Hello readers I am MechaMento and today I am going to be reviewing the Chemical Brothers album, Exit Planet Dust 1996. This is my very first review on anything other than a videogame so I may not be the best at this but I am wanting to improve. All feedback is welcome whether it be praise or even better criticism. You may be wondering why I want criticism, well I need to improve and if there is no one telling me what went wrong then I will find it hard to improve. Remember it has to be a constructive reply, I hate it when you can clearly tell that the person replying has not actually read the review, so please actually read it!
Enjoy...


Exit Planet Dust  |  Chemical Brothers  |  1996

At this time, the Chemical Brothers are considered veterans of the DJ industry. They brought the world a brand new music genre called Big Beat and have inspired other DJs such as Fatboy Slim and many others. Exit Planet Dust was there very first album and this is where their fantastic legacy began. It was 49:27 minutes long and had 11 tracks (not including B-sides) The Album had 2 chart hits in the UK (they were UK based anyway) however their peak was only  number 17 (Leave Home), but to be fair this was their first album so 17 in the UK Single charts is actually a great achievement. The other chart hit was the song "Life is Sweet" but that only reached Number 25.
The name Exit Planet Dust came from the duo's old name the Dust Brothers. As some of you may know, there is already an artist in America called the Dust Brothers. When the Chemical Brothers went on tour in America the name caused a lot of confusion and a lot of disappointed fans. The Chemical Brothers were forced to change the name or they would of been at risk of being sued. As you may suspect the album was named to relate to their bad choice of name and how they literally had to Exit Planet Dust!


Track 01 | Leave Home



~The song actually starts at 0:50~

This is the fantastic opening to Exit Planet Dust, and what a way to start it off with a chart hit. The song begins with a deep siren sounding sound which is soon accompanied by the lyric loop, "Brothers Gonna Work it Out".  Leave Home has a great distorted bass riff to accompany the treble and drums which is the 3rd instrument that comes in and it features throughout almost the whole song. The constant strumming keeps you dancing and may actually attract alternative rock fans (worked with me!). This song has a small amount of vocal pieces but that is quite common for a DJ artist since guidelines are to focus on the instruments. I am not too fussed myself since I am quite used to instrumental songs because I used to listen to Electronica and the majority of that was also instrumental.
There is this little middle 8 which only last 4 bars and appears in the song twice and when I first heard this I had that sort of feeling where you can just not help smiling while listening. It just consist of a guitar and some girl sing something, though I can not actually make it out! I think is says something like, Oh You Can't Touch Me Now. Even most lyric websites had different variations of the lyrics!
The only problem with this song is the gain balance with the bass and every other instruments. You may not notice after a first listen but I have listen to this song many times and I have began to realize the problem. The rumble it creates makes the other instruments a little harder to hear on high quality headphones or speakers. It is from 1996 so the sound quality was not as up to scratch as it is these days so I think the Chemical Brothers actually remastered it in 2003 and later put that version of the song on their montage album Brotherhood. I guess that means it is not too much of a problem.


Track 02 | In Dust We Trust



In Dust we Trust is again another reference to the Dust to Chemical name change. This song is in my opinion the song that promoted the genre Big Beat the best because it is a very Big Beaty style song. I think it is to do with the track's certain type of loops, they just work erm... Really well.
The song really gets going a little while in but it is always nice to have a bit of an intro. Unfortunately that intro is a very cheesy bass and it is accompanied with a very cheesy vinyl scratch. They both come back in the song to haunt you but luckily for you it is outnumbered by a wonderful clav. Speaking of the Clav, this song probably has the best use of the instrument I have ever heard. The Clav is what keeps this song alive and looping well so you do not get bored of the song. It gives a sort of feel that just lets the song loop on and on with all of the riffs and you can just enjoy it. I think every verse (well I call it that but it has not got any lyrics) lasts 24 or 32 bars and that is very, very long!
There is only one other thing I will pick out of this song in a negative way is the fact how it speeds up in order to glide into the next rack, Song to the Siren, without you knowing the track has changed. This part actually spoils the song quite a bit and I do not think those songs should of linked at all, they just do not really suit for it! Anyway Song to the Siren already links in to the song after it, using the same stupid technique!!, which is Three Little Birdies Down Beats.


