Rhythm Of Life

Liam, Keith, Maxim and Leeroy: for me the 4 coolest people on the planet for probably at least 5 years of my life, and still one of the seminal rave, techno and alternative dance acts of the 1990's and 2000's.

My obsession with The Prodigy began with my first listen to "Experience" in that Volvo estate back in 1992 and once the horns of Jericho had sounded, I was on board.

I wanted to dress like them (and tried, complete with baggy jeans, waistcoat, long sleeved t-shirt and my pride and joy: British Knight trainers), dance like them (which I never truly succeeded in doing) and know everything I could about Liam and his dancers/vocalists.

Hailing from Essex, Liam had flourished during the rave scene bringing rave novelty tune "Charly" into the mainstream as a single, with modest success and a cutesy little psychedelically-driven video to boot featuring the old road safety advert cat himself and sampling.

I loved the album version which had been adapted to sound different, and thus began my quest to become a Prodigy 'completist'.

Yes, there was a female dancer in The Prodigy called Sharky from 1990-91.  Yes, they did all dress like harlequins in their early days.  Yes, they got into trouble with Lucasfilm (more of that later).

I became a Prodigy geek quite quickly.

To my knowledge I now own versions of every single they released, which meant I slowly gained access to remixes, non-album tunes, live tracks and other little gems along the way courtesy of XL Recordings and Elektra (the US distributor) insisting on different content on the singles, effectively making some of them up to 7 track EPs.

"Everybody In The Place (Fairground Mix)" was the single version and second track off "Experience" to be released, complete with video showcasing each member of the group's dancing....which I tried to imitate (badly).

CLICK THE SINGLE COVER BELOW TO WATCH :)

EITP is a pile driver of a rave tune, and epitomizes perfectly what i love about The Prodigy: the Roland sampler that Liam used - and still does to this day - starting the track off, and that lovely break then a sped-up voice creating a rallying cry "let's go!"....then it goes apeshit.  Dance...and enjoy.  Occasionally it was played in Golddiggers (Chippenham) and boy did I go apeshit!

"Fire" and the played-everywhere-but-still-loved-it "Out Of Space" followed thereafter, the latter still being played in clubs around the UK, albeit slightly less frequented by yours truly.  Another perfect example of Liam's ability to sample/loop a vocal, taking from Max Romeo's reggae track "Chase The Devil".  Genius.

 The final offering was "Wind It Up (Rewound)" in 1993, another personal favourite of mine being such a departure from the album version.

Here endeth the lesson so far....

I had enough to sustain me through the balance of 1993 with the single/EP hunting (all pre-internet I may add) and reading every conceivable magazine article I could get my hands on about The Prodigy until an odd thing happened: "One Love".

There had been a lot in the press about Liam working on a sophomore album effort and so I knew something was in the works, and naturally a part of me didn't want The Prodigy to depart too much from what they'd been doing because it was immense.

Then this turns up...

Sounding like something that could very easily have been trimmed from "Experience", "One Love" gave me more of the same but with an arguably harder, grittier edge.  It was almost like Liam had been able to spend more time (and a few more quid) playing around with the Roland samplers and other bits to flesh out the sound somewhat.

It also contained the de-facto coolest sample of a Prodigy song, even trumping "Out Of Space".  The original single had "Full Throttle" as a secondary track and the words "We're going in full throttle" were slid beautifully into the tune.  I knew I knew it.  That was a sped up sample of Mark Hammill's voice as Luke Skywalker just as the rebel alliance are about to attack the death star in Episode IV: A New Hope.

Geek indeed.

I loved it, and "One Love" and despite the sample of Luke being 'scrambled' in the same album track on "Music For The Jilted Generation" on its release, it was nonetheless a marker that had been laid down, and a sign of progress.

Boy oh boy was there more to come.

 Right from the typewriter tapping on "Intro" to the pummeling beats of "Break And Enter" you could feel this one was going to be a game-changer.

Taking his inspiration from the slew of police attention and government interventions on illegal raves that went on during the mid-1990s, Liam issued his protest statement to the world, complete with inner sleeve showing ravers putting a finger up to the police.

