The Chemical Brothers Share New Single, “The Darkness That You Fear”

Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons, better known as The Chemical Brothers, offer up an optimistic new song today (April 23). “The Darkness That You Fear” is the duo’s first single following their Grammy-winning 2019 album No Geography.

The Chemical Brothers’ dreamy psychedelia ripples around two different vocal samples, complemented by a subtle, joyful dance beat that underlines the mentality behind the refrain: “The darkness that you fear will disappear.” The track looks ahead to the better days coming, hopefully soon, as the country (and, eventually, the world) begins to recover from the pandemic.

Reflecting on the song, Rowland said, ”’The Darkness That You Fear’ is a hopeful piece of music. When we found the combination of the different voices worked set to the flow of the music, it made us feel optimistic—like it was something we wanted to share.”

The music video for “The Darkness That You Fear” was created by Bristol-based director Ruffmercy, who said of the visualizer’s production:

When I first heard the song I immediately connected with the theme and the overall positive vibe. New government rules for relaxing lockdown had been announced and combined with the sun shining, it left me feeling positive about the forthcoming summer. It also triggered a strong sense of nostalgia that led to me going back to look for visual inspiration from the period in time when I first discovered The Chemical Brothers in the mid ’90’s. The video combines archive rave footage from the mid to late 90’s with hand painted Super 8 film textures and hand drawn animation. I love using colour to create chaos and evoke emotions and this was the perfect project to do that.

Check out the music video for The Chemical Brothers’ latest release below, and revisit the duo’s legendary Woodstock ‘99 performance of “Hey Boy/Hey Girl/ Music:Response” from the Paste archives further down.