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Found this review for the latest album
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#4
- dork
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Posted 05 February 2005 - 6:15 AM
Slipvin Escribi�:
And I found this review for the latest album!
Push The (Predictable) Button
What a terrible fucking review. Opinions are like assholes but this review was executed very poorly, imo.
The main problem is that at some point during their career, the Chems have picked up some damaging ideas about what constitutes a good dance album. Album dance has always been a bit of a contradiction in terms. Dance music is meant to be fluid...
Ah yes, another "dance-music-is-dead/dying" journalist regurgitating the same band wagoning crap that's in Q and NME these days. So he's essentially saying Push the Button is not what was expected of a dance record... yet on the other hand:
The problem with ?Push The Button? is that it?s all so predictable. Prominent rock vocalist - check. Dreamy folk collaboration ? check. Psychedelic stylings ? check. Old-skool hip-hop vocals ? check. Despite some undeniably enjoyable moments, everything here feels like The Chemical Brothers going through the motions.
Uh, Ohhhhhh-K. Am I the only one that's spotting the inconsitancies with the author's train of thought?
At least he said a couple of positive things. Until this:
Yet this is the record that will be hailed as another nail in dance music?s coffin. How very sad.
Whatever.
be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
#9
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Posted 05 February 2005 - 3:20 PM
whirlygirl Escribi�:
Slipvin Escribi�:
And I found this review for the latest album!
Push The (Predictable) Button
What a terrible fucking review.
I agree. The first review was really bad also, but this one was absolutely hilarious.
While no one would dream of judging the health of rock on the basis of the last Oasis and Blur albums, the diminishing returns of dance?s household names are held up as evidence of the decline of the entire genre.
Why should this apply for "dance" music but not for "rock" ? (of course, the correct answer could be that it doesn't apply anywhere)
whirlygirl Escribi�:
The main problem is that at some point during their career, the Chems have picked up some damaging ideas about what constitutes a good dance album. Album dance has always been a bit of a contradiction in terms. Dance music is meant to be fluid...
Ah yes, another "dance-music-is-dead/dying" journalist regurgitating the same band wagoning crap that's in Q and NME these days. So he's essentially saying Push the Button is not what was expected of a dance record... yet on the other hand:
The problem with ?Push The Button? is that it?s all so predictable. Prominent rock vocalist - check. Dreamy folk collaboration ? check. Psychedelic stylings ? check. Old-skool hip-hop vocals ? check. Despite some undeniably enjoyable moments, everything here feels like The Chemical Brothers going through the motions.
Uh, Ohhhhhh-K. Am I the only one that's spotting the inconsitancies with the author's train of thought?
I think that in the first quote he was saying that dance albums should be mixed like a DJ set ... which is of course only his view on the thing. Furthermore, he has clearly labeled the chems as a dance-only band so that if the chems one day release a classical music track, he will still fault them for not making a good dance track.
In the second quote, he is faulting them for using, for an example, "dreamy folk collaboration", again. Which is also very funny, is he saying that once the artist has used a combination of anything that could be labeled with some handy trendy words, it should never use it again? I'd like to see him using the same trick for rock records. Bass - check. Guitars - check. Drums - check. A singer whining about love - check.
Other highlights include ?The Big Jump?, where the classic Chemical Brothers formula is enlivened by some spiky post-punk guitar ...
Spiky post-punk quitar is so totally different from a mere punk guitar, or a post-modern new-age nu-garage punk guitar. X-D
Yet this is the record that will be hailed as another nail in dance music?s coffin.
Handy self-executing statement.
(sorry for the HUGE post)
#10
- dork
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Posted 05 February 2005 - 4:42 PM
Slipvin Escribi�:
Hey, it still got 3 stars out of five.
Funny that you all get wound up and suicidal about a negative review. There will be more. It's just another opinion.
Who all is suicidal, Slipvin?
Opinions are like assholes. Sometimes they get a little shitty and need a good scrubbing. ;)
be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
#11
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Posted 05 February 2005 - 5:26 PM
whirlygirl Escribi�:
Slipvin Escribi�:
Hey, it still got 3 stars out of five.
Funny that you all get wound up and suicidal about a negative review. There will be more. It's just another opinion.
Who all is suicidal, Slipvin?
Opinions are like assholes. Sometimes they get a little shitty and need a good scrubbing. ;)
Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one. ;-)
#13
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Posted 05 February 2005 - 8:45 PM
i hope his pen jumps out of hand and coils around his fu**ing neck! }:-)
Those reviews are predictable when bands that released groundbreaking albums some before are comming up with new stuff, it's pretty annyoing
Those reviews are predictable when bands that released groundbreaking albums some before are comming up with new stuff, it's pretty annyoing
E(argasm) = m(usic) x c(hemicals)²
#14
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Posted 06 February 2005 - 1:14 AM
I find the Push the (predictable) button confusing - does he like it or not? Or is someone telling him what to say?
Review from DJ Magazine:
Initially as much influenced by psychedelic post-rock (My Bloody Valentine, etc) and hardcore hip hop as the wild abandon of acid house, former medieval history students Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons meshed all these threads together to produce brilliant futurist music - freaky fx and mental 303 lines set to block rockin' beats. A strong albums dance band with alt.rock influences, their trend-bucking saw them rise to the top of the tree - where they remain today.