"Their Law" perfectly epitomizes how he felt, and it was the first time guitars had been used to augment the Prodigy sounds, soon woven into the live sets alongside a drummer to 'punk up' their vibe.

"Full Throttle" follows, with the intensely immediate "Voodoo People" next, and "Speedway"/"The Heat (The Energy)" nicely continuing the mid-album throb.

We then slow down somewhat for "Poison", vocally assisted for the first time by Maxim and Keith and offering a grimy change of pace to the urgent techno so far.

Then we are back into it with my favourite of the singles: "No Good (Start The Dance)".  This one basically dominated clubs in 1995/6 and is still a live favourite, with the original video being shot in an abandoned warehouse with Liam (sledgehammer, top off, breaking down a wall), Keith (caged, bound and gagged in straight jacket), Maxim (looking cool with animal contacts) and Leeroy (dancing with the girls) pulling off cool in spades.  The breakbeats and dance-ability of this track just sets it apart.

"One Love" comes next complete with the mayan chant which is just hypnotic, then we have "The Narcotic Suite", a 3-track finale that goes from the very chilled "3 Kilos" to the intensity of "Skylined" and final track "Claustrophobic Sting".  A perfect end and a very cohesive work of an album.

I cannot really like one more than the other when it comes to "Experience" and "Music For The Jilted Generation" as they both existed in a period where The Prodigy were my everything musically, but actually have stood the test of time in my eyes.

It says something that of the 5 times I have seen them live (first in 1995) they still play a lot of the tracks from these first 2 albums and Liam is clearly proud of the back catalogue.

"Electronic Punks" was released as a collection of their video releases shortly after and I must have watched it over 100 times, wanting and wishing I could be as cool as them and marveling over the use of sound, vision and light in the different singles they had done to date, especially "Poison" which had a beautifully grimy, industrial look and feel, complete with a writhing Keith and focused Maxim on vocals.

In later years I have fallen slightly out of love with The Prodigy due to the disappointment that was "Fat Of The Land" and latterly "The Day Is My Enemy".  

Let me explain.

Neither of them are bad albums, far from it.  In the case of "FOTL" I think The Prodigy started to become victims of their own success, and I at the time totally went along with it.

 The problem as I see it is that "Poison" had become the catalyst for Maxim and Keith becoming more vocal on album tracks and singles, rather than just being the (admittedly amazing) live MC accompaniments to Liam's creativity and Leeroy's dancing.

That then spawned "Smack My Bitch Up", "Firestarter", "Breathe" (which is really just "Firestarter Pt.2"), "Serial Thrilla", "Mindfields" and "Diesel Power" all having Keith and/or Maxim's vocals on, and I didn't want that as a listener as it started to invade Liam's great tunes.  That and the nauseating "Narayan" (with misjudged vocals by indie band Kula Shaker's Crispian Mills, son of actress Hayley) and you had a bit of a hot mess.  But, by then the industry had made them darlings and it won a shitload of awards, propelling even further into the stratosphere and away from their base.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't feel like I had lost them to 'new fans' (even though I had)....it just seemed like the creativity had shifted to a place I wasn't that into, and as a result I barely listen to "FOTL" now, although I do still enjoy "Funky Shit" as it's the closing titles track to the 1997 sci-fi horror classic that is "Event Horizon".

What saved them for me was the live act: The Prodigy have always been top of their game in that respect and having seen them at Brixton Academy, Reading Festival (twice), Wembley Arena, Cardiff International Arena and I literally forget where else (!) they have always put on a great show, and that's got to be credited to the team behind them doing some superb lighting and sound tech too.

My abiding memory is seeing them at Wembley arena, and half way through a song Keith stage dived (they'd become a 3 piece by then after Leeroy got bored of dancing and left) and promptly disappeared.  I was half way back in the crowd just coming back from the loo and someone bumped into me.  Not unusual at a gig, then I saw it was Keith - complete with split mohican haircut sprayed bright green and studded dog collar - trotting back towards the stage with no minders around him, and he turned and went "sorry mate!"....starstruck.

