Dig Your Own Hole

04/08/1997 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor

It's a beautiful thing, this technology. It's given children the world over the chance to make music without years of tedious rehearsal on a particular instrument. Instead, anyone with enough cash (prices dropping every day) can sit around and sample beeps and beats and contribute to the ever-expanding music pool.

The Chemical Brothers are neither particularly good nor bad. They play around with sounds, make a few cool noises and get corny with their "word" bits. "Setting Sun" features that guy from Oasis sounding like his usual full-of-himself self and a couple of other voices trip in and out of the mix on the other tracks.

The real star, I suppose, is the sheer anonymity of the music. This could be anyone anywhere. Just like punk intended: no stars, just hype. And there's plenty for this record. But if you're bracing for the second coming, you might wanna reclassify as atheist 'cause there's nothing here powerful enough to convert anyone. "Block Rockin' Beats" is so full of big bluster and aimless sampling that you gotta figure they're pulling our leg.

The trick to this stuff--if there is such a thing--is to build the random noises and jackhammer beats into something dramatic or trippy. Dig Your Own Hole doesn't go too far in either direction. But, you figure, if it inspires a handful of kids to give it a shot of their own, then maybe they've succeeded.