British electronic duo Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands a.k.a, The Chemical Brothers, first established their musical reputations in the early ’90s during the UK’s club culture boom, as they took the scene by force with a style that can best be described as distinctive, open minded and modern. After emerging onto Britain’s then-budding club scene, The Chemical Brothers played a key role in spearheading the “electronic revolution” from across the pond to the United States, and thus, have bore witness to two decades of electronic music fame. With a privileged vantage point on electronic music that’s 20 years in the making, the duo has observed the ever morphing personality of electronic dance music genre and its culture first-handed.
In an interview with The Guardian, Rowlands confesses his sentiments regarding the one-track mindset of today’s electronic music that he and Simons observed in a recent trip to America. After describing what they saw in the current electronic scene as a “mad old world” that “feels alien,” Simons continued to elaborate on what they called “pie-chart music” by stating,
“We played in America recently and every record sounded like [Italian DJ/producer] Benny Benassi. I know that sounds like your dad wandering into Top of the Pops and saying it all sounds the same, but it did all sound the same. There’s just one feeling: very triumphant, very celebratory. We like the sense that you go through different experiences.”
Rowlands clarified that this single sound they were hearing wasn’t always the answer to crowd pleasing and succeeding. He cheekily elaborated,
“The one-dimensional sound is quite effective but it doesn’t seem to have that magical, transporting quality, but if I was 18 in Orlando and I’d just finished my exams, maybe it would. I don’t know.”
It seems that, despite the duo being in avid favor of today’s generation of electronic music lovers giving all they have on the dancefloor, they very well recognize the current sharp turn of electronic music’s personality. It has since morphed into a “glossy multibillion-dollar industry,” and many of today’s more popular DJs/producers seem to sport an overall disinterest for musical creativity and exploration of individuality. On top of that, they would consider a gig like having a Las Vegas residency “soul-destroying,” which is unsurprising, seeing as The Chemical Brothers are known to excel in musical work ethic and strive to achieve their definition of mystical, transporting and uniquely creative productions. Not to mention, their noteworthy and legend-manifesting 20 year music career stands in stark opposition to the forced, party thumping and extremely predictable (and, thus, unexciting and artistically and creatively underwhelming) mold of today’s mainstream electronic music taste.
Source: The Guardian
