Review: The Chemical Brothers at Glastonbury — No live show, no problem

From the opener came ‘Go’ and a sign they’d still be sprinkling in some familiar favourites into the set, but it was mostly an opportunity for the pair to showcase their own new music and what they listen to when not twisting the knobs off their Roland SH-101 or doing degrees at the University of Manchester.

Maxime Alexander’s ‘Take My Hands’ with its bubbling, evolving bassline and distorted 707 sounded like it could have been straight from the ‘Dig Your Own Hole’ era while Mark Broom’s ‘Let’s Roll’ was a stomping slice of minimalistic techno, an influence it was interesting to see the Chems incorporate but one they obviously wear on their sleeves, along with the dusty sounds of breaks and fidgeting squeaks of techno.

Perhaps the two biggest responses were to two new tracks from the forthcoming album in Autumn, which, if they’re anything to go by, will be their best and most contemporary work since ‘Surrender’. ‘No Reason’ and ‘All Of A Sudden’ both sounded enormous on the Arcadia system and hint at an album that will be as attuned to today’s dance music as it is a Chemical Brothers record.

Bring on the live shows later this year, and get them to DJ the afters too.