Rocktrospectiva: The Acclaimed And Open-Minded "Exit Planet Dust" Turns 30

Released on 26 June 1995 "Exit Planet Dust" was the debut studio album by English electronic music duo the Chemical Brothers. The album was recorded between August and November 1994, with "Song to the Siren" performed live. Its title is a reference to their departure from their earlier name the Dust Brothers. The album spawned two singles "Leave Home" & "Life Is Sweet". The album received critical acclaim and was in the UK charts for many weeks, charting in each year from its release in 1995 until 2000.

 

Their initial work included a remix of an Ariel song (a band which included Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers on drums), released under their '237 Turbo Nutters' name, and the track "Song to the Siren", issued as an independent single on Diamond Records, reportedly inspired by a nickname Ed Simons had. The single also contained two longform remixes of the track. The band took the song to various dance record shops around London but no one picked it up.

 

Andrew Weatherall of the Sabres of Paradise had heard the track. He decided to play it live in his DJ sets and suggested Steven Hall sign the duo to Junior Boy's Own record label,which re-released the single in 1993. The album's recording began in August 1994 and concluded in November. Tom Rowlands stated in 2002 that they "stayed up for three weeks making it". One song from the sessions, "Leave Home", was first released in late 1994 on the duo's mix album, NME Xmas Dust Up, released as a covermount cassette tape in an issue of NME. 

The first six tracks on Exit Planet Dust are continuous, making a medley. These six tracks include "Leave Home"; and edits of the duo's previous songs "Chemical Beats" and their first track "Song to the Siren", the latter being recorded live on the album from Sabresonic nightclub in March 1994, which belonged to Weatherall's act the Sabres of Paradise, who also remixed "Leave Home".

The duo became resident DJs at the small—but hugely influential—Heavenly Sunday Social Club at the Albany pub in London's Great Portland Street at this point. The likes of Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller, James Dean Bradfield, and Tim Burgess were regular visitors.

The album was finished by 1995 and released on the Junior Boy's Own label, in conjunction with the Chemical Brothers' own independent leg of that label, Freestyle Dust; and Virgin Records, which later replaced Junior Boy's Own as the band's head label. The duo, however, had to change their name to the Chemical Brothers after the American production duo Dust Brothers had threatened to sue them if they refused to. The Chemical Brothers name came from the duo's track "Chemical Beats". The name change inspired the name of the album.

The beginning of "Leave Home" is a short sample of the beginning of the Kraftwerk song "Ohm Sweet Ohm" from the album Radio-Activity. Also sampled are percussion sections from Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers' "Got Myself a Good Man" and vocals from "Brothers Gonna Work It Out" by Blake Baxter (1992), as well as short samples from "The Defector" by Recoil. "In Dust We Trust" contains several short samples of the Beastie Boys song "The Maestro" from the album Check Your Head. The vocal sample in "Song to the Siren" is a reversed sample of part of the Dead Can Dance track "Song of Sophia" from the album The Serpent's Egg. "Song to the Siren" also samples drums from "God O.D." by Meat Beat Manifesto.

 

The cover of the album was from a 1970s fashion shoot reject box, according to Ed Simons. In a 1995 interview with Select magazine, Simons said, "We wanted something that just looked nice. A lot of techno albums just have fractals on them, and we wanted something a bit more romantic and otherworldly with soft, nice colours. It's the wrong way round as well - intentionally. If me and Tom are in that picture we're in the car going, "Oh she's alright, I wish I had a guitar on my back with her." That would rank as one of the good things in life.

 

Exit Planet Dust received praise upon release described the album as "brash, raw, rule-bending gear made by open-minded music fans, for open-minded music fans." The duo sound was replete with screeching guitar samples and lots of sirens and screaming divas. A breakthrough album of sorts, Exit Planet Dust was, upon its release, one of the few European post-techno albums to make any sort of headway into the stateside market."

 

Exit Planet Dust Track List:

 

1. Leave Home

2. In Dust We Trust

3. Song To The Siren

4. Theee Little Birdies Down Beats

5. Fuck Up Beats

6. Chemical Beats

7. Chico's Groove

8. One Too Many Mornings

9. Life Is Sweet

10. Playground For A Wedgeless Firm

11. Alive Alone