The Chemical Brothers' first single in two years comes with their first aollaboartion with RUFFMERCY - and not before time. It's utterly trademark RM stuff, and that works brilliantly with one of the Chems' most upbeat creations.

“The Darkness That You Fear is a hopeful piece of music," says Tom Rowlands of the Chemical Brothers. "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.”

RUFFMERCY has responded by transfoming archive footage of British rave and festival culture when The Chemical Brothers first emerged in the early Nineties. His distinctive abstract painterly animation style is applied to the vintage footage to create an astonishing tour de force of visual creativity. 

There's only one RUFFMERCY. And he's brilliant!

RUFFMERCY:

I love using colour to create chaos and evoke emotions...

“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 nineties.

"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.”