This is a pretty audacious track from the legends that are The Chemical Brothers. They (Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands) have been around for quite some time yet they're still making lovely music. I'll spare you any needless introduction.
They were commissioned to compose a tune to reflect the cycling events in particular at the London 2012 Olympic Games. That's quite an honour. What they came up with a monster of a track called simply 'Theme For Velodrome'.
Chalked for release on 30th July, it starts as a genuine classically composed piece and quickly descends into robotic, electronic madness. People say it sounds like Kraftwerk and then dismiss it as a copy. I don't really care if it sounds similar. I like how it sounds and that's that. A lot of things sound like a lot of things. Moving on...
The track's beat thuds alongside a bassline that pulls no punches, and there's an overlayering of little synth blips that get their own moment in the limelight about halfway through the track. It's a fast-paced, machine-gunning, pumping race-em-up kind of song. Though in a very dystopian way - it's not a sunny, happy song, but something that would fit better as a soundtrack to Death Race (the original, 1975 version) or Rollerball (also released 1975 - big year for dystopia). There's an air of panic and frustration in this song, the atmosphere of a tense race is all percolating through the air between my ears and the fabulously expressive sounds of Chemical Brothers' Olympic feat.
I wonder: will they also be providing the soundtrack for other events? If not: who is? And if no one: why is there only a soundtrack to one set of events?
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• More Chemical Brothers goodness on their SoundCloud
• This is their official site
• Here is the Wikipedia entry on Chemical Brothers
• Myspace for Chem Bros
• The Facebook of The Chemical Brothers
• Follow The Chemical Brothers on Twitter
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