Track 03 | Song to the Siren (on some versions of the album it is live)



This was actually the Chemical Brothers first ever song to be released. They released it as a single in 1993 but it was not very successful at all. There is a good reason why it was not since it is one of the simplest songs ever released in my opinion. The song is just a siren sound effect on loop with percussion and a reversed vocals sample from some song from the 1980's. It just stays the same way throughout the whole song but just variates every now and again. The is not much even good about this song but I do still find myself dancing to it. Why? Well the percussion loops are really nice and very catchy and funky in some ways, also there is a certain transition which is just fantastic! That transition when the song actually begins at the part where the vocal sample stops looping over two bars and just one. The transition makes the song go completely silent then suddenly every instrument comes in as a drill. It does not sound that special but the part after it suits it so well, that part being a removal of the vocals and a different siren. After that the song just continues on and on with different sets of loops which all sound great or at least ok, but it is the way they link into each other is not the best of the Chemical Brothers.


Track 04  |  Three Little Birdies Down Beats



This is a song that I can relate to In Dust We Trust. The song is pretty much a constant loop of one epic riff with a simple percussion piece which actually suits it very well. This song loops on for a lot longer than Exit Planet Dust but then again the loops and riffs are respectively better. There is of course the odd change but the whole song just revolves around that one riff with a sort of wah wah scale. Not a wah wah as in the lever on the guitar but as in when you put your mouth over a speak and change the shape of it, that is how I would describe the sound. This song is probably was popular at clubs because it loops for so long and it could keep a party going for the whole 5:19 minutes. There is little more to say about this song and there is actually little to complain about, maybe the fact that it does drag on for maybe to many bars!


Track 05 | F*** Up Beats (sorry about the title)



~Sorry about the bad sound quality~

This is the shortest song in the Album and the second shortest song that the Chemical Brothers have published. There is very little to say about this song because it is really simple and really short. It is basically just a drum piece with a quite bass and the odd vocal sample saying "I Go". That is all the whole song is and it not one of my favourites because of it. The loops are not actually that good at all and I think this is quite possibly one of the biggest down of the whole album, there is another but I will get on to that later. I think the Chemical Brothers could of done a lot better or at least used this on the B-Side because the B-Side was actually really good!


Track 06 | Chemical Beats



~This is still the Chemical Brothers, just titled with their old name!~

Again this is another song with a title with the word beats in it, which makes me think that maybe F*** Up Beats the opening to Chemical Beats. Chemical Beats was actually where Tome and Ed got their new name from. This song was also released in the same year as Song to the Siren and they both featured together on a EP named Dust Up Records, this is the vinyl featured in the video! The song is one of my favourites of the album and I think it was composed very well and that every part of the song was thought through well. This Big Beat, Acid classic is built up by some wonderful sounds and loops. I love the percussion I always am tapping to it, whether I am listening to Chemical Beats or not, it is just somewhat catchy.
I like the main riff which is always changing but only by music effect, the notes stay the same. The way the song just flows into each part is just like music chemistry (*cough* worst pun ever *cough*). The is little wrong with this song so I have to be very picky to find something. That one little thing is the ending of the song. The end does include some more epic beats but it how diverse they are to each other that sort of spoils it. The change is almost sudden and I do not really like that. Also there is this one little part where the vocal sample will go "Who!" instead of "Huh!" and that frighten me and then after annoyed me since it is very different from you will expect!!

Track 07 | Chico's Groove



This song does have some mixed views upon it since it is not quite in the style of the rest of the album. I actually used to hate this track and it was one of those tracks that you would just skip when listening to the whole album. It came to me as too groovy and at the time I did not like that. I only got a few seconds in before I decided I did not like the track and when I actually listened to the whole thing, I learned a lesson. If a song's intro is pretty crap do not judge the whole song upon it because I learned that this song is actually really great, but it still is not quite one of my favourites.
The song has a deep bass riff which continues throughout the whole song from not far from the beginning. It is quite chilled out in my opinion so it kind of calms down the album a little. The percussion is pretty sweet and it suits the rest of the track well. Occasionally there is the odd random sound and in some sense this reminds me of the Chemical Brothers' song Hold Tight London from the 2005 album Push the Button. At some point the song changes and there is a little vocal scene which really keeps the song a little more alive. This song is ok if you give a chance because it gets better. This song makes me want to dance and fall asleep as well, very strange and impossible but this song has that certain Psychedelic feel to it.


