Exit Planet Dust

oh man, have i been waiting for this one. this was my first introduction to them, in the fall of 1995. i was super-leet, working in a computer lab, shuttling around my newton and an internal hard drive in the pocket of my mechanic's jacket. i'd remove the drive from a computer in the lab & install mine, write my papers or whatever, then put it all back together and go back home. and read the collected sherlock holmes on the bus back & forth on my newton. this is another 7-star album for me.

The perfect soundtrack for mindless, repetitive work tasks on a Friday morning.

I always liked "Dig your own hole" better (especially the buzz saw solo), but this one is great too. Very innovative, great beats. No song is a filler. And nice that they've put the more upbeat songs to the start and the more chill songs to the end. I absolutely see the impact it had at the time it came out.

Hey boys Hey girls Superstar DJs Here we go

It's cool to hear electronic music that isn't just club music. This works just as well for simply setting a mood.

Everything I want out of an electronic music album. Literally bopped my head from start to finish.

Solid but uninteresting.

I would contend this is not one of the 1000 albums I needed to hear before I die.

A soft focus laser (like the green ones in clubs that pan around) trained squarely on your pleasure zones that hits (tickles?) the spot more often than not. Agreeable by design, which isn't an issue here because the Brothers' dedication to making techno enjoyable for a wider audience means an appreciation of pop song form and healthy servings of beats. I tip my hat to them for their public service.

Why is this on the list? I could have definitely died without hearing this and had 50 minutes of my life back to listen to something useful.

Where it all began.

It's pretty awesome for a debut. I certainly fell in love with it when I first heard it and have been a big fan ever since. Not sure I can pick a favourite but the opener gets you going and closer brings you back down.

Really enjoyed this. As always, what I expected was vastly different than what I received. Added to library.

At the supermarket, there is one aisle I never go down. It has the dog food and the baby food - admittedly a strange pairing - but since I don’t own either, I don’t visit. Plus, it smells unclean. Listening to this album is like walking down that aisle. There is nothing there I want or need - everything they have here is for made for others. I understand what it is and what it’s there for, but I don’t have any use for it. This project is clarifying that there are so many styles of music out there and I simply don’t give two shits about some of them. This is one of those.

I wasn't too receptive to electronic music when this came out, so first encountered it in a batch with their next two albums as well, and it's certainly my least favorite out of that list - was considering giving it a 4 as a result, but it won me back around to a 5. Fave tracks - "Leave Home" and "Chemical Beats" from the slamming first half, "One Too Many Mornings and "Alive Alone" from the cool down half!

This is 90s ‘Need for Speed’ techno and I love it

I discovered The Chemical Brothers, like many people, with the follow-up to Exit Planet Dust, the also amazing Dig Your Own Hole, and back in the day getting my hands on these albums wasn't that easy. Even considering that, I hate myself for not having listened to this album in full back in the day. I only knew a few songs, which I thought were great, but listening to the overall album is a whole another experience. Damn, guess I'll be listening this one on repeat these days.

Hugely underrated album from hugely underrated pioneers of big beat and electro. This is a belter!

BBB (Big Beat Bangers)

Excellent mood and vibe. A little surprised at the lack of Dancy stuff.

A favorite back in high school. Love the way it flows from track to track. It's cool that it works equally well as dance music and as a headphone ride. Starts with a Kraftwerk sample so you know they know their shit. I like the additive/subtractive way layers of elements/loops are used to build dramatic song structures. Tracks 1-6 are like the party and 7-11 are like the after-party. Used to put "one too many mornings" on mixtapes.

Some of Daft Punk's works are a direct inspiration from this album, which makes it enough to like it a lot. Also, it is easily hearable to any ear, that Alive Alone inspired MANY songs to this date...

This is great, feels like a proper album but with proper tunes and massive beats. I prefer the up beats of the first 6 tracks than the more chill of the rest. But it's all good.

really good! I recognize several of these tracks that I used to have in my mp3 collection

I liked it a lot.

For a dance album this album rocks. I love how they embrace noise for the sake of noise sometimes and manage to blend it into their funky as fuck mix.

