The Chemical Brothers Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands waste no time on their nuclear-weapon of a second album proving they are masters of the techno groove. Dig Your Own Hole opens with a sampled shout-out by old-school gangsta Schoolly D, a syncopated bass line, and a drum loop that gives credence to the song's title, Block Rockin' Beats. This smorgasbord of sounds - a hallucinatory interweaving of hip-hop, techno, trance and the Chemicals' trademark synthesized guitar loop - builds up and cold-rocks the first five minutes of the record like a tsunami crashing ashore. Unlike most productions in the electronic / dance-music universe, the music on Dig Your Own Hole also has the weight of great rock and roll. What makes Dig Your Own Hole the personification of modern pop music at its chaotic best, and a funky agent of change. Dig Your Own Hole is built on a repetition of beats, samples and skewered sounds, but that doesn't mean it's a repetitive album. between bass-heavy house tunes like It Doesn't Matter and Elektro Bank, the Chemicals show where their pop-oriented interests lie - in tradition. whether butting heads with the Beatles (Setting Sun, which features vocals by Oasis' Noel Gallagher), exploring English folk tonalities (Where Do i Begin, featuring Beth Orton) or venturing on sprawling acid-rock voyages (the instrumental Private Psychedelic Reel, with Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue), the Chemicals refashion familiar styles with a beat-heavy, electronic gleam. far from digging a hole, the Chemicals are actually building a bridge, to "where it's at".
Dig Your Own Hole always was, and always will be, a total trip. Painstakingly constructed like a mixtape, Dig… is an hour spent travelling through a kaleidoscopic tunnel; a tumble into a rabbit hole, destination unknown and light source not always visible. Once on the journey, gear changes shift the music’s speed without warning; bass and drums lock into a metronomic union, vocal samples fly in and out of the darkness. And it all builds, and builds, towards a giant, deeply psychedelic crescendo, a chaos cascade of woodwind and distorted noise.
There are myriad voices and musical contributors woven into the sonic fabric of the record - Oasis’ Noel Gallagher on Setting Sun, regular guest Beth Orton on Where Do I Begin, fellow astral travellers Mercury Rev on The Private Psychedelic Reel, samples of rapper Schooly D and DJ Kool Herc, liquid bass from Seggs and Ali Friend - yet each individual melds into the artistic greater good. No one reroutes the Chemical Brothers’ distinctive direction of travel. How could one even begin to try to?
The 25th Anniversary edition of Dig Your Own Hole features five previously unreleased tracks and alternate versions from the recording sessions. The first of these - a frenetic demo version of Elektrobank - is digitally everywhere today; the other four tracks (previously unreleased recordings Cylinders and I Love Tekno and alternate mixes of It Doesn’t Matter and Where Do I Begin) will follow in the coming weeks,
The album will be available as a CD with the 5 new tracks. The bonus tracks will each be released digitally over the coming weeks.
The Chemical Brothers are currently working on the follow up to their critically acclaimed, award winning ninth album, 2019’s No Geography. They headline a series of previously announced festivals and outdoor gigs this summer:
