Cyclone

The Chemical Brothers

THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS have stripped things back for their seventh album, Further. They’ve disavowed guest vocalists and crossover bids, returning to their underground roots. And critics are proclaiming it their best effort in years. In fact, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands simply wanted Further to be closer in spirit to their live performances.

Further is still a collaborative album of sorts. The Chemicals commissioned their visual allies Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall to devise videos for all eight tracks – and these provide a synchronised backdrop for what is less a multimedia show than an experience.

The Chemicals previewed Further with four sold out nights at London’s Roundhouse in May. Now the Brits are touring Australasia for the first time since 2008 and, says Simons, they’re anxious to highlight their latest material. “Last night in Hungary we played a first stab at a new show which is like an amalgamation of quite a lot of the tracks off Further – but then seeing how they work with some of our older music,” he reveals. “It’s the same people who’ve made all this music so, even though we’ve changed styles and we have lots of different music, we hopefully have a consistency in our production that helps it all live together. So in Australia and New Zealand we’ll be playing big tunes that we’ve decided we like playing live from Further, but along with some of the older stuff.”

“If you’ve been in a band, or you’ve made a lot of music, there’s a danger that you’re always kind of like a retro act. I think it was good for us that we felt that all the tracks from Further are current and people would wanna see them. We feel that we can mix them up. But we don’t wanna be one of those retro bands!”

The Chemicals, both London-born, met while, strangely, studying Medieval History at the University of Manchester. The city’s key attraction for them was, of course, its nascent rave culture. Rowlands had been in the ill-fated Ariel. He and Simons began DJing as The Dust Brothers, later switching to The Chemical Brothers (after their track Chemical Beats) when faced with legal action from the US producers of the same name. The duo’s earliest official recording was Song To The Siren, which Andrew Weatherall signed to his Junior Boys Own.

Back in London, The Chemicals established their clubland credentials at the Heavenly Social, a hub for the big beat phenomenon. In 1995 the pair unleashed their much anticipated debut, Exit Planet Dust. The follow up, Dig Your Own Hole, encompassed their first number one, Setting Sun – with Oasis’ Noel Gallagher. The Chemicals also emerged as leaders of the so-called electronica explosion in the US. By 1999’s Surrender, they were bona-fide pop stars, transcending dance. Along the way, The Chemicals inspired Norman Cook’s transformation into Fatboy Slim.

The Chemicals’ last foray, 2007’s We Are The Night, again topped the UK charts and won them another Grammy (‘Best Electronic/Dance Album’). They’d collaborated with the nu-rave Klaxons as well as Midlake’s Tim Smith. Yet Further breaks with a tradition, or formula, The Chemicals set on Exit Planet Dust, which had seen them hire indie heroine Beth Orton. This time there are no star vocalists. They’ve even avoided any obvious hits, like the gimmicky (or divisive) hip-house Salmon Dance. Further’s subliminal lead single Swoon evokes the countercultural My Bloody Valentine and Midnight Juggernauts’ space-rock. If anything, the album has the underground feel of The Chemicals’ lowkey Electronic Battle Weapon DJ issues. Nevertheless, their old influences remain: the acid, house, techno, psychedelia and Balearica.

“The main thinking was that we wanted to make an album that was generated just by the two of us,” Simons outlines. The Chemicals didn’t need to rely on other artists – and their schedules. “[The last two albums] Push The Button and We Are The Night had a lot of guest vocalists – and it changes the way you work. You’re always expecting someone else to come in and finish off the music that you’re making and you’re waiting around on other people.” Being largely instrumental, Further is about sound. “It left us with some space. We’re really into playing around with our synthesisers and stuff – and all that’s come to the fore a bit more.” However, with Further, The Chemicals weren’t striving for credibility, Simons maintains. “I don’t think we were aiming for the underground – we were just aiming to achieve a style of working that excited us.”

Further has garnered The Chemicals’ strongest reviews in years from outlets as varied as Mixmag, the BBC and Pitchfork. Most artists with an album are keen to liaise with the press, but in recent years The Chemicals have declined interviews. Ironically, this started before Simons was linked to Lily Allen, becoming a paparazzi target and tabloid victim. Simons insists that they’re not deliberately shunning the press – although, in what he admits is a “cop-out,” their stance is that listeners should be able to appreciate Further without its creators’ explanations. “Apart from touring and making the music, we’re really lazy – I am in particular very lazy.”

The Chemical Brothers are set to headline the Future Music Festival, held at the Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on Saturday March 12. Tickets start from $159.30 (+ bf) and are available through Ticketmaster.

Armand Van Helden

Never was there a more reluctant futurist in dance music than ARMAND VAN HELDEN. Not only has the New Yorker outstayed many a '90s superstar DJ, but he's also presaged the scene's rampant hybridisation. Van Helden, for all his waywardness, is as relevant as ever.