Hoofdontplofferige muziek. Heel erg vet, bizar dat dit album al 30 jaar oud is en dat het hun debuutalbum is. De breakbeats zijn heel vet en werken heel goed met de acid achtige geluiden en de rock (bas)gitaar. Ook de samples zijn erg smaakvol. De opbouw van het album vind ik erg sterk, t heeft iedere keer mijn aandacht weten te pakken. Sterke albumhoes, 5 sterren.

Incredible

fun! too much for most moods but good workout

Maybe my favourite electronic albums of the 90s. Bring the rave to your pad anytime. I have vivid memories of throwing this CD on and tripping hard on LSD and mushrooms in the late 90s. Fuck yes, every track is so good!

Genuinely thought this was a made up band from Peep Show so I was just picturing Jez at the keyboard the whole time.

Astounding album. The samples are incredible and the songs are very well put together. It takes me elsewhere 4.8

Really solid, love the songs w the female singers. Agree that it’s great working music. FIVE!

great album

This is some decent electronica. Great background for work, but not something I think would make me go feral. But, if everything made you feral then nothing would get done, you know?

The brothers gonna pump you up!

Reminds me of the Matrix movies!

Amazing! Feels like a soundtrack to commit vandalism xD

For the most part I like the Chemical Brothers more at their more uptempo. But this is perhaps their most hypnotic work, taking the synths from acid house and the beats from hip hop and turn it into something pretty psychedelic. And, come on, basically no electronic artist before or since has ever been lucky enough to make their grand entrance on record with a sample as perfect as "the brothers gonna work it out". Just writing it I know it's going to be stuck in my head the next two days.

Surprisingly very enjoyable. High energy music earlier on and then slows down to a chill groove.

Some bangers

🎧Pretty cool shit, liked it more than expected

Greatvalbum

I really liked this. I enjoy techno and other high energy more dance oriented forms of music, and this is a high quality example.

I love dancing! Dance music is fun and cool :)

Got this one right after "The Man Machine." Kindof cool to see the progression of the same sort of music a decade and a half later. 90s heist music. Doesn't transport me like other similar albums but great driving music.

Just what I needed this morning. Not a flawless album, but it's great. It no doubt sounds dated by electronic music standards, but it still holds up. The vocal songs can be a bit iffy, though "Alive Alone" gets better as it goes along. 4 stars.

Exit Planet Dust was a foundational text on Big Beat and moreso a foundation stone on which they have expanded across their impressive career. Of course it’s formulaic, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t room for at least some variety. They learned to harness the value of the variety on later albums, but this sure has some real bangers.

14/01/2026 I only really know their big hits. So it was good to hear something a little different from them. Spotify listeners: 3.9 million

This was very Matrix. Apparently they did the fight club soundtrack under their former name, too. Feels very representative of 90s action movies. Kinda loved it tbh

Really enjoyed some of these tracks. As with most electronic music, I can only listen to a few tracks before needing a break!

Dark, ethereal, kind of like a soundtrack for Matrix movie

Mehhhhh. Started to drag but twas ite overall

I’m not too into this kind of music, but I can appreciate Prodigy. This sounds like their well behaved little brother who always dors his homework and never gets into trouble. It’s not bad, I even like the two first tracks, which have cool beats, but as a whole, the album gets too monotonous.

Not my cup of tea, but bad it ain't.

Un album caractéristique des Chemical Brothers. Ceux-ci se présentent d'abord en blouse blanche à l'entrée du laboratoire et s'avancent chacun vers un robinet. Ils se munissent alors d'eau distillée et commencent à rincer une poignée de tubes à essai ainsi qu'un bécher. Une fois ceci fait, l'un des brothers verse délicatement de l'eau dans un tube alors que le second brother y ajoute de l'acide éthanoïque. Ils étalonnent ensuite le pH-mètre avec les solutions tampon 4 et 7 et agitent la solution dont le pH est mesuré. L'examinateur les interrompt soudain et leur demande de se verser chacun un litre d'acide chlorhydrique dans la bouche. Les Chemical Brothers s'exécutent naïvement. Quelques secondes plus tard, les deux sont transportés d'urgence à l'hôpital et laissent ainsi leur matériel chimique dans le laboratoire.

