There’s no doubt that ‘Firestarter’ was the big, banging dance-rock crossover hit of 1996; but that song’s infamy probably means that it has unfairly overshadowed the year’s other big, banging dance-rock crossover hit…
Setting Sun, by The Chemical Brothers (their 1st of two #1s)
1 week, from 6th – 13th October 1996
Because ‘Setting Sun’ hits even harder than ‘Firestarter’, and it hasn’t been tamed by years of ubiquity. I hadn’t heard it properly for ages, and was genuinely taken aback by how nasty it sounds. Take the relentlessly monotonous, boldly uncommercial, one-minute long intro for a start. These are big beats with a capital ‘B’.
The shrieking klaxons and the gut-dropping bass hold the track together, and are very nineties. But in the droning sitar, and the vocals played in reverse, there’s also more than a nod to the original tape-looping, Eastern-looking, psychedelic game-changer: the Beatles’ ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. At one point lawyers looked like getting involved, before a musicologist was brought in to prove that the song was merely inspired by, and didn’t sample, The Beatles. The fact that it was used as a template for a dance track thirty years later surely just proves how incredibly ahead of its time ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was.
And what could be more Beatlesy, back in 1996, than to have Noel Gallagher on vocals? Uncredited, and filtered through layers of feedback, but still recognisable from the off, he even manages to rip-off his own lyrics from ‘Half the World Away’… You said your body was young but your mind was very old… And I have to say that this is probably the best #1 single that he features on, as much as I do enjoy many of Oasis’s chart-toppers.
Other brilliant moments include the intense break half-way through, which sounds like a helicopter landing on your head. (I was going to call it the ‘middle-eight’ but I don’t think traditional terms like that apply to boundary pushers like this.) And then there’s the completely unhinged outro, in which the song disintegrates before our ears. The video I’ve attached below is the radio edit, but it’s worth hearing the full five and a half minute version, to drag out the exquisite nastiness…
Another thing that’s interesting about this record is that, unlike The Prodigy when they unleashed ‘Firestarter’, The Chemical Brothers had only a couple of minor hits to their name before ‘Setting Sun’. According to most sources, airplay was limited too. So it seems to have been a genuine underground, word of mouth smash (with Noel G for added clout) that set the duo up to become one of the biggest dance acts of the late-90s and early-00s.
The Chemical Brothers (yet again, like the Walkers, the Righteouses and the Outheres, they are not actually brothers!) had met at the University of Manchester in 1989, and had bonded over their love of rave culture. There can be few chart-topping DJs with a degree in late-Medieval history, but the Chem’s Ed Simons is one. They have one further chart-topper to come, but it will have to go some to match the power of this.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Love this one, bought it, and very much Tomorrow Never Knows was an obvious soundbed for the dance monster. By far the best track from Chemical brothers and one of Noel’s best too, who by co-incidence I saw in concert last night, still got it. His recent stuff from the Council Skies album was a fab start, quality material, then we got Flying Birds oldies, oddities, rarities before an Oasis hits finale via a Joy Division cover. The sound quality (in Poole at The Lighthouse) was more Jesus & Mary Chain than it deserved to be (but I guess that’s down to the venue) – much as I love Jesus & Chain, distortion not me first preference on rock numbers. The acoustic/ballad stuff was fine though. I will be doing an actual review for a change.
I wasn’t even in my clubbing phase in 1996, but this track really does make you want to get up and move, even if it’s in your own bedroom, head between the speakers on the wall and annoying the neighbours and family downstairs. Worth it.
Glad that Noel was sounding good, and look forward to the review! He seems settled in his groove and at peace with the world which, coupled with Liam’s current success, makes a reunion seem very far away. Part of me hopes it never happens, really, though the other part of me would be getting tickets if at all possible…
It’s nice to see a Beatles song back at the top of the charts in the Britpop era. Especially an album track from Revolver – interesting choice by Apple to release “Tomorrow Never Knows” as a single, but hey, it worked out for the best and-wait, why does it say Chemical Brothers at the top?
Lol… I think they did enough with the track to make it their own!
Yeah, you’re right. It’s a cool track. It’s more a compliment to “Tomorrow Never Knows” that this song and that song sound so similiar despite being 30 years apart.
I wouldn’t put “Setting Sun” anywhere close to “Don’t Look Back in Anger” or “Some Might Say” or even the chart-toppers from Be Here Now, but it’s definitely better than anything Oasis did in the 2000s.
I have a feeling that this was what Oasis were aiming for on Be Here Now – dance beats, loops, that kind of thing, but I’d disagree that anything on that album trumps this (and I’m generally quite positive about Be Here Now – unline many…)
The drums are Tomorrow Never Knows…well someone else said that as well…I like this…I heard their name before but never knew he was singing it. I like this one a lot!
It’s cool, isnt it? This was the only one of their tracks Noel sang on, I think, but it works really well.
Yes it is…I’ve heard of them but never heard them…I love this…this is another song I may end of posting…it’s great.
Cool! Are you now… a… dance music fan, then?
Uh…NO … but I do like this