The Chemical Brothers - Push the Button

Genre electronica Publisher Astralwerks External Links Official Site Astralwerks

It's extra tough for any techno boffins to survive in today's populist bedroom DJ culture, much less a groundbreaking consortium like the Chemical Brothers. As if hairstyles and attitudes in electronica were not difficult enough to follow, there's also the problem of configuration. When the Chems started out it was fashionable to be a two-piece, funny-sunglasses-wearing dance machine (see Orbital), but times soon changed. Pretty soon you needed a girl singer for extra visual oomph (let's face it, some of these dudes should probably just stay in there bedrooms, and you know who you are, Mike Paradinas). Then things just got nutty. The point is that even though this seemingly insignificant fashion pendulum, which has outlived even The Face magazine as an electronica arbiter, has swung back in the direction of Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, it means nothing if the group itself does not move with the times.

Unfortunately, the Chemical Brothers choose to remain in 1997. One listen to Push the Button confirms that the duo obviously regard the Year They Broke Electronica, Maaaan as Year Zero, and therefore judge all dance by that (admittedly) watershed year. The problem, once again, is the pendulum. If you think fashion moves fast, just imagine technology. Things have changed so much that analog whores LCD Soundsystem manage to appear wrapped in the caul of some unforeseen future of dance, while Push The Button's time-honored formula of stale beats and guest rappers is hopelessly dated. There are a few bright spots. Q-Tip's appearance on the single "Galvanize" is promising, if overbearing. "Shake Break Bounce" manages to bring a bit of two-step garage into the Chems' insular world, to pleasantly jarring effect. But it's not enough. Dance music is most invigorating when it allows for disparate elements to come together organically, not in the cut-and-paste manner that Tom and Ed have perfected. Sure, "Block Rockin' Beats" was awesome, but that was almost ten years ago. It's time for the Chem Bros to look at the present, and not the past, if they want a future in dance.