ok. so it has been far too long for me. i have been starving myself for months, if i ever heard do it again on the radio i would scream and turn it off, i didn't download the album, i really just tried to save myself for that one first listen,

i wanted to start with this white long stretch of nothing, and as i listened to the album watch the white fill in with colour from left to right until it had all been filled in. you can only do this once with an album, once you have heard it, you will never hear it that way again. so i didn't want there to be an already couloured in part towards the middle where do it again is (unfortunately this was the case with saturate, kinda)

also i did not want it to be coloured in low quality colours, none of this MP3 crap.

so i waited.

two days ago i walked into one of the only "alternative" Cd stores in my city (canberra, the capital of Australia). i wanted to see if i could pre-order the album, just in case they ran out the next day.

i walked in and thought i would have a look at the dance section, and then as i was standing there in the middle of the store, my ears pricked up.

"we are the night, we are the night, we are the night."

i stood there unable to control my body, the three guys who run the store were staring at me, i made eye contact with them, and then sprinted out of the store, i was scared, i did not want to hear it. i walked around for a good 5 mins outside the store all wondering what the fuck to do with myself. finally i plucked up the courage to go back in and pre order some copys, thats when i saw it.

at the counter, there was WATN on a little stand which said "now playing" speaking quickly so i could get the hell out of there real quick i said:

"GIVE ME FOUR OF THOSE!"

"sorry mate, it's not released until tomorrow"

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIT, what if i said i would buy five copy's right now if you give me them?!?!"

the guy looked at the other two and then both bit their lips.

"uhhhhhhhhhm...."

i waited

"shiiiit, sorry mate, come back tomorrow, we just cant do it."

i was full of adrenalin for the rest of the day.

(also i'm sorry about the mega huge post.)

the next day me and a couple mates went out to the same cd store and waited for the guy to open up, he did (20 mins late) and we all got our copies and fucked off home.

me and my musical partner james (we make music together, if that makes more sence than musical partner) went back to our studio, set up our studio monitors in his parents bed room perfectly distanced from where we were going to lie so we would get an amazing stereo image of it and the clearest most amazing tone.

we took a couple of photos of us about to listen to it, grabbed a few beers, got into position (after testing about 5 different ones with a chili peppers cd) and hit play.

NO PATH TO FOLLOW

apart from the americal PATH, i thought this vocal sounded like tom, i dont know why, but thats what i thought, it was short and almost teasing us, but even though the opening heavily effected vocals (you can hardley even make out that they are words)were very demonic sounding, it was pretty at the same time. then came a crazy sunshine underground LFO speed change thing and we were in business

WE ARE THE NIGHT

my lord, so beautiful. my first impressions are: they are using heaps of old vintage synths, ms-10, ms-20, mini moog, the tone of the bleeps and melody lines. i can see the machines that created them, i could see tom and ed sitting behind one getting the patch just right for it, the synth lead sounds are just so much more. REAL. it was a huge wonderful beautiful ride. and then we were wacked with the bass decenting over

"we are the night skies, we are the bright lights" (or something like that)it was just so deep, the sounds... so textured. it was brilliant.

ALL RIGHTS REVERSED

Phaser on anything generally makes me not too happy unless daft punk do it, i dont know why but most electronic acts cant pull it off. but the chems can, it was a nice thing to hear phaser on the opening vocals, it worked so well, and then came the little electronic stab, to assenttuate the kick drum. it was big. i still havent taken this one in as much as the others (i have only listened to the album twice in an attempt to save it from becoming too familiar) but it seemed to me at this point, we are picking up where surface to air left off. there is just so much more going on on this record, its too hard to know what you are supposed to be listening to.

SATURATE

such a wonderful name, fits the song perfectly. this is one of the most beautiful songs i have ever heard, and every time i listen to it, i try and take myself back to where i was and how i felt the first time i had heard it. i get this giant feeling in my stomach like something is trying to raise me off the ground from inside my chest. the drums, the synth's singing together, like some kind of song they are singing about being let free. this is the chemical brothers at their finest, i will never forget how perfect this song is.

DO IT AGAIN

oh man, fuck off. this is ridiculous, i was up off my back, eyes open and looking at james with one of those looks on my face like "AWWWW TO FAR, THIS IS ONE OF THE PHATTEST THINGS IN THE WORLD" it was so clear and bumping on the boulevard. we were looking at eachother in awe, at what was happening, crazy effects to the left, then the right, and building up, only to drop us off into nothing but a phat kick drum, a bass note on every beat, a fucking anthemic riff and to top it all off a tough "DO IT AGAIN" excuse me but what the fuck? you aren't aloud to sneak up on me like that, i was all fucking like GOD DAMN, FUNK MUCH!>!?!?!??@?@@ i loved this song, the odd guitar slide in there. man its so good. then ali love is all like: "Oh my god, what have i done?!" but the higher harmony is just mono-tonal up high, such a strange harmony, at times it sounds almost atonal, i was happy.

