Issue 29: Eclectic Electric
Reviewing the latest album from The Chemical Brothers (my favorite electronic AOTY), plus a few more faves!
Welcome back to Band Practice where I sort through all of the latest albums like a ravenous trash panda, sharing the best-tasting scraps with you. There were some good eatins’ in September: Mitski, Petey, and Chappell Roan had standout albums, and I discovered my favorite electronic album of this year (so far): For That Beautiful Feeling from The Chemical Brothers that we’ll dive into here. It’s the most listened to in my current rotation, and I think it’s a great entry point to electronic dance music (EDM) or electronic music in general if you’re new to the genre.
In doing this newsletter project, I’ve come to discover that I like electronic music more than I thought I did. It’s kind of like how I think I’m not a huge fan of the color pink, and then I keep buying pink things and next thing you know all of my electronic devices are pink. All that to say I don’t normally seek it out, but most of the time when I come across it I’m pleasantly surprised.
This is a good time to confess: I have been holding out on you. Throughout the year, this trash panda has been hiding away some great electronic albums that I had to cut from previous issues for length to share them at a later date. This is that date. In addition to my main review of The Chemical Brothers’ album, I’ll share a few other electronic faves in short and sweet bite-size reviews. Each has its unique flavor. I hope you find one you like.
Hungry? Let’s get to it.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who has given me kind feedback on my spooky Fall playlist. Give it a listen on Spotify or Apple Music if you missed it.
This month’s must-listen
For That Beautiful Feeling — The Chemical Brothers
Electronic/Dance [Released 9/8/23]
I have one more confession to make: it has been a minute since I’ve listened to anything by The Chemical Brothers. And by minute I mean about two decades...since their 1999 release Surrender.1 The album produced one of the best music videos of the 1990s for its lead single “Let Forever Be,” directed by Michel Gondry (of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind fame), which immediately had me hooked.
Just like the video, the song was fresh, innovative, and a little psychedelic. It blurred the line between electronic and rock music—drum machines were replaced with a live drum kit with Noel Gallagher’s (of Oasis) vocals dousing them in a technicolor honey. It was distorting and rhythmic and made me want to dance. I should have known that this was just a peek into what would become a decades-long career for The Chemical Brothers—one that made innovation seem easy.
English duo Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons formed The Chemical Brothers in 1989. Their pioneering innovation has helped them take home six Grammys and plenty of other awards. They were trailblazers of the big beat sub-genre and advanced the limits of what house music could sound like.
Their tenth and latest studio album, For That Beautiful Feeling, doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel, but every beat still feels fresh. It delivers everything they’re good at: masterfully manipulating energy, capturing the big festival spirit, and making it seem easy.
Rowlands and Simons avoid a curse that plagues EDM and I’ll use (what else but) RuPaul’s Drag Race to explain it. There’s a contestant (Miss Vanessa Vanjie Mateo) who was constantly critiqued for starting at a 10/10 energy level in the challenges and not being able to modulate. She had one volume—shouting—and her performances ended up falling flat. I have come across far too much electronic music that feels like shouting, somehow flatlining at maximum energy.
This album never flatlines. The duo’s dynamic builds and breakdowns never disappoint. And even when a song reaches cruising altitude, they still find ways to stretch the intensity forward, backward, and sideways creating entirely new energetic dimensions.
“Live Again”—the audacious introduction to the album—is one such song. It makes me want to transport to a rave at an outdoor festival, squeezing myself into a flailing Fosse-esque amoeba of fans. (I am actually too anxious to attend a rave as I fear germs, sweat transference, and crowd crush, but the song makes it feel like it would be fun.) Peeling synths crescendo into an explosive four-on-the-floor beat.2 Instrumental and vocal loops weave together, ensnaring the listener with each measure. And when it reaches the breakdowns: liberation.
Throughout the album, the duo holds this energy, shaping it like putty. “Live Again” seamlessly transitions into “No Reason,” continuing the hard-hitting house beat, creating a new, darker sound, and adding a distorted synth so dorky it makes it full circle to become cool again. It’s the “mom jeans” of stylistic effects. (Listen to it and tell me I’m not wrong.)
There is no stagnation. “Fountains” feels like a schoolyard bop with xylophone solos and hand-clap percussion interrupted by noodly electric guitars. “Magic Wand” and “The Weight” serve espionage realness (that’s the Drag Race talking again). And “Skipping Like A Stone,” harkens back to the beloved formula of rock singer (this time Beck) + psychedelia used in “Let Forever Be,” whilst making it feel entirely new. They do this all without jolting the listener, following a natural flow.
