WHEN is a dance hand not a dance band then they're called The Chemical Brothers and their music is as rock'n'roll as it comes. The Brothers' new EP, Loops Of Fury, which is totally made with synthesisers and computers, is worlds away from the heaps of synthetic dross usually associated with dance acts and there he talk in the village that The Chemical Brothers may be continuing the trend set by trip hop last year, namely, messin with the parameters of what is or what is not classifiable as rock music.
14's not as if The Chemicals are trailblazers the sort of crossover music they indulge in can also be found in similar measures between the grooves of any Left field or Orbital recording. That their profile is not as high as it could be has little to do with their music and a lot to do with the white boy guitar rock fixations of people who can't quite comprehend the fact that there's more to a band than a drum/bass/guitar line up.
The Chemicals, who list Jesus and Mary Chain as a major influence on their work (how undancey can you get?), manage to merge rock and dance by producing songs that actually have a boring old verse chorus verse structure. Granted their songs are propelled by swirling dance beats, $ but deep in the mix you'll hear more than the odd bit of guitar.
All of this is hardly surprising when Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons (who make up the band) tell you that the reason they decided to relocate to Manchester and start making music there, was simply because The Smiths came from Manchester (impeccable indie credentials). They arrived in the city in the dying days of the "Manchester" scene, started DJ'ing and gave themselves the name of The Dust Brothers, in honour of two famous US hip hop producers (they had to change their name to The Chemical Brothers when they started to get famous and the original duo protested).
After a few singles on the indie dance label, Junior Boys Own, they legged it down the motorway to London and started playing in a club called Heavenly Sunday Social. The Heavenly club became one of the most "happening" clubs in the city and soon after Tricky became a regular (and dragged Paul Weller along with him) Tim and Ed were rising above the category of "cult".
You could take a very skewered look at Tim and Ed's newfound status as dance/indie stars and say that they're just another bunch of white kids making black music palatable for the white record buying public. "It is relevant that we come from middle class backgrounds and it's relevant that we're white," says Ed. "We haven't come to dance music through soul or jazz or even reggae. We've come from bands like the Jesus and Mary Chain and that does have an effect on the music."
Listen and learn for yourself on Loops Of Fury, out now on Virgin Records.
BRIGHT young hopes, 60ft Dolls (another Rough Trade signing) have a rather lovely new release in the shops called Stay. Make sure you hang around for the third song on the EP, Rosalyn, when the neopunks come over all Brian Wilsony and go after the elusive Pet Sounds sound ... China Drum were highly impressive when they supported Ash on their recent tour but their new offering, Can't Stop These Things, ain't up to much and why (oh why) did they include their irritating power chord version of Wuthering Heights? Back to the drawing board for them, and they should consider changing their name while they're at it ... 1 know I keep banging on about this, but the new stuff from Dublin band Roller skate Skinny is totally incredible. The album, Horse drawn Wishes, doesn't go on release until April but before that, look out for the awesome first single, Speed To My Side in March and before that again, you can get a listen to the whole thing live when The Skinnies play The Mean Fiddler on the 28th of this month.
