What can I say? Anyone who has previously heard the chemical brothers will know how good they are. Their style of music is Alternative Dance - in the same sort of league as groups like Aphex Twin and The Prodigy so to speak, although where the latter two bands are "punky/dirty" in style the Chemical Brothers are more "Indie/chilled" in style (leading the way for other artists such as Fatboy Slim) with the odd dirty sounding track here and there - but were and still are pioneers of the "big-beats" sound. Having collaborated with some of the biggest names in Brit Pop (Noel Gallagher from Oasis and Bobby Gillespie from Primal Scream, Wayne Coyne - The Flaming Lips, Richard Ashcroft - The Verve and Tim Burgess amongst others) and having had countless hit singles and albums, the Chemical Brothers rightly deserve a best of album.

"Block Rocking Beats" (which netted a Grammy for "Best Rock Instrumental"!) is still as fresh today as it was a decade ago (and for me was the track that put them on the map so to speak). It's phat, punchy drum beats mixed with a helping of simple yet highly effective bass lines form a good basis for the track. What makes it so different though is the cunning use of a "siren" sound - although not quite in the usual manner as you'd expect from the Chemical Bro's! Nice simple (yet perfect for the track) vocal samples from "Schoolly D" finish off the song to provide a real pounding track that'll make you wanna jump like a loon all over the place! "Back with another one of those BLOCK ROCKING BEATS!"

"Loops of Fury" I think quite hard to describe the sound. It's got the obvious hard-hitting beats that you come to love with the Chems, but what makes it such a good track are the strange synthersiser sounds which make up the "lead" to the track. The sound kinda swirls around you creating their own beat to compliment the drums. Nicely worked track, though not really one you'd listen to over and over again. Probably due to the fact that it's entirely instrumental (i.e no vocals). This track was one of the Chems earliest releases and I think has a certain "hip-hop" kinda feel to it. More in terms of beat and rythmn of the track more than anything.

"Hey boy hey Girl" was the first release from the Chems after a two year break from new material towards the late 90's. In my view it has a much more "house" feel to it than most of their previous work but still works well. More simple vocal samples (which I like and do prefere - they use this technique well) and subtle changes to the track allow this track to flow nicely. The usual clever mixing really makes the bass-drum "boom" when the drum beats properly kick in. Still much more relaxed than true house music - but a floor-filler in it's day and still good even now.

"It begain in Afrika". It begain in Afrika-ka-ka-ka-ka-ka! If you ever went clubbing in the early part of this millenium around 2001-2001, chances are you heard this track. The vocal loop is used to great effect in this song I feel, it's been turned into and used as a sample to great effect. The track is more "house" in style again (making use of the big clubbing scene at the time), but really does retain it's chemical sound well. Some strange sound effects give the song some real depth. A bit samey-samey in terms of sound and previous tracks - but then the Chemical Bros do specialise in this sort of music - so that's to be expected - plus, they do make it unique through clever mixing and sampling techniques.

The album includes many other tracks, which will probably be familiar even if you never knew they were Chemical Bro tracks! It also includes the track "Not another drugstore" on CD 2, which was a b-side to the "electrobank" single and is a interesting mix of rap and dance with a hip-hop edge and some excellent breakbeat drums that come together really well.