As much as I tell myself that my musical tastes have drifted away from the kind of music produced by The Chemical Brothers, I can’t deny that Born In The Echoes was a great release and brought me back into the loop again, and so I was looking forward to getting hold of their new release, No Geography. Back in November of last year we received news that a new album was happening, and I’ve been looking forward to it ever since – the duo have eased the wait a little by revealing the likes of Free Yourself, MAH, Got to Keep On, and We’ve Got To Try… but it still feels like it’s been a long wait (not helped by an online store originally giving a release estimate of “01 January 2020” – thanks for that.) Happily, the wait has been entirely worthwhile; No Geography is packed with great melodies and bumping rhythms that dispel any doubts I had about “outgrowing” the Chemical Brothers.
Opening grooves
Eve of Destruction introduces No Geography with some bumping house style beats, moody robotic voices, escalating effects and a drop into an insanely smooth bassline. Some of the other vocal bits work less well than others, but the jazzy backing keeps your head nodding and it’s a strong opener. Maybe it’s a bit too simplistic to have lasting appeal, but as a first impression it’s pretty good, and it leads into the next track pretty well. In fact, EoD and Bango complement each other very well; both showcasing a simple but effective rhythm and structure with some memorable vocal interludes.
No Geography – safe but daring
Elsewhere, No Geography is everything you’d hope from a title track – a luxurious build-up with a few vocal samples and beeps that set the mood before everything is pared back so that the haunting effects can work their magic on top of a wonderfully rich beat. In fact, I kind of wish it had a bit more of an extended runtime – just when you start getting into the groove it drops things back to mimic the intro’s atmosphere, before ending the song. Following No Geography is Got To Keep On, but I already covered this elsewhere on the site – I still think it’s a bit too “safe” to make a lasting impression, but generally it’s pretty inoffensive stuff. On the other hand, Gravity Drops is at completely at the other end of the scale – daring and mysterious whilst still having some great hooks. It’s not something that will fill a dancefloor but I get the feeling that it will stay with the listener for a while – the long, drawn-out effects, pretty beeps and deliberately slow beats working together in a hypnotic manner.
No Geography – dreamy and powerful
The Universe Sent Me tries to maintain this dreamy vibe with some gorgeous vocals from Aurora that lull the listener into a false sense of security before the effects slowly build up around the vocal. After the chilled atmosphere of Gravity Drops, the escalation of TUSM almost catches the listener off-guard… but the ambush is more than welcome. Things wind down back into safer territory after this back-to-back brilliance; the tail-end of the album has most of the tracks that fans will already be familiar with; We’ve Got To Try has a fairly simple structure but some great strings, Free Yourself still has bizarre laser sounds drowning out a catchy floor-filler and MAH has a banging rhythm but some slight repetition in places. The album is closed with Catch Me I’m Falling, a slow but powerful track brought to life by the vocals.
No Geography – essential
So there it is – the album has catchy funky bits, formulaic samey bits and some surprisingly relaxing moments near the end. I can definitely see myself adding EoD and Bango to my daytime playlist whilst I’m out, and then winding down in the evening to Gravity Drops or No Geography. It’s a shame that the album doesn’t strike gold all of the time – I still think I’d find it hard to think of a single track from Come With Us that isn’t needed – but there’s more than enough in here to keep old and new fans happy.
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