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Chemical Brothers Push the Button Release Date: 01/25/05 Score: 8.0 out of 10.0 |
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In the mid to late 90's, there were a few groups that pushed forth the explosion of electronic dance music in the United States. The term "BIG BEAT" became a house staple as the Prodigy led the way along with Chemical Brothers and the like in making the movement happen. Along the way, names like Moby, Fatboy Slim, and Beck put together some more vocal garage-house based music to the forefront, and then the crazy "BLUE" song hit the stage while towards the end of the era, Daft Punk's bass thumping electro-house took center stage. Now, in 2005, many of them have been forgotten, or have resurfaced with a different beat (Beck, Moby, Fatboy Slim). The Prodigy has already shown that Big Beat is no longer a threat to the music scene anymore, having an utter failure of a record last summer. Now the time comes for the remaining few to dish out their latest records.
The first of these is the Chemical Brothers and their latest, Push the Button. The Chemical Brothers have always been one to mix genres together and continue to do so on this record, making a nice fusion of techno, rap, and a multitude of sounds. The first track, "Galvanize" features rapper Q-Tip, while the dance-punk feeling "Believe" rightfully features Kele Okereke, the frontman of upcoming dance-punk band, Bloc Party.
"Hold Tight London" features Anna Lynne, but has a feel of a Delerium track. It's steady trance flow feels like another one of them Sarah McLachlan remixes. "Left Right" takes a different turn, sounding more like experimental hardcore rap than much of the rest of the album; it gives it a nice edge. And to completely fool you, the Chemical Brothers toss in "Surface to Air" at the end, which has a grand ambient instrumental intro which breaks into a chill high tempo sunset mix feeling song.
The Chemical Brothers do seem to try one last ditch effort at the Big Beat movement with "Come Inside" and not surprisingly, this is the least exciting track on the album. That aside, the Chemical Brothers have put together a nice album with much needed variety. Cheers to them.
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-Anthony Nguyen
March 18, 2005
