The Chemical Brothers: 30 years since exiting Planet Dust

Published by Mason Oldridge, 5 June 2025

It’s been 30 years since everyone’s favourite superstar DJs left their dust days behind and turned to chemicals instead. Upon reaching three decades, let’s take a look back at the electronica giants’ (who are not actually brothers) impressive discography.

Their first album Exit Planet Dust was released in 1995 and references their former name The Dust Brothers. It features their debut promotional single Song to the Siren, released under the pseudonym. Leave Home showcases the big beat sound that would go on to be pioneered by fellow electronica musician Fatboy Slim, while Life Is Sweet features vocals from Tim Burgess of The Charlatans and carries a darker tone compared to the rest of the tracklist.

Follow-up Dig Your Own Hole (1997) performed significantly better, becoming their first number one album and featuring some of their better known hits. Block Rockin’ Beats opens the album while Elektrobank is a composition with a gymnastics-based music video. It Doesn’t Matter marks the first of the Electronic Battle Weapon series, a collection of promotional releases for DJs to test play in clubs. Setting Sun is a siren-laden single with Noel Gallagher on vocals, whereas The Private Psychedelic Reel is a lengthy closing track.

Third album Surrender (1999) is opened by Music:Response. Beginning with otherworldly sounds, it turns into a track of digital noises. Lead single Hey Boy Hey Girl is one of their most famous and rightly so as it's an epic dance banger, whereas Let Forever Be is a second collaboration with Gallagher, features reversed sound effects and is built around a repetitive drum beat. Out of Control is another dance song featuring vocals from Bernard Sumner of New Order and instrumental piece The Sunshine Underground inspired the name of the eponymous Leeds band.

Come With Us is the fourth album, released in 2002, and opens with the title track. Starting off with angry strings, a spoken word speech begins before launching into rapidly ascending and descending electronic sounds. Lead single It Began in Afrika begins with a deep voice pronouncing the titular phrase and features jungle drums, which creates a jungle / safari feel and there’s an mysterious aura surrounding the track as it remains unclear what ‘it’ refers to. Star Guitar is built around the opening guitar riff from David Bowie’s Starman and has an innovative music video of a view from a train window while the passing objects match the beat. The Test, featuring vocals from Richard Ashcroft of The Verve, closes the album and is almost psychedelic, representative of a hallucinogenic trip as Ashcroft asks “did I pass the acid test?”

In 2003, the duo released a compilation album with two new singles: The Golden Path features The Flaming Lips, sees a smooth flow of light guitars and panpipe sounds and is a surprisingly emotional entry thanks to its concluding refrain of “please forgive me, I never meant to hurt you”, while Get Yourself High features rapping from k-os and a martial arts music video.

Push the Button is their fifth album, released in 2005, and kicks off with the monumentally recognisable lead single Galvanize, featuring the iconic string sample and hip-hop vocals from Q-Tip, in what is arguably their biggest song. Also on the album is Believe, a highly electronic piece with stressed vocals from Kele, and The Boxer, built around a manipulated piano riff.

Sixth album We Are the Night (2007) is led by single Do It Again, full of bouncy electronic sounds and another song that sits higher on their list of most listened. The Salmon Dance features a rap from Fatlip detailing the eponymous movement, interspersed with fun facts about salmon, which is also animated through its trippy music video. Elsewhere, Battle Scars sees dance and country beautifully combine in a song that features folk singer Willy Mason for one of the duo’s most innovative tracks and Saturate can be known as another instalment from the Electronic Battle Weapon series.

In 2008, they released a second compilation album which brought with it the single Midnight Madness, a high-pitched electronic song.

Further is the seventh album, released in 2010. It contains a collection of songs with each having its own music video, linked by an actress and their underwater and neon themes. There is a cohesive dance sound throughout, though while Escape Velocity, Swoon and Horse Power are heavier, Another World offers a lighter sound.

Born in the Echoes was released in 2015 and ushered in the brothers’ modern era. Introduced by Sometimes I Feel So Deserted and its post-apocalyptic music video, this eighth album saw them crash land in the new space with a bang. Different, groovy and damn right outrageous, Go rewrites the rulebook for what The Chemical Brothers can deliver, serving up a synchronised music video and is built upon a slick bassline. Under Neon Lights features vocals from St Vincent, while EML Ritual has a slow build to its drop and gained prominence from featuring in O2’s Follow the Rabbit advertisement. The album closes with Wide Open, a slower and more sombre offering that also proves their versatility.

In 2016, they released non-album single C-h-e-m-i-c-a-l, featuring live audience sound effects.

The new era continues with ninth album No Geography, released in 2019. Free Yourself is the lead single and has a music video containing dancing robots with humanoid faces. MAH (an acronym for Mad As Hell) opens to maniacal laughter and introduces the character seen at live gigs, Got to Keep On is a lighter offering with bell ringing, We’ve Got to Try offers a message of positivity and hope, matched with a music video teaching a dog motorsport racing and space travel, while Eve of Destruction features vocals from Aurora, who wasn’t even born when their first album came out!

I think if everyone had one message for the brothers moving forward it would be to keep on doing what they’re doing. Bring me… dance.