The Chemical Brothers (GB)

About

Also known as: ChemBros, Chemical Brothers, The Dust Brothers, ケミカル・ブラザーズ

Few acts did more to drag electronic music into the mainstream than The Chemical Brothers. Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons met in Manchester and built a sound that fused big beat, techno, house, and neo psychedelia into something that appealed equally to dance floors and rock crowds. Starting out as The Dust Brothers, they renamed themselves after the original US production duo objected, but by then they were already too established to lose momentum. Their debut Exit Planet Dust shifted over a million copies, and the run of albums that followed, including Dig Your Own Hole and Surrender, both chart toppers, only widened their reach. Their knack for high profile collaborations set them apart too. Noel Gallagher fronted the number one single Setting Sun, Q Tip joined them on Galvanize, and their roster of guest vocalists has stretched to Beth Orton, Beck, Bernard Sumner, and St. Vincent among others. Six Grammy Awards, 13 top 20 UK singles, and a catalogue that keeps rewarding repeat listens add up to one of the most consistently compelling bodies of work in electronic music.