The Chemical Brothers – Loops Of Fury

For Tom & Ed to leave something as infectious as "Loops Of Fury" off their albums showed how confident and prolific they were in 1996. It refined their acid breaks formula of "Chemical Beats" and "Dust-Up-Beats" with its catchier melody and percussion, including a beat adapted from Davy DMX's "One For The Treble (Fresh)" and rhythmic crowd noise that aped the chorus of "Whoomp! (There It Is)". Reached #13 in the UK singles chart. (7)

It flows straight into "(The Best Part Of) Breaking Up", a 5-minute break-beat + turntablism excursion that deconstructs the title-track into its basic elements like the big beat equivalent of an epic jazz drum solo. The ending, which uses percussion lifted from T La Rock's "Breaking Bells", was subsequently recycled for the intro of another drum lesson, "These Beats are Made for Breakin'". (5)

With its fast, rubbery bassline, lively horns and quirky Afrika Islam vocals, "Get Up On It Like This" was surprisingly jolly for a Chemical Brothers track. The track was likely inspired by Ceasefire's 1995 "Beat Bastik", which the Chemicals were big fans of, as they both share a main horn riff from John Schroeder's "Money Runner". The lively drums are by Bernard Purdie, from Charles Kynard's jazz-funk cover of "Something", with added bongos from Michael Viner's "Bongolia", and a drum cameo from The Rhythm Makers' "Monterey". (7)

The final track saw Dave Clarke arguably trump the Chemicals' acid breaks original with a more infectious techno remix. He retained the acid line, Wreckx-N-Effect's "Rump Shaker" grunts and Jimmy McGriff "The Worm" funk break, and augmented them with more varied and driving percussion. Clarke had a knack for polishing big beat, going on to produce an equally good remix of Death In Vegas's "Rocco" not long after. (7)

No matter what anyone says today, this EP was top class when it came out and cream of the crop, as it's still very playable.