Post: #1

I chuckled considering how watered down and trendy dance music, edm whatever it is called this week is now a days, it was a lot more underground just 5 years ago

Quote:The Prodigy are sitting around a table in a King’s Cross boozer, riled by what’s become of rave culture. “Dance music at the moment is so fucking dead,” spits Liam Howlett, still with his trademark Romford Thom Yorke mullet – and still with his trademark venom. “Producers are too safe, they rely on being retro. It’s fucking bollocks. There’s no pushing forward any more.”

“I hate to be the guy that’s like, ‘It’s not like it used to be’, but there is a grain of truth in it,” agrees Keith Flint, chucking back another Jägerbomb (“I can drink,” he notes drily).

Meanwhile, Maxim – the more relaxed of the trio – interjects with the kind of soundbites that music editors dream of. “Yeah, the dance scene has flatlined and we’re the spike.”

It is perhaps ironic that one of the few groups who have a genuine claim to the title of The Greatest Dance Act Of All Time are rejecting the very scene they helped to foster. The early 90s saw the Prodigy hurtle out of the underground like DayGlo goblins, taking boshing breakbeat, jungle and hardcore and mangling them into an abrasive new form of pop music. They were originally derided as a novelty act by dedicated clubbers, but Howlett proved them wrong with 1994’s Music For The Jilted Generation, a complex, powerful record that propelled dance music into stadiums with rock’n’roll swagger. He followed it by switching up their sound, pushing Keith and Maxim’s vocals to the fore, embracing punk guitar, and scoring both a US and UK No 1 with 1997’s rockier The Fat Of The Land. They’ve topped the British album charts with every release since, all the while remaining defiantly punk in their sound and approach.


Keith feels it’s this sense of riotous spontaneity that’s missing from modern music. “Everything’s so commercialised it shuts down the underground,” he continues. “If you’re on an independent record label now, not once do any of those pricks come up with an exciting idea. When we were on XL, they wanted to be dangerous and they wanted to be exciting because we were dangerous and exciting! But now no one’s there who wants to be dangerous. And that’s why people are getting force-fed commercial, generic records that are just safe, safe, safe.”

The Prodigy’s response to this is simple: charge! New album The Day Is My Enemy is loud, obnoxious and violent. Their fizzing, euphoric melodies are still present, but this time they’re pummelled by onslaughts of evil percussion – full-frontal assaults that snarl up the frequencies. Amplifying the sturm und drang, Keith and Maxim bellow over the beats like sailors in a gale. It’s a hard, purposefully brutal listen.

“Violent is the word that keeps on coming up,” says Howlett. “The last album [2009’s Invaders Must Die] was more of a celebration. We’d come back together and were like, ‘Yeah! We’re here, we’re really buzzing!’ Now we’ve come through that stage.” It’s taken them six years, a change of studios, a clutch of false starts and a couple of hard drives-worth of scrapped songs to nail it but, he says, they’ve finally “pinpointed the angry, energetic sound” they want to make.

“I don’t hear anyone out there that sounds like us,” boasts Keith. “They can try but it’s in the sonics, the whole carcass of the song. The way it attacks you is so well engineered. No one else can do that. They don’t have the ability to make that noise.”

In the flesh, Keith proves far less insane than his South-Park-does-Johnny-Rotten stage persona would suggest. He’s eloquent in the manner of a pub raconteur – avuncular, even – pulling me in for a hug when the interview finishes. He’s like a cheeky uncle who likes a tipple and a dirty joke. At one point, he starts talking about the Essex pub he’s bought: “We’ve got an open fire, and I’ve got about 57 quid in a pint pot above it because every time I go and light it, the Firestarter jokes come out. I’m like, that’s very funny, you owe me a pound. So I’ve got £57 going to charity.”

Liam is more cautious, picking his words at first, but is soon trading stories with “Flinty”, while Maxim, the quietest of the three, mediates and clarifies. There’s a real sense of the Prodigy as a unit, the perpetual gang of Home Counties lads facing out against the world. “It’s about us three; we’ve built this over 23 years,” affirms Maxim.

Keith nods. “People walk into our environment and we control it.”

It’s an attitude that may help to explain why, despite their long success, the Prodigy have retained their status as outsiders. There are no back-slapping TV chat show appearances, no “classic album in full” shows. Last year, Music For The Jilted Generation – an album that recalibrated the tastes of a generation and turned 20 in 2014 – saw its landmark birthday pass with barely a peep.

