With the 90s resurgence and Y2K nostalgia continuing to dominate the cultural landscape, the resurgence of significant electronic music acts whose sound defined dance through that decade is unsurprising. From Orbital to Leftfield, the past year has seen many of these iconic acts re-enter the chat with new bodies of work. Perhaps more so than any of their peers from that era, UK electronic duo The Chemical Brothers are the ones who never really left in the first place. They’ve continued a steady stream of releases. The recent catalogue includes 20th anniversary editions of albums Surrender and Dig Your Own Hole, the latter released last year with a mammoth collection of unheard demos and live recordings from the archive, though new material has never been in short supply. There’s 2019’s No Geography, and a handful of singles and B-sides like the synthwavey The Darkness That You Fear and the trancey techno of Work Energy Principle.
Download and stream No Reason here
None of their latest has felt as quintessentially The Chemical Brothers as their new single, No Reason. Once pivotal in establishing the sound and energy of big beat in the techno and breaks dominated landscape of 90’s era UK dance music, The Chemical Brothers are perhaps best known for the abrasive pulse and acerbic squabble of tracks like Hey Girl Hey Boy. No Reason places us back in this sort of terrain, with slippery and electric acid techno synths and a funk bass licked beat. It’s accented with obnoxious whooping calls and a transfigured vocal sample from 70’s New Wave song Courts or War by Second Layer. But it’s not the squiggling arpeggios or hyperactive percussion that make this unmistakably The Chemical Brothers– it’s the earworm melody. See any of the duo’s greatest hits, and you’ll find the same inherent hookiness that shouts loudest through all the layers of acidity and buzz. No Reason is their catchiest banger in recent memory and by virtue, a glorious return to form.
Watch the music video for No Reason below.
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