DAS SPIEGEL

hahahahahaha. mono synth from belive solo, sliding in and out of tune, so cute, a sample of kids playing or something, very dig your own hole kind of sample, =it was like we were all sitting aaround a campfire and having fun, it was all happy and smile-time. like i say it was so cute. and the melodica, i can see everyone in the crowd at a gig singing along LAAAAAAA, LA LA LAAAA. i was smiling.

THE SALMON DANCE

lol much? such an awesome backing track, all fun times kinda thing and then the "chorus" with the twangy chords bending their pitch etc. it was awesome, and the vox, the tone of fatlip's voice. so rad. and yeah it was funny and sammy had personality and fatlip is kinda humouring him the whole time, i thought it was as clever as anything, a novelty song if you will, but the kind that will never loose its charm, wit or awesomeness.

I have to run off to band practice, the second half will be here soon enough.

LOVE IS ALL

And you couldn't put this in one of the 10 other threads?

he has been WAiTiN a long time though :) I think everyone has heard the album now. I await your second second part of the review!

Wow dude, lookin forward to part two. You've been WAiTiN so long it's really great to get the vibe off someone hearing it full-quality, first-time kinda thing. I got a real buzz of reading this, a real passionate review. Nice.

Just so you knowl, the mp3's were a comparably(a word?) stripped version, unmastered i guess is the word, so listening the other day was not new, but it made those colours far more vibrant though they were already filled in. Post soon! :)

Errr, anyone feel like posting an .iso or uncompressed .wavs of the cd on the ftp for those of us stuck in the US?

Damn, even on Amazon.co.uk it doesn't ship until July 2nd! I envy you.

By the way, reading this makes me feel kind of guilty for checking it out on myspace... even so it was still amazing!

dj_sirbadgelot get your butt back in here and post the rest of your review!! :lol:

It's a great read so far, and I'm very much looking forward to the second half!

slipvin:

1. fuck up

2. i almost did post it in another thread, but i did not think it would get as much attention there, so i posted it in its own, i love reading jeanie's long winded reviews of gigs and album, same goes with wirly and the other mob when they write big long fantastic stories, it gets ME excited for them. we all love eachother here, and for that reason, i wanted as many people as possible to read my story, because i hoped it would excite others, just as others have excited me. so there.

3. here is the rest of my review:

BURST GENERATOR

psycadelic. another track that made me really appreciate the old synth's. they really stand out as these brilliantly textured emotional human made noises. this song was wonderful, but again SO much to take in in one listen, i am sure this will be a huge favourite for me, but still only having listened to the album twice, i cans say much else apart from the AWESOME builds of Snare fills on top of the insane sound of a fucking rocket taking off right next to my head, when things exploded, they exploded in the best way possible. an epic track.

A MODERN MIDNIGHT CONVERSATION

80's. rad. man the drum loop with the cowbells was so funky and like i say 80's without sounding the tiniest bit dated. awesome stabby synth chords being modulated like a crazy motha, and yet somewhat 60's psycadelia vocals slammed into the 80's sounding backing track. they were almost out of place, but only ALMOST making it a REALLY interesting thing to listen to had it gone a little more either way (too out of place, or too in place) it would not have made for as much of an interesting listen, i was reminded of surrender art work when listening to this and das spiegel.

BATTLE SCARS

Continuity much? very tastefully done, "no path to follow" i know it will sound very lame and obvious, but not JUST because of the reprise of the no path to follow vocals, this album seems to flow wonderfully, possibly the best flowing chems album? i think so. (that said they are all awesome) this song was rad, one of the more structured ones apon first listen, verse, chorus kinda thing, but still diverse enough to be a very durable song. wonderfull. the brothers seem to like their 8th note steady basslines in 07. very surface to air-esque. the vocals were nice and dry. the song made me feel nostalgic, it had that vibe.

HARPOONS

amazing, so much going on, so layered and thick, it was almost as if the two took every sample they could find and tried as hard as possible to make it all fit in the same key as the song. and the chord progression, also very beautiful. the only other thing which i can say about harpoons is i wanted so bad for it to go longer, but it is good that it didn't because its left a feeling of desire there, leaving us on a cliff hanger, teasing the fuck out of us, only making us love them more.