The unusually frank DJ cares little for critics. He rejects intellectualism - and pretentiousness - in dance culture. His attitude towards scene politics is, if not cavalier, then casual. Indeed, the flamboyant van Helden might have morphed into a shameless celebrity DJ, like DJ Am, but that's something else he spurns. "I'm not interested," Armand insists. "I have a lifestyle that I think is fine. I have friends who tell me, 'You're not hungry any more.' I know what they mean. I've had times in my life where I had the potential to manifest a larger scale type of venture, but I've turned it down."

The good-humoured van Helden alludes to extravagant boardroom scenarios with music industry powerbrokers placing Faustian deals on the table. But he wasn't prepared to be a "slave" to fame. "I'm a producer," Armand says. "In order to become a household name, it's like throwing on a clown suit - or maybe a clown nose. It's something that I've just never really been interested in."

Van Helden is so nonchalant, laconic and streetwise that it's impossible not to wonder why he didn't gravitate to hip-hop. At one stage, bored with house, he did hint at a defection. However, van Helden isn't enamoured of contemporary rap, let alone crunk, preferring 'ol' skool' East Coast hip-hop. Armand may have a teenage son, but he's still the b-boy. While van Helden looks the playa, attracting Ali G jokes, he's never craved bling. He doesn't own a car or even drive. At any rate, hip-hop is moving closer to house with Kanye West producing electro. It's nothing extraordinary for rappers to dig house, Armand believes.

Van Helden issued his first record, Stay On My Mind, in 1992, though his breakthrough was Witch Doctor on Strictly Rhythm. Its success opened the way for remix gigs. From the get-go, van Helden was idiosyncratic. His bizarre remix of Tori Amos' Professional Widow topped the UK charts. The DJ invented speed garage with his take on the Sneaker Pimps' Spin Spin Sugar. The perverse Armand caused disquiet in house ranks with his debut album, Sampleslayer... Enter The Meatmarket. It was straight hip-hop.

Van Helden had his biggest pop moment with You Don't Know Me from 1999's 2Future4U, a bona fide 'garage' LP. Armand's subsequent albums haven't always struck the same (commercial) mark, but he doesn't repeat himself. Because of that, the dude continually entertains.

In 2005 van Helden yielded Nympho (cue: the smash My My My) via Norman Cook's Southern Fried, followed two years on by the '80s-splashed Ghettoblaster. Last year he presented a 'greatest hits,' something few DJs manage. Van Helden relishes the prevailing ethos in house. "This era right here reminds me of when drum 'n' bass - and breakbeat - was new. It reminds me of the early days, the energy and how fresh things felt, when drum 'n' bass was starting to become a big thing - and also breaks and big beat and stuff like that. That time was exciting as well. It was open to pretty much anything you wanted to do. Drum 'n' bass would take on all these rap songs and then just go crazy and cut 'em up, and then the breakbeat guys would take old soul samples and cut 'em up. It's like that excitement again."

Van Helden feigns unfamiliarity with tags such as 'fidget house,' but he knows the music and its players. Does he lay any claim to ghetto house? Armand is unsure. "The only thing I can claim is way back in the early '90s, I was a breakbeat and drum 'n' bass fan, but I was known in house music and, at that time, all those people didn't talk to each other. So, because they didn't talk to each other, I was like 'well, this is stupid, how come these people don't hang out?' I didn't get it. I just decided, I'm gonna make house with a drum 'n' bass bassline in it - and that's all I did." He charts the new dance as "a fan." "I like a lot of the stuff I hear. I'm more of a lover than a hater. I just like everything that's going on."

Van Helden isn't coy in general, but he's not exactly forthcoming about future projects. The DJ has lately cut Bonkers with Dizzee Rascal for his next LP. But, as of now, he's not plotting an album. Van Helden is enjoying collaborating. He's even hooked up with A-Trak.

Van Helden seems laidback but, to have achieved so much, he must have been ambitious once. It's true, Armand no longer feels he needs to "prove something," but he's not complacent. "It's weird," he ruminates. "I'm in a zone where I really just look at what I do as a lifestyle and as a living and as a career. I think these days more in terms of legacy." He doesn't wish to compete with other DJs. He's content to unleash "random" hits. And possibly it's that carefree - and eccentric - outlook that underlies all van Helden's accidental innovations. "When the people are like 'you're not capable of making another good song, why don't you just retire?,' then that's probably when I'll do that," he laughs. Won't be any time soon.

Van Helden is part of the awesome Winter Warehouse Music Festival lineup, taking place at the AIS Arena on Sunday June 7. Tickets through Ticketek.