TOMORA

[Joslyn]

I don't know. Can't listen to the mix unless there is a nice person around sharing

The japanese edition of the Tomora album has a bonus track called "Wavelenghts  (Who Am I)", perhaps there's a connection. They also highlighted the word Wavelenght in the desrciption


edited

What?! 😲 There is now a Japanese version with a bonus tracks?! 😲 S#¡T here I go again trying to get my hands on a Japanese release.

[hstn]

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world 〰️

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[Ford]

What?! 😲 There is now a Japanese version with a bonus tracks?! 😲 S#¡T here I go again trying to get my hands on a Japanese release.

The Japanese bonus track = an 76.6% increase in price from the regular edition!

Regular = 3,000  yen
Japanese bonus track = 5,300 yen

Interestingly, the regular listing still has a 13th track called Wavelength (Who Am I) listed. Must be a mistake?

[ThePumisher]

What?! There is now a Japanese version with a bonus tracks?!

The Japanese bonus track = an 76.6% increase in price from the regular edition!

And as mentioned a couple of pages ago it comes with a pink logo towel

=> https://forum.thechembase.com/index.php?msg=38685

[Ford]

Ahh right. I missed the towel. Not something I really want and want to pay a premium for.

[ThePumisher]

Live Q&A with Tom and Aurora + listening party

03 April - Resident, Brighton
04 April - Rough Trade East, London
05 April - Rough Trade, Liverpool

Tickets: CLICK

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[Bosco]

Just getting around to the Tomroa Mix on Apple Music...

I admittedly have not listened to much Bob Dylan, and when I have, I've keyed in on some random tracks in his discography where his vocals were less pleasant.

So when I heard:

Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world

My brain was hearing Joshua Ostander of Mondo Cozmo, who Tom assisted on his 'Plastic Soul' album, even though I knew it was Bob Dylan from the mix track listing.

track that Tom worked on for Mondo Cozmo

So anyways, I don't know why I'm mentioning this but... I suppose I want to point out Joshua Ostander sounds like Bob Dylan (vocally more pleasing, IMO) and It wouldn't surprise me to see a legit Chemical Brothers feature where they might try to use Josh Ostander to get that Bob Dylan vocal aesthetic if they should want to do that.

The Wave sounds intriguing. 

[ThePumisher]

Somewhere Else Salute remix

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[WhiteNoise]

My brain was hearing Joshua Ostander of Mondo Cozmo, who Tom assisted on his 'Plastic Soul' album, even though I knew it was Bob Dylan from the mix track listing.

So anyways, I don't know why I'm mentioning this but... I suppose I want to point out Joshua Ostander sounds like Bob Dylan (vocally more pleasing, IMO) and It wouldn't surprise me to see a legit Chemical Brothers feature where they might try to use Josh Ostander to get that Bob Dylan vocal aesthetic if they should want to do that.

I just found out a friend of mine went to school with Ostander and has remained close. Might have to ask him how that collab came to be, I've always wondered.

[Bosco]

I just found out a friend of mine went to school with Ostander and has remained close. Might have to ask him how that collab came to be, I've always wondered.

Interesting! And on the same album (Plastic Soul) which straight up samples the Nine Acre Dust remix on "11 Acre".

I do want to point out "Shine" is a wonderful track. WXRT was in on that heavy before it blew up. Easily felt like it was played daily on the station for a good 3+ years.

Spoiler

Also, it's OstRander! I apologize, I lead you astray with the wrong spelling!

Alright, I'm done hijacking the thread!

[Wolkenkrabber]

I feel like we need to bump this mix forward to the current page in the thread.

For those without Apple Music:

This hour feels very much like a "this is me" mix from Tom.
We get stuff he produced as The Chemical Brothers, TOMORA and of course as Tom Rowlands.

There are artists that have appeared in Chemical mixes before (Peter Dundov, Eartheater), there are influences from Tom's past (New Order, Bob Dylan, FSOL), present day stuff (TOMORA and Tom's recent "We Are Nothing"), and maybe even something from the future (The Wave).

Bob Dylan is someone T&E have both waxed lyrical about in the past, but as far as I know, the title of One Too Many Mornings (but not the actual song) is the only thing the Chems have borrowed from him until now.

New Order's The Village is an interesting one -at least to New Order fans. An album track from Power Corruption and Lies, it never had any single release/remix/re-edits until now. The 2020 box set reissue of that album did have a "writing session" instrumental, but I don't think that's been used here.
So I guess this is a Tom re-edit (using some vocal separation tech?) even if his name isn't explicitly written in the credits.

Spoiler

Original

2020 box set demo release

Pussy (spoken word) by Kathy Acker (18:38 onwards) is the same track that Tom sampled for Nothing But Pleasure, I believe. But a different bit. I guess Tom really likes the horny poetry!