THE PILLS WONT HELP YOU NOW

i felt great loads of emotion when i heard this song the second time, i was so impressed with the long synth lines at the end, slowly ascenting and bleeeepl-ing. so pretty, so meloncholilie (SPELLING!!!!) i remember when the song was biulding thinking: "i hope like heck this goes into double time" and then... it did, and tastefully too no big explosions, just a nice double time beat as if tom and ed were saying: "what? what are you looking at? we can do this if we want?". a huge smile crossed my face when that beat faded in. and i looked to my left to see James was thinking the same thing as me and we both were sitting there grinning like idiots.

after the song ended, we had filled in all the colour and it would never be like that again. tom and Ed gave me one of the most awe-inspiring moments of my life yesterday, and this is why i am so in love with their music and them. it seems silly, i dont know either of them, they dont know me. but i want them to aknowledge me, pat me on the back, something, but why would they, and why do i feel that way about them? its because they have done so much for me. and i just want them to know that when a fan says "OMG I LOVE YOU!!" dont just shrugg it off, apreciate it, because this is what they have recieved off the chemical brothers.

this over the top emotional build up inside a person, which i can achieve in NO other way. you provide us with this tom and ed, thats why we crave your aproval, thats why when ED posts in a thread EVERY ONE goes ape shit and tried to get him to talk back to them, because you are our only provider of all that energy i have recieved over the last day. i love you both for making me feel like i feel right now. im getting all choked up about it.

thanks

after the album, i was a wreck, i knew it was going to be a long time before i would ever recieve such a gift again, if i ever do... god help us all if we dont. i did not know what to do with my self. my life had peaked and there was no way to get back to where i just was. it was all very sad. but i wouldnt have it any other way.

Nice. Glad to have read this!

CONGRATULATIONS BADGE, YOU'VE POPPED YOUR 'WE ARE THE NIGHT' CHERRY!! :D :D :D

Now I'm late for work, damn...

damn, u'r a lucky man to have popped it with the real thing! well deserved patience! hope u like it! do post u'r thoughts over a few days once u start getting used to it.

@designer_voodoo -- I'm in the U.S. I got the album from JP (hmv.co.jp actually) .... stoopid album delays. heh.

dj_sirbadgelot, I spent nearly an hour lurking on the board just now and I read through your fantastic review a few times now (really!) Thank you for posting your thoughts on this. A lot of time and effort reviewing must have taken a lot out of you, especially since you were still buzzing from having heard the album for the very first time. I enjoyed what you have to say about We Are The Night, a lot - the first impressions you got were very much like what I felt and it's so awesome that you're getting so much out of this album. What's even greater is that you got to listen to this album with someone who is on your same wavelength - or at least, James was on the same wavelength as you when you were both done listening. :)

Badgelot....

That was the best review ive read so far! I mean Whirly's one was also wicked but she uses to difficult that i dont always understand :lol:

I really understand what you mean. When i first heard the album i was the same! I lied on my couch for the second listen and i cannot explain what happend to me - but you probably now.

Its SO good.

Its amazing how this thing that we call music - sounds put togheter in a certain arrangement - can make you feel more than you would ever do with other things.

:) word up to that ^^^.

i have been waiting all day to get home from work to listen to the album again, thank christ i am home.

thanks again tom and ed.

Cool review - respect on holding out until the release date!

"And you couldn't put this in one of the 10 other threads?"

- coming from the person who made the thread "Slipvin's WATN review" is a bit rich.

BAM!

Yep, but I was the first one who posted a WATN review on here.

Therefore I rock, and the rest are copycats and deserve it to be humiliated by the mighty Slipvin.

It's that you like Fluke and 2-Bit Pie, otherwise... you're a Lucky Monkey. (inside joke alert!)

no u were not - not by a longshot! :p

ok u were - please don't humiliate me mightyman!

lol - in that case I guess I'll just slipaway on pam am into Philly, looking out at the blue sky and the absurd world around my spine, hidden in some kind of bubble, awaiting the bullet in that snapshot instant, the final devestating atom bomb that brings a pulse cut out of the head and into the hand. At that moment the groovy feeling will overwhelm all who want to celebrate and, despite the life support, we will be on top of the world. What a load of easy peasy tosh. But hey, I guess someone might get the references ;p

Nice review Sirbadgealot, so I think thats mission accomplished for us then!!

Its way too early for me to post a review of WATN but it will appear, probably in a week or two.