Leave Home

This has all the phat beats with hard techno sounds at a moderate pace that one expects from the early(-ish) Chems. It is mainly recognised by the loop of a sample of someone rapping "The brothers gonna work it out". Somewhat surprisingly, this appears not to be taken from the Public Enemy track "The Brothers gonna work it out"; it comes from the Blake Baxter track of the same name. The following is taken almost entirely from http://www.sdriver.com/spot/CHEM1.HTM. The first track is the one that is the subject of this node.

The Chemical Brothers: "Leave Home (Single)"
Label: 1995, Astralwerks/Caroline
cat#: ASW 6167-2

Track Listing:

1. Leave Home - 5:33

- Features the infamous sample of Blake Baxter's "Brother's
 Gonna Work It Out". If you listen deep in the mix,
 you'll hear a sample of a bird chirping. I can't quite 
fathom why it's there, nearly lost in the mix. Groovy 
drums, adept use of a grunge sounding guitar. Almost a 
hip-hop groove. Great build-ups and climaxes. I love the 
way they smack you back into the groove. Let's not forget 
the "wacka-chacka" guitar. Is that a sample of Arnold 
Drummond from Diffrn't Strokes?


2. Leave Home (Underworld Mix One) - 8:50

- Whoah...awesome...real drums. The first time I heard this
 track, I popped it in the car deck on the way to work. Big
 mistake. Next thing you know, I'm like an episode of 
Starsky and Hutch on speed. Flyin', weavin', cutting off 
school buses and driving over lawns to get to work on time.
 This one is an assault. I'd love to hear this one in a 
packed club...it'd be a freak fest. Intense pace, fast as 
hell with...like I said...real drums. Drop in that 
Underworld flavor and forgettaboutit. Awesome tune. Man do
 I dig Underworld.

3. Leave Home (Underworld Mix Two) - 6:44

- Drum & Bass assault. Holy crap, Batman, this is more an 
indurance test than a song. As much as I like it when my 
eyes rattle in their sockets...Its a study of the trance 
climax. You start out with the minimum (not actually a 
minimum in reality, more in spirit) drum & bass assault, 
then add the hand claps, then a few more random 
effects...next thing you know, your heat shield has torn 
away and your spacecraft begins to rip to pieces as you 
enter the atmosphere. Then - near silence in the eye of the
 storm - a tom with a single quiet string of "yo" samples. 
Then back to the nightmare. Journeyman breakbeat style from
 Underworld. Overall its fast with some cool stops toward 
the end. Too much of an assault for my tastes.

4. Leave Home (Sabres Of Paradise Mix) - 5:37

- Annoying. Pounding bass drum, over and over. Not fast at
 all. Some interesting things happen, effects and such. Not
 quite enough to float my boat. Boo-Hoo. You had me then 
you lost me.



Track Notes: - #1 contains a sample of Blake Baxter's 
"Brothers Gonna Work It Out". #2 and #3 Remix and 
additional production by Underworld (Darren Emerson and 
Rick Smith), courtesy of Junior Boy's Own. #4 Remix and 
additional production by Sabres Of Paradise (Weatherall, 
Kooner and Burns).

Album Notes: - Original version of "Leave Home" taken from 
the album Exit Planet Dust. Photography by Renee 
Burri/Magnum Photos. Designed at Negativespace.



Review:
Overall Sound Composition (1-10): 7
Overall Percussion Composition (1-10): 8
Overall Rhythm Composition (1-10): 8

Album Rating (1-30): 23

Yeah, well...singles don't usually score too well, but it's
 good enough to breach the 20 point mark, which means its 
worth owning. The original version is cool but as far as I 
can tell, not at all tricked out compared to the album 
version. I don't really recall hearing the bird sound 
effect in the mix on the album version as much as I do here
 at the beginning of the first track. The highlight is 
definitely the two Underworld mixes, specifically the first
 mix. Intense as hell. Makes this single worth buying.


- Art Grauer 1/19/98 reviews@sdriver.com