Tom Rowlands - We Are Nothing / All Night

[nekoland]

[Enjoyed]

Well OK then!

[Ben_j]

What a pleasant surprise ! I feel like those were leftovers from the M soundtrack, or were born during the production of the soundtrack at least.

[LLG]

https://shop.phantasysound.co.uk/products/tom-rowlands-we-are-nothing-all-night-ph144

[Stefan]

Ohhh boy new music, that will be loooooooooong hours until I get home

[gfa2001]

Not so sure on We Are Nothing on first listen. All Night is crazy and not what i'd expect in a good way!! Going to go off in clubs

[Wolkenkrabber]

Could there be a Tom-goes-techno EP in the works? Will Chemical fans like this stuff?

Well I guess it's one track shy of an EP. But could there be more Tom Tunes coming on Phantasy? My feeling was/is that a lot of the new stuff we've heard doesn't neessarily sound like it would appear on a future Chems LP...

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So it's the return of Bill Bissett. Last heard on I'll See You There, and before that on We Are The Night. Now that we can hear the track clearly, yeah I can hear that it's him.
We also now know that the bit I described in another thread as "old skool jazz-funk sounds" is a part of We Are Nothing (2:36), although clearly it's a big sample from...somewhere.

In the Argentina thread Stefan said:

the track that starts at 19:00 is wild!

And yeah I agree. I commented that it scrambles my brain, and that's still kinda true now. The track that follows We Are Nothing in @nekoland 's Argentina video is the one that goes "The Rhythm, The Rhythm ,The Rhythm...We Get Hiiiigh". That's probably the new track that I most want to see released. This by contrast, is probably the new track that I least yearned for. But I'm still glad that it's being released. I guess I'll just have to wait a bit longer for the stuff I most want.

I don't think we've heard All Night before, have we? The drums are in D'n'B territory aren't they? The vocal is very House, and I have a feeling they're taken from an old Disco or House track that we've probably heard before. I just can't quite put my finger on it.
Very much a club track, it won't change the world but it might just get played by DJ's who wouldn't normally play Tom/Chems music.

BTW, who releases music on a Thursday morning? What happened to Fridays (and before that Mondays)? This one is kind of a surprise. A good surprise though. Almost serendipitous.

[gfa2001]

There was an interview on BBC Radio 6 by the way. Confirmed no new chems music for a while

[Stefan]

We Are Nothing is fantastic!

All Night isn't quite for me, too much like Drum'n'Bass 

[Champiness]

"We Are Nothing" was a definite highlight of the recent DJ sets for me so I'm happy (tho a bit surprised) to have it in studio quality already - if anything it's kind of a letdown they didn't save it for the next Chems project since I was looking forward to see what Smith+Lyall made of it eventually
The other point worth noting is the last time we got a Tom Rowlands release on Phantasy it was a clear sign that Ed had prioritized non-Chems concerns for the moment and Tom couldn't wait until their schedules lined up again to get out the stuff he'd been working on - which gfa2001's comment seems to suggest is the case again. But at least he seems to be along for the ride on a bunch of DJ dates this year so presumably he's not going after a second doctorate or anything?

[Wolkenkrabber]

There was an interview on BBC Radio 6 by the way. Confirmed no new chems music for a while

Good spot. A voicenote thingy left by Tom on Lauren Laverne's show at 1hr20, followed by a (first?) play of the track (on the radio).
He says "...as there's no new Chemical Brothers music coming up on the Horizon, I thought it'd be fun to stick it out on Erol Alkan's label, Phantasy...and [an] exciting development, I'm gonna be DJing after Erol at Glastonbury on Friday night; that sounds like it could be fun".
That's pretty much the whole thing.
It leaves me asking: what about all those other unreleased tunes from recent DJ sets? I reckon there are at least 4 tracks in addition to today's release that are new, unreleased Tom/Chems tracks.
Maybe we'll have to wait until 2027 or 2028 for them...

[gfa2001]

Good spot. A voicenote thingy left by Tom on Lauren Laverne's show at 1hr20, followed by a (first?) play of the track (on the radio).
He says "...as there's no new Chemical Brothers music coming up on the Horizon, I thought it'd be fun to stick it out on Erol Alkan's label, Phantasy...and [an] exciting development, I'm gonna be DJing after Erol at Glastonbury on Friday night; that sounds like it could be fun".
That's pretty much the whole thing.
It leaves me asking: what about all those other unreleased tunes from recent DJ sets? I reckon there are at least 4 tracks in addition to today's release that are new, unreleased Tom/Chems tracks.
Maybe we'll have to wait until 2027 or 2028 for them...

Ah thanks for transcribing it.

The glastonbury DJ set is certainly going to be a special one, anyone know when he last DJ'd solo? I'll be there to report back  anyone else about, no replies in the thread I made for it!

No music for a while lines up with what I heard, fatherhood being the main thing is my understanding. They have basically toured non stop since covid so makes sense to have a break.