FSOL's Papua New Guinea sampled Dead Can Dance's Dawn Of The Iconoclast in 1991, and of course the Dusts/Chems would sample the same track for Her Jazz in 1994. Perhaps FSOL inspired the Chems to sample Dead Can Dance (and 4AD type stuff) within "dance music", as of course they also sampled DCD in Song To The Siren.

Guilded Lily by Cults is perhaps the one track that strikes me as kinda Aurora-ish. I wonder if this was her choice?

Getting back to Dylan, as Bosco suggests, Bob doesn't have the best voice (I saw him live - once), but of course he wrote some great songs, so he was ripe to be covered by other artists (Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds, Gn'R and many more).
1) The first time I heard "A Hard Rain Is Gonna Fall" - it was a cover version by Edie Brickell.
2) Edie is best known for her song "What I Am".
3) There was an unoffical Italian remix of "What I Am" that had a percussion sound added to it. Andrew Weatherall heard it and then sampled that percussion sound for Primal Scream's Loaded.
4) And of course Primal Scream were one of the first artists to commission the Dusts/Chems to remix them (Jailbird).
So perhaps there's a four-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon kinda thing going on there.

Spoiler

Whether The Wave featuring Bob's vox will ever be released is perhaps questionable. Some artists have actually sampled Dylan directly before (Lay Lady Lay was sampled by Kid Cudi, of all people). Bob of course, sold his entire catalogue for huge $$$ in 2020 and 2022, per The Guardian (Dylan must be the richest folk singer in the world!), so I don't know if that makes it easier or harder to get sample clearance. But this is really nice, and perhaps a mix like this was Tom's best opportunity to release it...

PS: Do we think that Tom added the guitar in The Wave himself? Here's the original Bob Dylan version of Hard Rain:

[Csar]

Are the birds vibing, too?

[ThePumisher]

Hi Kevin!

At around 5:00 Tom could easily drop Hoops...

[ThePumisher]

Who did this?

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[Stefan]

Ok I have to steal this

[Joslyn]

Next stop: Den Haag 

Dour still in consideration...

[UltimatePelmeni]

Who did this?

Well, it was a bit sad that they didn't answer my question   
 
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[Stefan]

That is an excellent question. I hope somebody asks them that at the 3 upcoming Q&As in the UK. No way for them to dodge the question there

[ThePumisher]

Somewhere Else (Salute Remix)

I like this, best chemical related remix of the past years

[Bosco]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/apr/02/tomora-aurora-tom-rowlands-chemical-brothers-interview-come-closer

'Ring the alarm! Wake up! Be human!': Aurora and Tom Rowlands on their new dance-pop duo Tomora

The Norwegian singer-songwriter and the Chemical Brother have combined their talents, and names, to create a wildly inventive new band. The collaboration has gone smoothly so far – but will they soon need separate tour buses?

The two members of Tomora are contemplating their forthcoming debut live shows, a slate that includes an attention-grabbing slot at this month's Coachella festival. "We're still kind of working it out, and I'm getting a bit, 'Oh my God, what's going on?'" worries Tom Rowlands, best known as one half of Grammy-winning banger merchants the Chemical Brothers, and now one half of Tomora. Rowlands' mindset, however, contrasts heavily with that of Aurora, his new musical partner.
"I don't have any stress in my being," the Norwegian singer-songwriter and pop experimentalist says cheerily, sitting on the floor of the duo's north London label office with her shoes off. "I'm always like: it's fine," she shrugs. "Yes, the house is on fire, but we'll work it out."
On Tomora's debut album, Come Closer, these different approaches manifest themselves throughout its 12 tracks; Rowlands' kinetic yet precisely structured dance framework fusing with Aurora's more chaotic pop nous to create a head-spinning mix of techno, trip-hop and, on the prowling title track, a skewed take on prog. In person, each fills the gaps left by the other; Rowlands, 55, isn't keen on interviews, having purposefully eschewed them in his day job, while the impish Aurora has the ability to deliver philosophical soundbites with genuine passion. A question about Tomora's "organic" collaboration, for example, leads to the 29-year-old declaring: "It's like how every plant in the world just knows which direction to grow up from the earth. They know how to become what they're going to become without anyone telling them – it's predestined knowledge. That's how I feel with us in the studio. It just happens like it has already happened."
That instinctive spirit is laser-guided through the album's elasticated lead single, Ring the Alarm, which feels like the aural equivalent of mainlining a gallon of caffeine. For Aurora, it also carries a deeper message thanks to the climate into which it's arriving. "It's a good time to say: 'Ring the alarm! Be aware! Look around! Wake up!'" she says. "'Be awake, be human.'"
She also sees the Coachella slot, which was announced before the public even knew who or what Tomora was, causing a minor ripple on various music-focused Reddit threads, as bigger than just a rave in the California desert. "There is so much emotional distress on the land there just now, like a lot of places," Aurora says. "So it's going to be interesting to have a little moment of escapism. I think music really matters when the world is very chaotic. So I'm more excited than I would normally be [to play Coachella] because it feels like it's going to be a beautiful moment."
Aurora's ability to communicate music's healing powers is what caught the attention of Rowlands in the first place. Watching Glastonbury 2016 coverage on his sofa ("It was the one year I didn't go," he says), he was transfixed by Aurora's "combination of strength and this fragility, plus her incredible voice". Rowlands sent Aurora an email asking if she'd be up for appearing on the Chemical Brothers' then in-the-works No Geography album. "And I didn't hear back for weeks," he laughs.