Howlett doesn’t want to turn the Prodigy into a heritage band, but he feels that their contribution is too often overlooked. “It’s a bit of a bold statement, but the Prodigy should be seen as an important cultural band,” he starts cautiously, “as important as Oasis or Blur or any of that shit. Britpop was not a culture, as such. I dunno what I’m after … it’s not like I’m after more respect, and I don’t wanna pop up on a few more TV programmes, saying ‘The Prodigy did this!’ I’m just telling people now that, yeah, I think we are important. When you trace the lines back to the Sex Pistols, the Clash, we are in that line.”

While previous releases have been driven by Howlett’s production ear, and packed with guest vocalists and sampled voices, The Day Is My Enemy is the Prodigy working as as a three-piece unit. That doesn’t mean it’s any less spiky, though. “Four years ago we sat down and talked about where the next album was gonna go, and we knew we had to bust out the most ‘band’ album we could create,” says Keith. “We tend to piss each other off, so the process hasn’t all been cuddles and kisses, but that anger we couldn’t summon up back in the day because we were too happy, we’ve got that now.”

That anger is most vividly expressed on the track Ibiza, in which Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson lays into superstar DJ culture over a tumult of clattering beats and sawtooth synths. Howlett is quick to explain the story behind it. “We did a gig in Ibiza,” he snorts, “and I’m not a great fan of the place, but it isn’t an attack on the island, it’s an attack on these mindless fucking jokers that arrive in their Learjets, pull a USB stick out of their pockets, plug it in and wave their hands in the air to a pre-programmed mix. I can’t name names, but our lighting guy pulled out a CD, and said this is blah blah blah’s set, and I’m like, ‘What do you mean?’ Turns out that our lighting guy plays it from the front of house while this DJ is onstage pretending to push buttons. Maybe I’m an angry person, but I was infuriated by this laziness. What’s all that shit about? You can’t build a scene around that, it’s never going to last or be credible.” He shakes his head in annoyance. “What happened to spontaneity, man? To a beat that comes out of nowhere, like, ‘RARRRR!’ I still get a buzz off that. So I went out of my way on this record to avoid any of the typical dance music shit.”

He grins, well aware that if the Prodigy were ever to be accepted into the establishment, he wouldn’t be able to keep playing the rebel. “We’re from the proper rave scene, and it needs life breathing into it. But we’re not here to save anything. Fuck that! We’re here to wipe it out.”

The single Nasty is out on 9 Feb; The Day Is My Enemy follows on 30 March

Post: #2

New Prodigy album? Sweet.

Post: #3

Awesome. There's Prodigy and there's everything else (in the EDM scene, anyway). This is gonna be a good year in music. Marilyn Manson just dropped a great new album as well.

Post: #4

he's definitely right about "Experience" and particularly "Jilted Generation" making them pioneers of the 'electronic dance music' genre. Shit, listen to "Their Law" - they were responding to the UK basically criminalizing the rave scene. 20 years later massive music festivals are de rigueur.

some of their earlier stuff sounds a bit early-90s-raver, dated or at least not aging as well when you listen to it today, but I can still listen to "Fat of the Land" and enjoy every single song. And that's not to say songs like "Out of Space" and "Voodoo People" aren't great 20+ years after the fact too.

with that said, neither "Always Outnumbered" nor particularly "Invaders Must Die" blew me away. With the exception of the title track I thought "Invaders" was somewhat unmemorable. it's not hard to argue currently that the peak of their career was in the 90s.

It remains to be seen if this new album is a 'snarling' rethink of current dance music. the remarks are a bit brash and tasteless, but I can understand a bit of bitterness at seeing a genre you pioneered commercialized to the point DJs are making insane amounts of money to do live shows basically playing back a playlist. and obviously there is the publicity that goes with speaking out like this.

As a fan, I for one hope the new album is great.

Post: #5

This is a live recording but gives me hope.....this is going to be on the new album. There is a 10 second good quality on there Facebook page and it sounds like classic Prodigy, much better than NASTY and that track is definetly nasty

Post: #6

okay, that song is a lot better than Nasty. I admit I heard Nasty the first time and thought it sounded fine, but like a generic Prodigy song, if such a thing existed. I don't want them to change their style wholesale, but some growth or evolution would be a good move.