Track 08 | One Too Many Mornings



This is also a chilled out more calm song just like Chico's Groove but this one is in the proper chill music genre. You can just sit back and listen to the mind stretching track. This song just relaxes me, my mind and makes me forget about hard times so I enjoy listening to it after a day. That is after letting out my frustration by listening to the Alternative Punk sounds of Sonic Youth. When the vocals kick in (do not ask me what they say!) it reminds me of the techno punk band Crystal Castles and especially their second album, Crystal Castles II. The whole song has this warm feeling and I think because this song is too kind to us I can not think of anything to complain about. Even if the song makes me feel a little trippy it is one I will cherish for ever. Well Done the Chemical Brothers!


Track 09 | Life is Sweet



~This is the Radio Edit, or in this case, Music Video Edit~

As I did mention in the first paragraph of the review, Life is Sweet was a UK chart hit. This song managed to reach number 25 at its peak which surprised me because it is the only song in the album with a proper set of lyrics. I personally thought it would place higher than leave home but I am of a new generation, I am not from 1996.
The song featured the vocals from singer Tim Burgess, the vocalist from the band The Charlatans. His voice accompanied the backing track which was made up by a guitar synth, drums and various other synths. The song flows well and is easy to listen to without getting confused at any one time.
I like how the vocals start off in the right ear only and they sound like they are coming from the radio and eventually when you reach the first chorus the singing becomes clear and you can hear it from both sides of the headphones. Towards the end but not so far from the middle contains a skillful middle 8. The middle 8 is introduced by a short vocal sample saying something like "This is the bit in the song now where you know, everything blows up... Starting now!". The section is just this synth that you will get to know later in the song and an epic drum solo.
The end of the song reminds me of a TV program called Dragons Den. I think they use a similar synth or possibly they sampled that part of the song. The end is just changing between dragged out chords and short one and a half beat chords but all in the same notes and order. Eventually this settles down and you begging to hear some of the sound effects of the next song, Playground for a Wedgeless Firm, which I like because these are songs that really should flow into each other unlike In Dust We Trust and Song to the Siren.

Track 10 | Playground for a Wedgeless Firm



This song sort of reminds me of Song to the Siren, mainly because it loops a siren synth just like it but this song is evil, very evil. The opening for instance includes the noise of thunder cracking and this uneasy sounding synth but the song does sound better. Playground for a Wedgeless Firm contains one of the best drum samples I have ever heard, only unfortunately the song is basic. When it kicks in you just want to walk around like some sort of hipster and think you look cool. Some of the sounds you will hear through out this song are not so cool because one of them sounds like something you would hear from an episode of scooby-doo!
My favourite part in this simple song is the part after the noise which sounds like someone saying "weee!" kicks in. Actually it is just after when that noise comes out. Basically in this section the same drum sample has been tweaked and it sounds worth to be classed as a mini drum solo. I just love that beat as I said and that one bit even if it lasts only 10 seconds, puts the cream on my cookies!

Track 11 | Alive Alone



This song is appreciated by quite a lot of people however I just can not stand it at all. I really can not live with the fact that the chords are unevenly long and it ends up being 12 bars a loop even though it is not anything like 12 bar blues! The song does get better but I find it hard to listen to because of them chords. I have to take some decent credit to the vocalist because he did a great job sing the track. He possibly did a better job than Tim Burgess even though I hate the song. The only other good thing about the song is the quality of the song. The song's quality is the peak of 1996 and it must of sounded amazing on the Vinyl copy of this album, unfortunately that is ruined by the fact that the actual song sucks. But remember this is a review so it is completely biased and this is all my opinion. Everyone is different so maybe you may like the song, you never know!





Thank You ever so much for reading my review. It takes some dedication to read a 3000+ word piece and it certainly took some dedication to wright it. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Remember I will need some feedback because this review is my first review of an album let alone something that is not game related. I know this review was very long and it may be a drag to read the whole thing but if you are going to post, please talk about something on topic and if it is an opinion of my review please make it relevant, meaning you will have to read it. Have a Nice Day!!
~MechaMento~

Wow. I've never seen a review like this before... You reviewed an entire album and described the instruments and even the history behind the song in a few places. This is very explanatory if the reader has never heard their songs.

I can say that I've heard a few of their songs here and there and I quite like them. Great review!