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Pride of place ... Aurora performing in Mexico City in 2021. Photograph: Medios y Media/Getty Images
Aurora, it turned out, was taking it all in. "I was very excited, and I wanted to be very myself when I answered," she says. "And sometimes when you're overpowered by dopamine or serotonin in the brain, you speak and act in a way that isn't truly representative to who you are. It's a bit too dog-like. So I waited until the serotonin and dopamine was at a normal level again." She'd go on to appear on three of No Geography's tracks, with Rowlands later returning the favour, adding production to Aurora's 2024 UK Top 10 album What Happened to the Heart?.

Like how every plant knows which direction to grow up. That's how I feel with us in the studio

Despite spending her childhood "singing or talking" as opposed to listening to the radio or exploring the ins and outs of the music canon – her phone only contains a handful of Enya songs, "Ethiopian music from the 70s" plus Hate It Or Love It by the Game ft 50 Cent – one of her favourite albums of all time happened to be the Chemical Brothers' soundtrack to the 2011 action thriller Hanna. "I loved every single song and I listened to it so much," she says. "It became a really big part of my life as a person who doesn't really listen to music much." Rowlands recently played Aurora Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys for the first time during a car journey: "I was like: fuck me, I'd like to hear Good Vibrations again for the first time in my life," he smiles.
Any trepidation about working with one of her musical idols soon dissipated, and in fact Rowlands' email arrived at the exact right time. Having been an artist since she was 16, by 2016 Aurora was burnt out from "over 300 shows in a year plus maybe 100 promo performances". She says she was contemplating ending "the artist thing because it [was] taking away the fun from the music". Their collaboration on No Geography was "something that felt very much like mine in a time where everything that was mine belonged to the world", she adds.

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Superstar DJS ... Rowlands and Ed Simons as the Chemical Brothers. Photograph: Hamish Brown
If the Chemical Brothers collaboration was a form of rescue remedy for Aurora a decade ago, then she has since been able to return the favour. Having made 10 albums alongside fellow Chemical Brother Ed Simons, all with tours in between, by 2024 Rowlands "needed to have some other thing to think about" before embarking on another Chems album. Deciding he needed "a shot of Aurora", the pair started recording at Rowlands' home studio, as well as at Aurora's family home in Norway. It was there that they road-tested some of the songs to an initially sceptical audience.
"My parents' ears aren't used to looking past the jarring noises of techno or rock or whatever genre it is," says Aurora. "They only hear that it's hard and messy. But with our music, it's a very good door for them into a new world because I can tell that they feel it in here" – she presses the centre of her rib cage – "in a very fun way." Her parents were so enamoured of Rowlands that he left with a gift: a Norwegian cheese slicer made from reindeer bone.
Rowlands says he was astonished by Aurora's musicality, and her ability to finesse the jarring noises into something beautiful. "A lot of the instruments I use don't have a concept of a note," he laughs. "But Aurora listens and then she'll play something and I'll go: 'Oh my God, that was inside the sound and I couldn't find it.'" One story helped bond them even more, Rowlands recognising in Aurora's distaste of a specific snare sound on her debut album a shared music-related geekery. "It ruined the whole album for me," Aurora says. "Well, because it just didn't sound as you wanted it to sound," Rowlands replies.
In the decade since that debut, Aurora has taken even more control in the studio, but is also aware that some people will simplify Tomora down to a male producer creating songs for a female singer; that her work in the studio may be sidelined. It's an assumption that frustrated her at the start of her career: "Because then it was like: 'Oh, this makes me feel small, this misinterpretation of my capabilities.' But as I grow older, I just don't care."
She acknowledges, however, that "for other women that also produce, it is a good thing to advocate for and talk about. Because it is really fun to produce, and it's important to be heard." Working with Rowlands, she says, helped because his openness made it "so easy to feel respected immediately, which you don't always expect with a more established artist that is male, and a less established [one] that is female. I'm used to demanding it, though, because I'm quite: 'Fuck you, I'll do it.'"
Rowlands is aware that the pair's mutual respect means there's little in the way of juicy confrontation. "Wait until we finish touring," Rowlands laughs. "Fucking hell!" Aurora, ever the storyteller, lights up at the idea of this imagined bust-up. "We'll get separate cars. We won't look each other in the eye," she says, practically levitating as the fantasy plays out in her mind. "But weirdly, we will also be wearing one communal hat." Rowlands, aware of his role in Tomora, smiles and nods along.
Come Closer is out on 17 April.