"An astonishing new work, an album of great studio performances at the mixing desk, a sound unlike anything we’ve yet encountered from them or anyone else. You won’t be able to pick out the sources, you can’t hear the history but, in true iceberg fashion, you know it’s there, just beneath the surface. It’s the best of everything distilled into one awesome heavy essence.” - Mojo

“A wild beauty of a record… Dig Your Own Hole rocks, rolls and surges without factionalism prejudice or fear of genre. It is music for dancing. Put it on, turn it up and let yourself be moved. - Rolling Stone 4*

“A surprisingly heavy and intense album for such a success, it nonetheless captures the era’s hedonism better than anything else.” - Record Collector 5*

“Their most action packed outing.” - Uncut 9/10

“Their first No. 1 album in the UK… going on to sell a couple of million worldwide. It took them from the backrooms to the main stages, and turned them into an essential live act, indeed one of the greats who still manage to thrill and headbend large audiences now. What a fucking group. Essential stuff.” - Music OMH

“Stunning.” - Classic Pop 4.5*

The Chemical Brothers’ classic second album, 1997’s Dig Your Own Hole is reissued today (Friday 29th July 2022). This 25th-anniversary edition is available digitally, on CD or as a very limited run of 1,997 numbered vinyl cut across three 12”s.

All formats feature five previously unreleased tracks - a demo of Elektrobank, previously unreleased recording Cylinders and alternate mixes of album tracks It Doesn’t Matter, Where Do I Begin and Don’t Stop The Rock (here titled I Love Tekno).

As a special bonus, a live recording from the Dig Your Own Hole tour is available digitally today on streaming and download platforms. Live From Lowlands Festival 1997 features:

Loops Of Fury
Not Another Drugstore
Block Rockin’ Beats
Leave Home
Song To The Siren
Three Little Birdies Down Beats
It Doesn’t Matter
Don’t Stop The Rock
Elektrobank
Piku
Playground For A Wedgeless Firm
Dig Your Own Hole
Setting Sun
Chemical Beats
Hey Boy Hey Girl
Mind: Response

To celebrate the reissue of Dig Your Own Hole, The Chemical Brothers have signed and donated the first vinyl copy of the record (numbered 0001) to War Child* who are having a prize draw it to raise money to help vulnerable children caught up in crisis in Ukraine, Yemen, Afghanistan and other war zones around the world. The War Child prize draw can be entered here.

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Dig Your Own Hole was recorded and road tested in the underground. On its release on 7th April 1997, the duo’s second album immediately redrew the boundaries of the mainstream. What had been created as a relentless, rapturous soundtrack to basements and backrooms entered the UK album charts at No 1 on the back of two No 1 singles (Setting Sun and Block Rockin’ Beats), and the US Billboard charts at No 14. The first British electronic record to crack the US rock charts, it would go on to sell half a million copies in the States in six months.

Dig Your Own Hole always was, and always will be, a total trip. Painstakingly constructed like a mixtape, Dig… is an hour spent travelling through a kaleidoscopic tunnel; a tumble into a rabbit hole, destination unknown and light source not always visible. Once on the journey, gear changes shift the music’s speed without warning; bass and drums lock into a metronomic union, vocal samples fly in and out of the darkness. And it all builds, and builds, towards a giant, deeply psychedelic crescendo, a chaos cascade of woodwind and distorted noise.

There are myriad voices and musical contributors woven into the sonic fabric of the record - Oasis’ Noel Gallagher on Setting Sun, regular guest Beth Orton on Where Do I Begin, fellow astral travellers Mercury Rev on The Private Psychedelic Reel, samples of rapper Schooly D and DJ Kool Herc, liquid bass from Seggs and Ali Friend - yet each individual melds into the artistic greater good. No one reroutes The Chemical Brothers’ distinctive direction of travel. How could one even begin to try to?

The Chemical Brothers are currently working on the follow-up to their critically acclaimed, award-winning ninth album, 2019’s No Geography. They headline a series of previously announced festivals and outdoor gigs this summer:

Sat 30th July Suikerrock, Tienen, Belgium
Sat 20th August Field Day, London, UK
Sat 27th August Connect, Edinburgh, UK
Thu 1st September Meo Kalorama Festival, Lisbon, Portugal
Fri 2nd September Cala Mijas, Malaga, Spain
Sun 4th September Forwards, Bristol, UK
Fri 23rd September 1st Bank Center, Denver, USA
Sun 25th September Portola Festival, San Francisco, USA