The Chemical Brothers – Exit Planet Dust (1995)

The time had come for these two guys, not actually brothers (Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands) to release their unique, distinctive and collectable album named Exit Planet Dust. They met each other at University and began their love of music professionally shortly after graduating. After a legal challenge by using the name The Dust Brothers, they switched their name to The Chemical Brothers and began to Exit Planet Dust.

Let’s get stuck into it.

We begin with the droning sounds of Leave Home and some absolutely brilliant Acid House like samples. Some absolutely brilliant bass guitar sounds and drum loops go bang! Right into your ears. This is truly timeless and fantastic music from the word go. It has many tripped out sounds on this tune and is worth listening to, every time. The 1990s gets grooving right here, ladies and gents. It is so good that goosebumps come across one’s skin upon listening. A great start to this album. It segues into the next track in total Acid mode.

Next is the absolutely druggy sounding bass riff of In Dust We Trust. This is proto-Dubstep, and it is a requirement not to be sober at least one time that you listen to this track. It is more than the trashy nature of most Dubstep today and is intelligently and wonderfully crafted together by the duo. It’s very danceable as well and blows almost everything else away at the time. Extremely good – and a well structured listen.

Song To The Siren – Live From Sabresonic Nightclub, United Kingdom 1994 is not the original tune, which is a bit longer. Still, it is a short and excellent tune with plenty of subsonic bass and groove-based beats which is a refreshing listen. Recorded and mixed specifically for this album, it would have been better if it were the original. But hey, at least it is here. A good tune, and mixed nicely. The cut-up female vocals are awesome.

Three Little Birdies Down Beats is a good straightforward EDM tune with some cool original sounds. It sounds a lot like the stuff you would love to play in your car, driving down the Autobahn in Germany at twice the speed limit of a usual highway. It’s repetitive but interesting and listenable enough to be enjoyed a lot. Awesome stuff. Another great listen, good job guys. It zooms right into bass and beats part in the second half of the tune, an interesting twist.

Next is the short and odd Fuck Up Beats. It may be filler, but it is decent filler. It is a good exercise in sonic textures and beats for our ears. Nice stuff, definitely a good listen here.

The self-explanatory Chemical Beats is a little annoying sounding to one’s ears after a few listens but still is not the worst track on this recording. It is a good exercise in sonic buildup and release, which is quite cool. Definitely, a listen and continues the themes on this album nicely. Good stuff.

Chico’s Groove is a laidback and listenable sonic journey into sonic realms unusual to most people’s ears. It is still a brilliant and listenable piece, something you can close your eyes and chill to given the mood. Good stuff to relax to, it’s not quite Ambient music though. It is very psychedelic.

One Too Many Mornings is a slow piece with some rather odd subsonic beats and unusual grooves to hear. It sounds like what one would listen to after a massive hangover and is a little lacking compared to the other tunes on the album. It’s okay though, just not extraordinary. Rather repetitive.

Next is the awesome epic Life Is Sweet. It’s a better tune and is a more upbeat and positive listening that previous track. It’s about enjoying life as it comes. There is a great sense of melody here. Good stuff, and refreshing to hear. A laidback and chill tune yet probably should have been made shorter though. It segues in a strange sonic sense into the next track.

After that, we go into Playground For A Wedgeless Firm which is a montage of acid and beats. It is likely DJ set stuff from The Chemical Brothers here but still sounds okay. It’s not as good as the stuff that they would come up with later on in the decade though, and unfortunately, this album seems to be weaker on the second side. Still, it’s okay, just not brilliant.

Alive Alone is probably not worth hearing as it is super depressing lyrically, featuring singer Beth Orton who was a rising star at the time. It’s rather strange to go from one emotional extreme to another on this album, and therefore makes it rather an inconsistent listen. At least this is the last track and is worth skipping if you feel that is worth doing.

Overall, this is a very good album. However, The Chemical Brothers would deliver better quality material on the next two albums. It does stop short of being a great album for this reason. A good listen, particularly if you want a different and sort of more laidback EDM sort of album.

8/10