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The Chemical Brothers- Dig Your Own Hole
by Spencer Ross

Inspired by a lack of danceable music at "parties" I was inspired to go out and pick up some techno music. I had this techno mix from a techno magazine i picked up in France called Trax (The issue I have is http://www.traxweb.com/18/index.htm and if you go click on the sampler you can here some clips of the songs on my cd in realaudio). The sampler is really good with the exception of maybe 2 songs. So i decidet that maybe techno would be some good dance music. After all, that's what they play in the clubs in Europe and parties and raves and whatnot. I figured if techno is good enough dance music for that, then I'd see what I could do to pick some up for myself. After spending about an hour looking for a techno compilation with a lot of songs I've heard, I didn't really find what I was looking for, so I went and got the cd of a band whose songs I've heard before. Two of the songs I've heard are on the 3 1/2 star out of 4 cd I bought, Dig Your Own Hole, by The Chemical Brothers.

So, I got this CD and I must say, for my first real techno cd, it's very good. Now techno generally doesn't have many (if any words), but its all about beats. The Chemical Brothers (Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons) released this CD in '97, so it's a few years old, but it's still good stuff. The CD opens with "block rockin' beats" which is a song i've had on mp3 for a while now (one of my first mp3s). Its a great song, which you might have heard on several movie soundtracks and jock jams and whatnot. The CD then breaks into the title song, which is several minutes long and changes ever so slightly (which is something I would think a good techno CD should do). the next song, "elektrobank" isn't bad, but isn't the greatest until around the middle of the song. song 4, "piku" takes a bit to get into decently but it's a nice song with a pounding bassline...great for parties where you want to slow the beat up just a bit. song 5, "setting sun" is one of my lesser favorite songs because i think it sounds eerie and oasis' noel gallagher shows up to provide a vocal track. the beat is a little different because its not really patterned for anything that's great to dance to. it's doable i guess. the next song, "it doesn't matter" takes about a half minute of electronic hi-hat to open, but then goes into a pounding bass and a beat. around 5 min in, the beat stops, just leaving room for the bass and some funky techno stuff. "don't stop the rock" is just a beat song, but it's not really that pleasant, there's really no hook that's catchy as with some of the other songs. same as "get up on it." "lost in the k-hole" is a disco/technoy sounding song with a good beat and a good discoy/bassline. it's a little slow in some places,but good. "where do i begin" is a nice song with a melody, but you can't dance til about 4 minutes in. there's a nice vocal track that adds to the song, and i think that's what makes this one a decent song. the last song on the cd is " the private psychadelic reel." i couldn't help but think of clockwork orange. there's a little bit of an indian sound (electronic sitar, perhaps?) and the beat doesn't kick in until around 2 minutes, but it's a nice closer to this cd.

would i say it's the best cd? i'm no techno expert or anything like that, but listening to all the layers this cd has, you pick something up in it everytime you listen. That's something i like in a cd. As someone who is constantly trying to expand his musical horizons, I'm glad I got this cd, because it's danceable, it's likeable, its catchy with its beats, and it's different from some of the other music I listen to, yet it has a hint of tying in true techno to a little bit of rock music.