The Chemical Brothers Recruit Be Kind Rewind Director Michel Gondry for Q-Tip-assisted Dance Number, "Go" (Astralwerks)
" Tom & Ed met in history class at Manchester University in 1988. They started off as DJ's known as "The 237 Turbo Nutters" (named after the number of their house on Dickenson Road in Manchester and a reference to their Blackburn raving days). They then opted for "The Dust Brothers," which they nicked from the L.A. producers of Paul's Boutique (as they thought they would never be famous). In 1995, they changed their name to "The Chemical Brothers" after the real Dust Brothers threatened to sue," reads The Chemical Brothers' eerily cryptic abridged Discogs profile description. Electro-House pioneers Tom Rowlands & Ed Simmons are effectively back with their first album in nearly five years after taking a self-imposed hiatus following their seventh studio album, Further. All the while, The Chemical Brothers haven't remained entirely inactive during this gestation period: Rowlands & Simmons prepared a hand-crafted soundtrack composed for British-German Thriller, Hanna as well as a their Fuji Rock Festival-culled live album, Don't Think, which were simultaneously released throughout 2011-12, and even submitted a genre-blending track recorded with Lorde & Miguel for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1.
Ahead of their soon forthcoming Born In The Echoes album slated for a July 17th world-wide release, The Chemical Brothers have re-teamed with "Galvanize" collaborator and legendary A Tribe Called Quest emcee, Q-Tip. "Go" would ultimately end up receiving a video treatment spearheaded by esteemed Be Kind Rewind, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, and Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind director, Michel Gondry; somewhat questionably opting not to include either The Chemical Brothers or featured emcee Q-Tip anywhere within the completed video. Instead, focusing the camera angle solely on a six-woman dance troupe dressed in some sort of retro-futuristic German lederhosen-esque get-ups, walking around while performing a nearly 4-minute color guard-reminiscent interpretive dance routine with assistance of two 10-foot poles. "The track finds [Q-Tip] going to work over a hyper-driven dance number, sparing no beat from his dagger-like delivery," as okayplayer fittingly manages to describe "Go," which they further allude to as "a conceptual wonder from the music video king," Michel Gondry. Born In The Echoes will reportedly include guest vocal deliveries from the likes of Indie Rock darlings Beck, Cate Le Bon, St. Vincent, and Ali Love, in addition to Q-Tip's aforementioned sharp-tongued feature.