[VMan]

Loving this! 

The breakdown in 'We are Nothing' immediately reminded me of Rollin' & Scratchin by Daft Punk. Around the 3:40 mark... Love it!!! 

[Bosco]

https://bsky.app/profile/erolalkan.bsky.social/post/3lrflncfxfk2r

been in my DJ sets for around a year now

Um, perhaps we should be more closely following Erol sets going forward seeing as he's constantly receiving early material.

[actionjackson780]

Um, perhaps we should be more closely following Erol sets going forward seeing as he's constantly receiving early material.

He played "Leave Home" at The Social's Bugged Out street party a few weekends ago (saw via Instagram stories) so we know he likes to dig into the back catalogue as well!

[Bosco]

'We Are Nothing' samples from:

"I've seen you go through the changes"  00:22
"love that's right" 00:36

[inchemwetrust]

We Are Nothing starts out like evil Kraftwerk, then that drum kick lays the foundation for all the sounds that comes in and out throughout the song , which are quite a few and different (the video game one with the 'Chic' guitar riff is my fave)  'We are nothing We're led to nothing, we become nothing' is such a robotic, threatening, sinister sample. It's absence in the middle of the track was a great idea because it would sound repititous, and this is why you hear the vocal the 2nd time near the end of the track!

All Night is definitely a throwback to 90's happy hardcore / rave culture! I'm shocked by hearing this because this is from the same guy who co-produced Base 6 and The Salmon dance!

These 2 tracks are golden!

[Wolkenkrabber]

'We Are Nothing' samples from:

[Open Your Eyes by Bobby Caldwell]

"I've seen you go through the changes"  00:22
"love that's right" 00:36

Ha. I tried to figure out the lyrics on Saturday and I was guessing at:
"Watching/washing(!) you go through the changes,
...Dog's on fire."
I was googling those 'lyrics' and not getting much joy, funnily enough!

Looks like the writing credits for We Are Nothing have popped up on SACEM (and maybe somewhere else?).

Composer/Author : HARRIS NORMAN WILLIAM, INCONNU COMPOSITEUR AUTEUR, MALAMENT BRUCE A, OSTYN ROWLANDS THOMAS OWEN M
Sub-Publisher : BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (FRANCE)
Publisher : INCONNU EDITEUR, BMG RIGHTS MANAGEMENT UK LIMITED

So you whack Bruce Malament into Discogs and it brings up a bunch of Bobby Caldwell songs - and then you...try your luck? I can't say I'm a fan of this guy's music - listening through a bunch of his tracks until you find "Open Your Eyes" wouldn't be my idea of fun!

[EDIT: Or you correctly google the "go through the changes" lyric + Bruce Malament, and then Google takes you straight to the right track! Probably this]

If you whack the other name - Norman William Harris - into Discogs, it's a bit trickier. I wonder if Norman William Harris may be AKA Norman Ray Harris. He has a shed-load of writing credits for soul, Philly and disco stuff. So the bit I previously described as "jazz funk" (2:36) and Inchem describes as "Chic" is probably the bit written by Mr Harris (whether it's this Mr Harris, or another one). I don't feel inclined to go on a big track search for that bit right now. But maybe one day...

Incidentally I notice that this Apple music link has the Bill Bissett lyrics as "We are nothing, we are less than nothing, we become nothing". But I'm not sure that it's correct. Sounds more like "lead to nothing" to my ears. I'm struggling to find Mr Bissett's poem online in any form, to confirm this.

------

As for "All Night" (re-posted under spoiler for ease of use)

Spoiler

I may have figured out a sample - with my ears. But it's just a sound effect, rather than a 'biggie'.
The high pitched noise we hear repeatedly at 0:32 to 0:42, and at 1:24 to 1:34 etc is sampled from this at 0:23, I think.
TERMINATOR X- 01 Vendetta The Big Get Back

It's probably best known for its use in Underwater Love by Smoke City

Spoiler

The vocal is the big one on All Night, of course.
There are a couple of tracks from 1983 called All Night Long - and neither of them is by Lionel Ritchie!
The one I already knew is the Mary Jane Girls – All Night Long (written, produced & arranged by Rick "Superfreak" James - AKA the "You Can't Touch This" original composer).
There's an acapella of the track on YT.

At around 3:30 they sing "all night long" a bit faster than elsewhere in the track. Could this have been "messed around with" by Tom to sound the way it now does? In truth, I'm not sure it's the same voice(s).

The other All Night Long is by La Famille.
I can't find an acapella for this. Rick James is credited for this version too - it's basically a cover version of the song above. But again, I'm not sure if it's the same voice(s) as Tom's track. Tom's "all night" vocal may be a more recent recording. Would be curious for others' opinions.

I suspect there are other samples in this track - the stabby opening riff at 0:22 for example. Perhaps some (forthcoming?) SACEM writing credits will help us in due course...

[Stefan]

I am also hearing "we are lead to nothing"

Great detective work