The Chemical Brothers - We Are The Night

An unrelenting sense of repetition is everywhere on the Chemical Brothers sixth LP. Whether this verges on the inane or the masterful is, as with much of their repertoire from Exit Planet Dust upwards, truly in the eye of the beholder. It all depends on whether you really need to be told how much of "The Night" they really are in the first six and a half minutes; 70 odd times do? Klaxons, Fat Lip and Willy Mason take up the helm from Bloc Party, Q-Tip and Magic Numbers as chief collaborators of the day and the results vary accordingly. Saturate quickly erupts before it disappears into old school acid house hell and Do It Again takes up the mantle of uninspired metronomic misadventure. Though the bizarre MARRS-like sheen of A Modern Midnight Conversation and alluring folk-hop of Battle Scars might demand instant attention, the bludgeoning clunk and clack of Das Spiegel does little to heave the Brothers out of an otherwise lethargic rut. [Dave Kerr]