The Chemical Brothers: Exit Planet Dust (2LP) [ASTRALWERKS]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set spreads the album over four sides with colour printed inner sleeves. Exit Planet Dust peaked at No. 9 in the UK and charted there every year from 1995 to 2000.

This edition

• 2LP set
• Printed inner sleeves

About the album

Every big beat record that followed owes something to two lads who used to call themselves the Dust Brothers. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons had built a name as remixers for Primal Scream and the Prodigy and as resident DJs at the Heavenly Sunday Social in London, then took a new name to avoid confusion with the American production duo the Dust Brothers. They took the new one from their own track "Chemical Beats," and the album title waves goodbye to the old one.

They recorded it between August and November 1994, and Rowlands later said they stayed up for three weeks making it. The first six tracks run together as one long medley: "Leave Home" opens on a Kraftwerk sample, "In Dust We Trust" borrows from the Beastie Boys, and "Song to the Siren," the single Andrew Weatherall championed, was recorded live at his Sabresonic club. "Life Is Sweet" and "Alive Alone" take things somewhere warmer.

Ed Simons said the cover came from a box of rejected 1970s fashion shots. Side four's run-out groove reads "Huw is innocent!", a reference to Rowlands' brother, and as far as we know the case remains open.

Also at Kops: more The Chemical Brothers on vinyl · browse Electronic

Tracklist

Listen

On Astralwerks / Freestyle Dust (cat# 4384054014), a reissue of the 1995 album.