Marked basses and drums on a soft and psychedelic base, embellished with a soft female voice and children's choirs... impossible not to be emotionally carried away by this track, a song to listen to with closed eyes under the influence of mushrooms and hallucinogens... (of course, I'm joking!) a rhythmic/sentimental track for a mental trip!

Now comes the interesting part! The Chemical Brothers invented Big Beat! The music that rocks! The craziest electronic music in history! So, buy some giant disco speakers or a Home Theatre system and blast "Come Inside," a heart-pounding electronic track!!!! Maximum power at 100% Chemical Style! Frantic synthesizers blasted to the max, violent percussion, trombones, a female voice whispering among thumping bass kicks, the listener armed with a good stereo system risks a sudden heart attack! Great Chemicals, like once! And from pure Big Beat, it immediately transitions to a thumping House guitar strum, incredibly frantic, I'm talking about "Big Jump" which contains one of the most fun choruses I have ever heard! Distorted guitars, killer bass, sound effects maxed out,.. phenomenal! The only flaw... the intro is a bit repetitive... but halfway through the song, it explodes!

An unfortunate episode for "Left Right" A rap base, with rap voice and electronic effects... I didn't like it! "Close Your Eyes" I believe to be the melodic masterpiece of the entire album! Here we find the pure psychedelia that made the Chemicals legendary, slow, melodic, soft, velvety, and at the same time "very noisy" ... a union of psychedelic sounds that, accompanied by sweet ninna-nanna-style voices, make this song a wonder to listen to. After this melodic parenthesis, the fun returns with the tracks "Shake Break Bounce" and "Marvo Ging," the first is a light and cheerful ditty with guitar samples, various electronic gadgets, and a male voice acting as choir, a catchy and cute track (recently used for a car commercial) but nothing more. The second, on the other hand, is another gem from the legendary Brothers, the main base of "Marvo Ging" is nothing more than a "slide guitar" sample played backward, on which our guys build an incredibly fun rhythmic/psychedelic base.

A spectacular album that concludes with a cosmic journey of "Surface To Air," with the track opening with Kraftwerk-style robotic voices that gradually give way to a great musical ballad capable of taking the mind towards parallel dimensions, a perfect ending for an album not a masterpiece but surely extremely engaging, just like previous albums by the Chemicals.

I do not agree with those who say that "Push The Button" represents a style drop for this band, and that they have "sold out" to commercial music! Making "chemical" music means knowing how to dose many elements into the cauldron and knowing how to renew oneself from time to time. In this episode, we witnessed more disco music, more danceable for the "mass" and certainly less demanding than in the past, but it is still great music (for those who love the genre), "Push The Button" in Italian "premi il bottone,".. the work of the Chemical Brothers is fundamentally this,... pressing buttons! But you have to know how to press them! With intelligence, wisdom, and musical culture! In the electronic landscape, I think this group remains among the best of all time.

I look forward to the new album "We Are The Night."