Five albums down the line, and arguably 'Push the button' is their finest yet. Tellingly, though it features the fewest famous guests (only Tim Burgess from The Charlatans this time), it hangs together the neatest. Its almost as if, here, the state of the world has displeased them so much that they've actively encouraged collaborators to rail against injustice - with dynamism not present in their earlier work. Perhaps subtlety won't do anymore. The new single 'Galvanize' which should be all over radio by now, is a massive statement of intent to begin. Built over a Moroccan strings sample with Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest on vox, its a militant call to action to a populace floundering under the effects of global warming and globalisation. "World, the time has come to galvanize", the lead line runs. 'Galvanize' means 'to arouse to awareness or action against the predominant and corrupt hegemony', which in a post-Iraq, post-Tsunami world - with inadequate debt relief and mass starvation still a reality - amounts to a juddering wake-up call for humanity. Its will-to-collective power at the beginning of 2005 is immense.
Tom and Ed have often caught the zeitgeist, traversing genres and touching many bases but merely thieving from scenes. If 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' saw them exploring pre-cheesy underground trance and 'Star Guitar' was them messin' with blissful house, 'The Big Jump' is their take on LCD Soundsystem/!! hip-swinging punk-funk. In fact, they touch several styles in their first dancier half, a new collection of shtonkers that'll translate neatly alongside their trusty favourites in live arenas. From the acidic tech-house of 'Believe' to the tribal and indie nuances of 'Hold Tight London' and the breaks sensibility on 'Come Inside', many buttons are indeed pushed.
Sound is the weapon on their more marauding missives, backed-up with some tasty awareness-shaking visuals when they play a live show. Though making people dance is a political act in itself, by track seven the previously unseen vocal militancy returns. MosDef's brother Anwar Superstar (no relation to Har Mar) mines a similar furrow on 'Left Right' to Public Enemy's Chuck D, or Blade at his sharpest, recruiting people as marching soldiers to oppose militarisation and the demonisation of hate-figures. In marked contrast, following track 'Close Your Eyes' - done with psychedelic post-rock band The Magic Numbers - is idealistic whimsy that slides into uplifting folksy peace and love vibes. 'Surface To Air' - a hypnotic big city Spiritualized/Spaceman 3 drive, the most blissfully trippy path they've chosen to follow since 'The Private Psychedelic Reel' - rounds it off superbly. The militant politicisation of fine bands in past generations has invariably led to their best work; think the Stones with 'Excile...' or The Clash and 'London Calling'. This is The Chems' enduring masterpiece. (Carl Loben)
***** (5 stars)
Review from DJ Magazine:
Initially as much influenced by psychedelic post-rock (My Bloody Valentine, etc) and hardcore hip hop as the wild abandon of acid house, former medieval history students Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons meshed all these threads together to produce brilliant futurist music - freaky fx and mental 303 lines set to block rockin' beats. A strong albums dance band with alt.rock influences, their trend-bucking saw them rise to the top of the tree - where they remain today.
Five albums down the line, and arguably 'Push the button' is their finest yet. Tellingly, though it features the fewest famous guests (only Tim Burgess from The Charlatans this time), it hangs together the neatest. Its almost as if, here, the state of the world has displeased them so much that they've actively encouraged collaborators to rail against injustice - with dynamism not present in their earlier work. Perhaps subtlety won't do anymore. The new single 'Galvanize' which should be all over radio by now, is a massive statement of intent to begin. Built over a Moroccan strings sample with Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest on vox, its a militant call to action to a populace floundering under the effects of global warming and globalisation. "World, the time has come to galvanize", the lead line runs. 'Galvanize' means 'to arouse to awareness or action against the predominant and corrupt hegemony', which in a post-Iraq, post-Tsunami world - with inadequate debt relief and mass starvation still a reality - amounts to a juddering wake-up call for humanity. Its will-to-collective power at the beginning of 2005 is immense.
Tom and Ed have often caught the zeitgeist, traversing genres and touching many bases but merely thieving from scenes. If 'Hey Boy, Hey Girl' saw them exploring pre-cheesy underground trance and 'Star Guitar' was them messin' with blissful house, 'The Big Jump' is their take on LCD Soundsystem/!! hip-swinging punk-funk. In fact, they touch several styles in their first dancier half, a new collection of shtonkers that'll translate neatly alongside their trusty favourites in live arenas. From the acidic tech-house of 'Believe' to the tribal and indie nuances of 'Hold Tight London' and the breaks sensibility on 'Come Inside', many buttons are indeed pushed.
Sound is the weapon on their more marauding missives, backed-up with some tasty awareness-shaking visuals when they play a live show. Though making people dance is a political act in itself, by track seven the previously unseen vocal militancy returns. MosDef's brother Anwar Superstar (no relation to Har Mar) mines a similar furrow on 'Left Right' to Public Enemy's Chuck D, or Blade at his sharpest, recruiting people as marching soldiers to oppose militarisation and the demonisation of hate-figures. In marked contrast, following track 'Close Your Eyes' - done with psychedelic post-rock band The Magic Numbers - is idealistic whimsy that slides into uplifting folksy peace and love vibes. 'Surface To Air' - a hypnotic big city Spiritualized/Spaceman 3 drive, the most blissfully trippy path they've chosen to follow since 'The Private Psychedelic Reel' - rounds it off superbly. The militant politicisation of fine bands in past generations has invariably led to their best work; think the Stones with 'Excile...' or The Clash and 'London Calling'. This is The Chems' enduring masterpiece. (Carl Loben)
***** (5 stars)
#15
- dork
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Posted 06 February 2005 - 1:29 AM
Ah, when I have more time I will read and dissect the article a little more - unfortunately I'm getting read to go out.
Anyway, just wanted to point out there's a great cover story and interview with the Chems in BPM Magazine this month!
Anyway, just wanted to point out there's a great cover story and interview with the Chems in BPM Magazine this month!
be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
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