I am now going to drift briefly into minority territory here: I bloody love 2004's "Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned". 

This was almost trickled out into the world after a near 7 year absence of The Prodigy from the airwaves (even though they'd toured a bit) and had lost Leeroy along the way.

Liam pretty much did this one on his laptop in his bedroom with Propellerhead Reason and Pro Tools, a new departure I am sure.  There are no Keith/Maxim vocals at all, and I think that was a conscious decision to go back, rewrite the formula, sound a bit more rave/techno again and get away from what had probably typecast them from "FOTL" as a lighter, radio friendly vocal-Electronic-Techno-Dance act.  YUCK....do something different.  And he did.

Weirdly there are MORE vocals on this than "FOTL" but maybe it works better due to the collaborations:  the sexy and terribly understated vocalist Juliette Lewis on the opener "Spitfire" and "Hot Ride", Princess Superstar on "Memphis Bells", and Noel and Liam Gallagher on "Shoot Down" to name but a few.  My personal favourite on the album is "Medusa's Path" which ironically is the only track without a vocal, but Juliette Lewis' two contributions come a very close second for me and were both singles, as well as the funky "Girls", with beautiful artwork by the video directors Mat Cook and Julian House.

I bought this whilst at Reading Festival in 2004 knowing they weren't there but wondering what to expect, and not being disappointed at all.  It's my third most listened to album, even though it didn't shift the units for XL Recordings as much as they'd have liked.  Maybe that's why it ended up being their last release with XL, marking the end of an era as they'd been a kind of founding father to the label.

"Take Me To The Hospital" is one of the standout tracks on 2009's "Invaders Must Die", and ended up being the new name for the label under which they would distribute all future material.

Now a 3 piece augmented by live drummers and guitarists, The Prodigy once again re-jigged the sound and tried to bring 'Old Skool' back to their aesthetic.  

It worked, and they scored another number 1 album.  Personally, I am conflicted about "IMD" as a work, as some of the tracks just take me straight back to what was tiresome about "FOTL" with Keith/Maxim's vocals back again (clearly at the direction of the label and Liam maybe realising that's the way to make money).  

"Colours" and "Run With The Wolves" are pretty awful, but the album is propped up well by the Exocet missile that is "Take Me To The Hospital", bass thump-er "World's On Fire" and of course "Invaders Must Die", "Omen" and "Thunder" which make up the opening 3 tracks.  Perhaps it is slightly fondly remembered as there's notes of 1992/3 in there in the writing along with the memory of the 2009 Cardiff Arena gig seeing them with my wife Rosie as well as them playing "Death Of The Prodigy Dancer" live, which is Rosie's personal favourite and sent the crowd totally wild.  Ripped t-shirt and almost lost shoe later, we sweatily climbed out of the mosh and triumphantly went home.

2015's "The Day Is My Enemy" is my second biggest disappointment after "FOTL" as whilst I listen to it less I have never really fallen in love with it, despite trying.  It has nothing to do with age as I can see what Liam is wanting to do on the album, but something just doesn't quite click for me and there isn't a single standout track I return to.  Maybe I need to be kinder and listen more but I haven't yet 'clicked' with it.

I do however love the almost Banksy-esque cover with the cheeky fox taking up a menacing position over his territory, the houses of No Name Town.

"Rebel Radio" is probably the closest I have to a track I like so i will go again soon with the whole album and find a way in.

Thus continues my 25 year (and counting) love affair with The Prodigy.  Nobody will ever be able to take away from me those feelings of excitement when a new single came out, or a tour was coming up, or I saw them at a festival, or danced to them at Golddiggers, any of the countless clubs during my time in Nottingham Uni or anywhere since.

They get the blood pumping, the heart racing and there isn't really anyone that compares, so as I finish this long and comprehensive entry into my blog I am conscious I am typing faster to the strains of "Claustropobic Sting", lost in the throb and allowing myself to escape to the happy places of old, evoking memories of people I know and stuff I did.

Music does that.  The Prodigy does that.

...and it all started with the horns of Jericho....

Badger x