Post: #7

Guys if you like Prodigy there is an early documentary called Electronic Punks that is worth downloading









nice remix that was on the anniversay edition

Post: #8

whoa. I dig that Glitch Mob mix.

Post: #9

They have re released that album and every one before it remastering the songs with remixes galore







they also did a great job on this method man remix if you never heard it

Post: #10

The Prodigy are a band you can play in any setting

In terms of British festivals, doesn't matter if it's Download (Rock/Metal) or V Festival (Piss-throwing landfill pop lovers), they always get a storming crowd for the same music

Also, I thought Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned was great, despite them hating that album. Spitfire, Girls, Medusa's Path and You'll Be Under my Wheels are classics

Post: #11

I loved "Charly"

Saw Saffron open for The Prodigy in 1993 or 1994 at the Spruce Goose. One of the last "raves" I ever went to. I felt they had run their course by then.

I tuned out Prodigy after that - Maybe I should give them a go?

Post: #12

Hey Pete they sound completely different from their early 90s days.....people can talk about them all they want but they always have had a unique electronic sound, they still havent quite lost there edge which is impressive given how old they are. I have a list some where with about 50 groups who were recommended by djs and rave types when I asked for artists with a unique sound and maybe similar sound to them, none come close. The list can be given if wanted LOL

Post: #13

I didn't think much of Oasis back in the day, but I have come to appreciate their stuff more recently. Blur on the other hand sucked, their music was kind of faggy and emasculating and Damon Albarn is a SJW. In fact the whole "Brit Pop" thing was a bit disturbing. It was basically a whole bunch of boy bands trying to be as unmanly as possible to the adornment of mostly female fans.

Post: #14

(01-23-2015 03:26 AM)Brian Shima Wrote:  Hey Pete they sound completely different from their early 90s days.....people can talk about them all they want but they always have had a unique electronic sound, they still havent quite lost there edge which is impressive given how old they are. I have a list some where with about 50 groups who were recommended by djs and rave types when I asked for artists with a unique sound and maybe similar sound to them, none come close. The list can be given if wanted LOL

Yeah, send me the list. I'm always on the lookout for anything good, new, different.

Post: #15

Long time fan of the band here. Its funny they say that because as far as I'm concerned The Prodigy themselves are pretty much dead. I heard a new track by them the other day and it was just as bland as everything else they've done since about 2002. The last 2 albums were quite generic. Liam Howlett used to be ahead of the game and its unfortunate to see a genius like him putting out average material that sounds more like a Prodigy ripoff than the actual Prodigy. That said I did see them in 2008 and it was a great experience. However nothing they do in the future will ever come close to The Fat of the Land, Jilted, or the early singles like Out of Space or Wind It Up.

Post: #16

Ok Pete


During a performance at the Reading Festival on 29 August 1998, The Prodigy and the Beastie Boys had an onstage disagreement over the track, with the Beastie Boys requesting the song should be pulled from their set as it could be considered offensive to those who had suffered domestic abuse.[31] Choosing to ignore the Beastie Boys plea, Maxim introduced "Smack My Bitch Up" with the declaration "They didn't want us to play this fucking tune. But the way things go, I do what the fuck I want".

Post: #17

You won't find Prodigy music being played in mainstream clubs unless it is a good DJ who knows tracks and even then that is a rare occurrence.

Omen, Smack my bitch up and a couple of others are popular but the rest won't get near a club.

Post: #18

I don't think house / tech producers will care too much about the comments as those genres were going strong long before the prodigy existed, and will still be going strong long after.

Post: #19

(01-23-2015 07:06 AM)Brian Shima Wrote:  During a performance at the Reading Festival on 29 August 1998, The Prodigy and the Beastie Boys had an onstage disagreement over the track...Choosing to ignore the Beastie Boys plea, Maxim introduced "Smack My Bitch Up" with the declaration "They didn't want us to play this fucking tune. But the way things go, I do what the fuck I want".

So glad someone mentioned this

An alpha quote IMO. Do WTF you want.

Did not pander at any point during this tracks popularity. Well played Keith, Liam and Maxim

Post: #20

(01-23-2015 03:31 AM)Daedmo Wrote:  I didn't think much of Oasis back in the day, but I have come to appreciate their stuff more recently. Blur on the other hand sucked, their music was kind of faggy and emasculating and Damon Albarn is a SJW. In fact the whole "Brit Pop" thing was a bit disturbing. It was basically a whole bunch of boy bands trying to be as unmanly as possible to the adornment of mostly female fans.

