Chemical Brothers Ditch Guest Vocalists for 'Further'

Posted on Jul 8th 2010 12:00PM by Mike Ayers
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Over the years, the Chemical Brothers have rounded up and often relied heavily on the vocals of major rock stars such as Noel Gallagher, Wayne Coyne and Beth Orton to provide their albums with more commercial appeal. While they're still heavily into a visual component on their new album 'Further,' vocal tracks this time are used in a much different way, something new and exciting for both fans and the Chemical Brothers themselves.

"We set about them like pop records that sounded weird," the Chemical Brothers' Ed Simons tells Spinner of the duo's back catalog. "'Block Rocking Beats' and 'Leave home,' those were tightly arranged. This album is more relaxed in terms of compositions. Taking away the guest vocalists [on 'Further'] freed us up. That's why the synthesizer comes in the fore. There's more room for them to sing out."

Indeed, 'Further' is an exploration of heavy, repetitive synth sounds that kicks the album off the five-minute song 'Snow,' which bleeds into the explosive, 11-minute 'Escape Velocity,' a gradual wall-of-sound buildup that's on par with the song's title.

"['Escape Velocity'] is a really good reflection of how the studio looks now -- just walls and walls of modular synths," Simons explains. "Some of the best record's we've DJ'd with are the ones that never let up. We like the idea of trance music much more than the reality. Trance, that sounds like a pretty good idea, but when you actually hear the music, it's not what you want out of it."

That said, it's not like vocals are entirely absent -- the most prominent "singing out" appears on the song 'Horse Power,' with a robot-sounding dude says "horse power" over and over, with a well-timed introduction of a special guest animal. "We actually somehow found ourselves in possession of New Order's old keyboard and on it was a horse sound, so we thought it'd be good to use."

The Chemical Brothers are set to spend the summer playing festivals across Europe and head to the US in late August for a select run of dates. Check out their tour schedule here.