This album has joined the ranks of favorites from this year (so far), with a near-perfect score of total tracks loved (“Magic Wand” is a little “meh” to me). I’m now taking it upon myself to go back through The Chemical Brothers catalog and re-trace their journey to near perfection.
Tracks on repeat: Live Again, Skipping Like a Stone, Feels Like I Am Dreaming
Available on Spotify, Apple Music
More electronic favorites
Remember — Weval
Released 3/3/23
The latest LP from Amsterdam-based duo Harm Coolen and Merijn Scholte Albers exists inside a daydream of easy beats and dramatic builds. Plunks of piano propel the title track into a climax fit for a “running down an escalator to tell your true love that your goodbye is more of an ellipsis than a period” kind of moment. The duo brings a variety of sonic twists and turns. Warped organs and skidding percussion in “Losing Days” bring the album to a darker place, “Never Stay For Love” is graced by shadowy vocals from Eefje de Visser, and “Forever’s” bubbly percussion is what I imagine polka dots would sound like. It’s an easy listen that would fit well among Radiohead b-sides.
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
GOOD LUCK — DEBBY FRIDAY
Released 3/24/23
If this album were an article of clothing it would be a black vinyl catsuit. Nigerian Canadian singer/songwriter/producer Debby Friday’s dark and sleek electro-punk fusion is fierce, confrontational, and charismatic. Gritty, hyper club beats in “I Got It” will melt you down into a puddle of sweat. “Let Mama give you what you need!” she cries, with whip in hand. Any sweetness is illusory. In the deceptively saccharine, “So Hard to Tell,” she delivers her verses with two fingers crossed behind her back. In every moment she’s in charge, captivating the obedient listener, leaving them wanting more.
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
With A Hammer — Yaeji
Released 4/7/23
If I had to pick two words to describe the music of Brooklynite singer, DJ, and producer Yaeji (이예지) it would be delicate industrial. (Can I coin a new sub-genre?) There’s something mechanical and edgy about her music—if all of the gears and raw edges were made of porcelain and feathers. She pulls from genres like house, hip-hop, and pop, meticulously adding experimental elements like woodwinds and horns. Singing partly in Korean, her demure voice whispers what others might scream—with just as much power. “I’ll kick down the door, face it straight…I’m with a hammer and I’ll break it down,” she sings in “Michin.” Let it be a reminder: do not mess with the quiet ones.
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
I am upset because I see something that is not there. — Fire-Toolz
Released 4/7/23
I admittedly don’t come back to this album regularly but it haunts me often. Experimental producer Angel Marcloid takes genres like jazz fusion, metal, and new-age (and so many other genres that really shouldn’t go together) and throws them into a giant blender producing a magical and demonic smoothie. It is so mind-melting that you have a better chance of winning the PowerBall than figuring out where the album will go next. The succinctly titled, “I Couldn’t Have Been BoRn At ThE wRoNg TiMe Because I Was Never Even Born LOL!,” starts like a serene meditative journey and is interrupted by death metal screams and then…saxophone?!? I still don’t entirely know what happened and why it all works so well, but I do know that Marcloid is pioneering a new frontier of electronic music and I can’t wait to hear what she does next.
Available on Spotify, Apple Music, bandcamp
Thanks for reading! For the next issue, I’ve listened to new albums from Sufjan Stevens and Drake, and I have plenty more ahead. Want to find out what my favorites are? Subscribe below to get it delivered straight to your inbox. You won’t want to miss it!
The playlist!
Want even more good music?? I’m keeping a running playlist of my favorite songs from every new album I listen to this year. It’s ordered chronologically by date listened and I’ll update it with every issue. It’s long, so you’ll need to scroll to the end to get to the most recent albums. The latest batch starts with the song “On My Mama,” by R&B singer Victoria Monét. Highlights include the toothy pop ballad “Vampire,” by Olivia Rodrigo, and “I Tried to Draw a Straight Line,” from Petey—which is what I imagine it would sound like if Tracy Chapman wrote a punk song. Enjoy!
Albums of 2023 - Apple Music playlist
Albums of 2023 - Spotify playlist
I love hearing what you have to say! If you have feelings about this issue, questions for me, album recommendations, or any other thoughts, send them my way by hitting that comment button or replying to this email.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I saw the movie Hanna (2011) and didn’t know they scored it at the time but I thought it was fire.
Four-on-the-floor refers to a 4/4 time signature in which there is a hit of the kick drum for every beat. Maybe you already know this, but I’d rather feel silly for explaining it than you feel silly for not knowing it.