I don't agree that Blur sucked at all. I prefer Oasis ( first two albums anyway ) but Blur made a couple of great albums that stand the test of time. To say their music was faggy and emasculating tells me that you are confusing the content of their music with the image of their effeminate frontman and the way the music was presented. But of course it's all subjective so I respect your opinion.

Post: #21

Anyone know what the current edm and electronic "dj s" think of Prodigy

Post: #22

I'm not sure I'd put them up there with The Clash, but they definitely had a spot in my collection in the 90s, along with Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Daft Punk, Crystal Method, Aphex Twin.

Thing is, is anyone that was in that scene in the 90s knows it will never be the same. And everything modern is just going to seem shitty.

Sometime in the 2000s I just wasn't into live shows as much, and I thought it was me getting older. But looking at concert footage, the energy just isn't there. When I saw Tool in 1997 there was an honest to god mosh pit with dudes getting their faces busted in. Look at Tool show footage now. I'm not saying a crowd has to be violent, but the energy just isn't there at live shows anymore. There's so much emphasis on million dollar sound and light systems and the technology has gotten so advanced, but it's been a long time since I've seen a really raw, high energy performance.

EDM is the new reality and it's pointless to reminisce about how things used to be. Honestly I wouldn't drop a penny into seeing Tiesto at a Vegas club (but I'll go with a hookup). It's amazing seeing a room full of sluts in club dresses, but it's not fun. 90s rave culture was reactionary and not corporate-sponsored. There were warehouse parties in L.A. that cost $5 and hits of acid were $3, that attracted kids from all over to go completely out of their minds listening to experimental, primal music. It was a magical time and place.

I feel like rave culture split into two polar extremes;
The Cool Kids: the corporate sponsored, watered-down, "safe" EDM parties that are way more mainstream and attract bros and sluts




and

The complete dork retards:




That industrial dance shit makes me cringe, but honestly I can see its origins in the candy raver bullshit that came about back in the day. Once I saw pacifiers and gas masks at raves I started to lose interest.

Sorry Prodigy, but given the choice, you'll find me hanging out with the bros and sluts.

Post: #23

(01-24-2015 09:53 PM)Brian Shima Wrote:  Anyone know what the current edm and electronic "dj s" think of Prodigy

I like the prodigy, but I really hate when artists do this, Hate on what's "Popular"

These guys need to put that energy into their own music, it really smacks of jealousy and fans see that, this turns fans away, as well as turns away future potential fans. You can't build yourself up while tearing someone else down.

I know a guy who's like a B list producer DJ, in that he had one mainstream hit but pretty much fell off the radar. Mind you that hit got him a couple of Nice Houses, one in L.A. and one in Miami + being able to travel internationally and do gigs etc etc. . .

Thing is, he got salty like these guys did. . .except he did it towards Daft Punk (who were kind of doing this same shit, but they are daft punk, they can do what they want.) he got SUPER salty on his facebook fan page, pissing most of his fans off, it was bad and he kept making it worse.


As a performer you should never ever bring negativity into your sphere as you're rising through the ranks. Once you are at the "top" like a Deadmau5/daft punk sure, say what you want but if you're "not" i.e. the prodigy then it behooves you to just focus on your music. Prodigy isn't on "Top" anymore and posturing like this is pretty much getting in their own way.

Basically who ever in their PR dept let this through should be let go.

Its MUCH better to be mysterious and say a lot less that you need, to build your persona for your fans to latch on to.

Post: #24

(01-23-2015 07:06 AM)Brian Shima Wrote:  Ok Pete


During a performance at the Reading Festival on 29 August 1998, The Prodigy and the Beastie Boys had an onstage disagreement over the track, with the Beastie Boys requesting the song should be pulled from their set as it could be considered offensive to those who had suffered domestic abuse.[31] Choosing to ignore the Beastie Boys plea, Maxim introduced "Smack My Bitch Up" with the declaration "They didn't want us to play this fucking tune. But the way things go, I do what the fuck I want".

That's a pretty funny reversal for the Beasties. Remember that song Girls from License to Ill: it was all about getting girls to do your laundry then jerk you and your friends off! Haha...guess they got a little older!

Post: #25

Got a link for the main story, OP?

Also, they're right, most music is too safe. Hope the new album is good.