Cet album des Chemical Brothers m'a mis dans une colère noire. Il faut savoir que les Chemical Brothers ont coûté leur place dans la liste des 1001 à mon groupe favori, My Chemical Romance. En effet, seul un seul groupe de chimie pop pouvait être ajouté à la liste par Robert, qui a donc preferé les frères à la romance. Seulement, on se rend rapidement compte que ce choix est une erreur. Très vite, les Chemical Brothers vont effectuer leur première bévue: le substrat de soude est mélangé avec la solution aqueuse, ce qui provoque une légère odeur de brulé très désagrable dans le laboratoire. Ensuite, l'un des frères va venir renverser le contenu de son erlenmeyer sur le microscope du coin de table, ce qui démontre le peu d'aise avec laquelles les Chemical Brothers maniaient leur matériel. Enfin, le mélange acide nitrique/magnesium opéré ne prendra jamais la couleur bleue attendue. La comparaison fait très mal avec leurs camarades de classe de My Chemical Romance, qui dans le même temps ont obtenu deux prix nobel de chimie pour leur travaux sur l'arbre de Diane. Un scandale de plus à l'actif de Robert, qui n'en finit plus d'enchainer les décisions douteuses.

My husband tells me that, when he was in high school, his friend Sam used to drive up to their hangs with The Chemical Brothers playing loudly through external speakers on his pickup truck. Maybe that’s the right setting for listening to this type of music. I am not Sam, nor do I have a pickup truck with external speakers. I am also not a teenage boy. All of these could be reasons why I didn’t like this endless drivel.

Please save yourself the time and go listen to something of more substance & innovation from a similar time period - try Chicane's "Far From The Maddening Crowds" a much better debut electronica album that's elysian and full of dramatic melodies, bright textures, better breakbeats, and REALLY good buildups/breakdowns. Much like the grammys, it seems like the chem bros have made an album therefore it should be celebrated. All other electronic music can go out the window!! Only partially kidding. This albums inclusion on here induced a lot of thoughts about this lists relationship to what it calls 'electronica'; The genre wouldnt be one of the lowest rated if the list had some electronic albums with actual teeth or innovation to them. Instead, albums like this sit in an uncomfortable sonic no-mans-land, stuck between the vitality of something like The Prodigy's "Fat Of The Land" and the monotony of Moby's "Play". Are there quality moments of life on "Exit Planet Dust"? Sure, the looped roland saw synth on "Three Little Birdies Down Beats" is solid. The thumping, saturated low end kick on "Fuck Up Beats" is especially impressive for it's time. This album features many instances of buildup into beat drop techniques that wouldnt become popular until later. "One Too Many Mornings" even gives a great downbeat moment to breathe. But nothing truly unique lasts long on this album. I feel like everybody loved or loves the Chemical Bros for how clean and accessible their production is. Its gets too squeaky clean for me, there's often no edge, angle, or teeth to this project. I am left in a melodic fugue state, remembering almost nothing from this record. I feel lulled out. I dont feel lulled into a blissful 4-to-the-floor trance, I dont feel lulled into a bass-induced euphoria, I dont feel lulled into a scifi universe, I dont feel lulled into a warehouse rave even. Just lulled out.

I remember when big beat hit and I was working at Tower Records. It didn't really grab me the way it seemed to grab everyone else. I tended to seek out more adventurous sounds created by Future Sound of London, Ninja Tune artists, Aphex Twin, and Orbital to get my electronica fix. I know this is their debut so it broke ground, etc., however I emphatically regard Dig Your Own Hole as a way more textural, exciting, and less repetitive record over this one. Some of these tracks seem to only work at 110 dB while you're on MDMA and it shows. That said, Chico's Groove and Alive Alone do indeed seem to capture that pre-millennium sense of hope, wonder, and anticipation, (if only meant as comedown tracks as the sun came up and you were trying to find your car at a desert rave in 1995).

Lixo (Translation: Portuguese for trash)

wow. I love this one. Geavy beats, acid synths, pure raw energy.

Love the Chemical Bros. Love this album. That is all.

excellent eletcro stuff as usual

Soooooooooo gooooooood!!!!!!!

Loved every minute of that

Now I might be a little biased, being from Manchester and growing up as a fan of the 90's rave music we got up North. I was also really into the Wipeout games made locally with this style of music, including stuff from this album. Almost all bangers.

This is so good!

Peak EDM

Infinity/5 stars!! Great album! Great band!

I love the Chemical Brothers.

