The Chemical Brothers’ Born in the Echoes is finally here and in typical Chems fashion, it finds the Brothers in fine form. A cacophonous rush of buzzes, whirls and builds, …Echoes delivers on the big beat that’s been their signature for over 2 decades.
I am admittedly a fan. I have been since the first time I heard “Life is Sweet” in a Bryn Mawr dormitory freshman year. From that moment on, from Exit Planet Dust to 2010’s Further, I’ve marveled at their ability to do what they do with such consistency of quality.
Part of it is their tried and true formula. Go big. Go bigger. Get wacky. Spiral out of control. Come down, get introspective. Bring it home. They figured out a way to turn “A Day in The Life” and the psychedelic experience into a schematic for an album, and it works.
Without a doubt, since the very beginning, it’s always been the introspective moments on each album that really get me; the “One Too Many Mornings” and “Where Do I Begin” moments. I have at times experienced a devastating bliss, something like Schopenhauer’s Fullest Feeling of Sublime, listening to these tracks.
On Born in the Echoes, it’s the albums penultimate track that destroys me. “Radiate” is the sound of an astronaut potentially disintegrating upon re-entry into the atmosphere. It honestly makes me tear up and it was good cause to revisit some moments of fragile sublimity from each of their albums over the years.
One Too Many Mornings – Exit Planet Dust (1995)
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8sNI194y08[/youtube]
Dream On – Surrender (1999)
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFmzXp5YzWA[/youtube]
Close Your Eyes – Push The Button (2005)
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TenVwGF28uI[/youtube]Swoon – Further (2010)
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCp_3zw-CxA[/youtube]Where Do I Begin – Dig Your Own Hole (1997)
[youtube width=”500″ height=”344″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zv3HmPxSZk[/youtube]