Track Listing

1. Block Rockin' Beats
2. Dig Your Own Hole
3. Elektrobank
4. Piku
5. Setting Sun
6. It Doesn't Matter
7. Don't Stop The Rock
8. Get Up On It Like This
9. Lost In The K Hole
10. Where Do I Begin
11. Private Psychedelic Reel

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12043 in Music
• Released on: 1997-04-07
• Number of discs: 1

From Amazon.com
To follow up their bombastic 1995 album Exit Planet Dust, the Chemical Brothers fine-tuned their bombastic beats and produced a rock-solid pop album (pun intended). Dig Your Own Hole finds the common ground between rock & roll and techno, both in spirit and substance. Singles like "Block Rockin' Beats," "Elektrobank," and "Setting Sun" (featuring vocals by Oasis's Noel Gallagher) may lack the big hair and pomposity of rock music, but they make up for it in spades, with sampled and real guitars battling for space with sirens and distorted hip-hop drums. The album reeks of pure enthusiasm and energy, evoking a crowd-pleasing exuberance that makes Dig Your Own Hole a Back in Black for the late 1990s. Pure stadium techno. --Matthew Corwine

CD Description
Chemical Brothers Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands waste no time on their nuclear-weapon of a second album proving they are masters of the techno groove. DIG YOUR OWN HOLE opens with a sampled shout-out by old-school gangsta Schoolly D, a syncopated bass line, and a drum loop that gives credence to the song's title, "Block Rockin' Beats". This smorgasbord of sounds--a hallucinatory interweaving of hip-hop, techno, trance and the Chemicals' trademark synthesized guitar loop--buildsup and cold-rocks the first five minutes of the record likea tsunami crashing ashore. Unlike most productions in the electronic/dance-music universe, the music on DIG YOUR OWN HOLE also has the weight of great rock and roll. That makes DIG YOUR OWN HOLE the personification of modern pop music at its chaotic best, and a funky agent of change.
DIG YOUR OWN HOLE is built on a repetition of beats, samples and skewered sounds, but that doesn't mean it's a repetitive album. Between bass-heavy house tunes like "It Doesn't Matter" and "Elektro Bank", the Chemicals show where their pop-oriented interests lie--in tradition. Whether butting heads with the Beatles ("Setting Sun", which features vocals by Oasis' Noel Gallagher), exploring English folk tonalities ("Where Do I Begin", featuring Beth Orton) or venturing on sprawling acid-rock voyages (the instrumental "Private Psychedelic Reel", with Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue), the Chemicals refashion familiar styles with a beat-heavy, electronic gleam. Far from digging a hole, the Chemicals are actually building a bridge, to "where it's at".

Customer Reviews

Don't Stop The Rock and It Doesn't Matter ARE CLASS.
Dig Your Own Hole is not merely another EPD. An important album that should be recognised for bridging the gap between Rock and Techno. Block Rockin' Beats and Setting Sun are the most recognised of these tunes, as they feature twisted guitar riffs and drum loops to give something that many of us never thought could exist; Techno and Rock together. However, Tom and Ed don't forget how to make pure, unrefined Electronic music, either, with tracks like Get Up On It Like This, and the trippy Lost In The K-Hole (K standing for Ketamine, you get the picture.) It's a much rawer sound than EPD's, and as such is quite a handful. However, Tom and Ed's highlight is left to the end. The Private Psychedelic Reel. The name alone is enough to realise that this is a mammoth track, which is nothing short of genius. Never have I heard a song a awesome as this. Futuristic sounds and whizzing noises lead to the climactic end, with an awesome electronically enhanced clarinet solo. The track is brilliant throughout. Too difficult to describe it anymore, the best thing to do is listen to it yourself.

It places above the commercial misery that is Surrender, but isn't quite as good as EPD on the whole.

Oh, and Don't Stop The Rock and It Doesn't Matter are class.

Absolutely Awesome !!!
An quite breath-takingly brilliant piece of work only surpassed (or equalled???) in recent years by fellow genius' Leftfield and The Prodigy. Dig Your Own Hole is an album where any song can be listened to depending on your mood. The obvious title track & 'electrobank' being the highlights are for when your in the mood for a laugh and 'where do i begin' is the perfect song to chill out to.......SUPERB album shame about the horribly commercial follow-up

The Best Album Ever.
In 1995 the Chemical Brothers brought big beat to the world with their classic album exit planet dust. Dig Your Own Hole took the earth - shaking sounds of the first album and took it to a whole new level. Dig Your Own Hole was the first album that can truly claim to not only have brought together rock and dance music but to have created something totally new at the same time. The album takes guitar hooklines and fuses them with sirens and beats so immense that they probably shouldn't be lega,l to create an album unlike any other. The album opens with the titanic "Block Rockin' Beats" (which is worth the asking price alone) and this sets the tone for an hour - long sonic assault on your senses. The pace is held steady with the main highlights being "Elektrobank," "Piku," "Get up on it like this" and possibly the Chemicals' finest hour "Private Psychedelic Reel." Contributors Noel Gaalgher, Beth Orton and Kool Herc make an appearance, and all make a substantial input to the tracks they're on. While personally, I like all the tracks, "Don't Stop the Rock" is the worst thing the Chemicals have ever done and is of a lower standard to the rest. This nearly pushes the album down to 4 stars but the rest is so good that you won't be disappointed. All in all a measured, controlled, skillfully produced album that has everything, from all out dance to moments of real beauty that not even Leftism can match. Everyone needs a copy of this album, buy it yesterday.