база классика основа. классно погулял под них утром и вечером почитал

".....I'm in."

5 stars

Fun sound makes you groove

Banging album that was played a lot when growing up. One.of a few dance albums that defined the era.

Total banger. There are a couple spots where I felt like I was trapped in the Matrix soundtrack. But overall this is a very listenable album with a lot of musical layers.

So ... Techno, specifically big bang, is the center of my musical universe. Everything else trickles out from there. I don't even feel I need to mention that The Chemical Brothers are the epitome of big bang techno and more or less gods among the techno set. Not every single song on every single album is amaze, but there are amazing songs on every album. Exit Planet Dust is no exception. If you are into techno or techno curious, this is the meat of it right here. Nuff said!

Dank

What an awesome experience this album is. Such an interesting blend of drumnbass, triphop and industrial sounding electronic music. I didnt know i was a fan of this. So many tracks that build up well themselves and work together greatly.

Loved this in 95! Excited to hear it again. Leave Home is possibly one of the great tracks ones of any debut album, and then to follow that with In Dust We Trust secures this albums status as an all time 90s classic. Cover art is timeless, classic 👌.

I remember dancing to this in the club. Listen to it three times today.

Fun, catchy, and infectious from start to finish. A debut that set the tone for what The Chemical Brothers would become, it’s an album that still holds up as an energetic and engaging listen.

Imprinted into my brain from childhood. A1 album

In 1995, Exit Planet Dust crashed the polite Britpop party like a gatecrasher in mirrored shades, announcing the Chemical Brothers’ mission to make big beat loud, swaggering, and faintly dangerous. From the adrenalised thump of “Leave Home” to the woozy swirl of “Life Is Sweet,” it stitched techno, hip-hop, and rock into one euphoric Frankenstein groove. Nearly three decades later, it still feels like a love letter from a parallel universe where the bass never stops and the future always dances.

I forgot how much I enjoyed this kind of music.

I generally do not like electronic music, but I love the Chemical Brothers. Great beats and generally interesting music. Liked Songs Added: Leave Home In Dust We Trust One Too Many Mornings Life Is Sweet Alive Alone

THIS ROCKS

Very enjoyable - liked "Chemical Beats"

Not quite The Chemical Brothers' strongest offering, but a mightily impressive debut album wherein the group didn't wait around to firmly cast their imprint into the UK electronic music scene, and many acts have since borrowed its nuances, ensuring that it retains a significant legacy befitting of this list. Of their discography, this album does perhaps sound the most applicable to the mid 90s era, with a somewhat dated sheen to it, although not one which compromised my enjoyment whilst revisiting today.

First half is like DJ set, second is more spaced out. Loved this.

As a rock/indie fan i never properly got into the Chems until after this album and have never been motivated to go back. This just works for me as a complete album, unencumbered by the presence of a massive hit single (or at least one i recognise). All albums can also be improved with a sprinkle of tim burgess. I suspect i have all the albums after this or have certainly listened to them, but as it turns out the one i have previously ignored is their finest, most distilled collection of their craft

Fittingly was heading to Manchester where Ed and Tom formed the band, -can we call The Chemical Brothers aband?- on the day the algorithm gave me this, A gtreasure.

I am in no way a usual fan of EDM, but The Chemical Brothers have a different take on it, and it’s one that I really enjoyed. There’s much more of a rock-style sensibility to this than the usual “doof-doof-doof-doof”, and it works for me. At times it felt very Screamadelica-y, and that is one of my favourite albums, so today was a good day.

In my collection from back in the day

I surprisingly loved this. A really great introduction to the genre, one that I would’ve never listened to before trying out this challenge. I’ve relistened about five times already. Something so satisfying about the steady flow of it, and the progression between songs was so smooth!

All I can think of is going to see Chemical Brothers in 1996. I may have been on acid, I don't recall. What I do remember was that it was at Metropolis back when you could run around in the basement and there were all sorts of hidden spaces and places.

The album gets five stars for its impressive juicy big/break beats making each and every track energetic and reminding me of Prodigy and Fatboy Slim. Favourite track: Leave Home.

I'm a sucker for the mid-to-late 90s big beat/electronica sound (even though I never did MDMA and found people who did unbearably annoying) and this is one of my very favourite albums in that genre.

Refreshing