MARBECKS RARE: Surrender

International top sellers, The Chemical Brothers have sold over 1.5 million in just the U.S. and "Setting Sun" and "Block Rockin' Beats" are still modern rock staples ("Block Rockin Beats" video is a Grammy winner). Yet another breakthrough record for the Chemical Brothers, Surrender combines their rock, electronics and beats with a new pop dimension, and vocalists include Noel Gallagher (Oasis), Bernard Sumner (New Order) and Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star).

If you've followed the rapid ascent of the Chemical Brothers from scrawny Heavenly Social club DJs to scrawny internationally-renowned jet-setting DJs, you may think you've got 'em pegged, signed, sealed, and delivered.

The duo that brought you titanic breakbeats, psychedelic techno, kamikaze mind benders and pastoral chill-out lullabies practically created their own industry, with many pretenders to their much hallowed throne. When you've got a good thing going on, everybody wants a piece of the action. But sometimes even the Emperor knows it's time to change clothes. Which is exactly what the Bros. do on Surrender.

Where their 1970s-era vinyl furnace infused Exit Planet Dust and Dig Your Own Hole with all manner of screaming sound effects atop superfunk breakbeats and bass riffs, Surrender takes the '70s and '80s on different terms. What was all Superfly funk and Soul Train flash before is now locked in the trunk of a 1970 Cutlass and driven crosstown, where the beats are of the disco and Krautrock variety, spun by DJs into synth pop, Detroit techno, and early experimental Moog recordings. Like a tribute album by your favorite computer nerds, Ed Simons and Tom Rowlands made Surrender with vocal stylings by Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval, New Order's Bernard Sumner, Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue, and the ever-present Noel Gallagher.

But alas, some of the best tracks here have no vocals at all, such as "Music: Response," which recalls the nutty robotic pop of early Kraftwerk with metronomic beats and ghostly UFO sirens. "Orange Wedge" and "The Sunshine Underground" are grand electronica experiments that focus on the Bros.' awesome studio skills: "Wedge" whirs with buzzing hornet effects and sexy sighs over a skipping drum groove and arresting squeegee sounds, while "Sunshine Underground" loops a berserk timbale solo with harps, flutes, strings, and a cockeyed groove that hustles like a bionic polecat. The title track, meanwhile, is an opalescent mixture of Jello-friendly vistas overflowing with mandolins, backwards tape loops, cheesy synth drums, and eccentric sitars.

There is no ignoring the singers' contributions, especially Sandoval's lazy drawl on "Asleep from Day." But it's those damn beats and woozy sounds that keep you coming back, part of the new world order that Surrender, with its comic mind-body subversion, is steering us toward.