FOUNDATIONS: THE PRODIGY
Pioneers of UK hardcore.
Friends.
It’s Friday.
We’re relaying the foundations.
And this week it’s a big one for me: The Prodigy.
If you’re into electronic music and are alive then you probably don’t need much of an introduction to this lot: The Prodigy. Braintree’s finest, masters of the early hardcore sound who went on to become one of the most successful stadium acts of all time.
EXPERIENCE (1992)
For me this is where it all began.
My entry point into rave culture.
I first came across Experience in Our Price in Cambridge back in 1992 when I was all of 11 years old.
I have no recollection of early raves or anything like that because I was obviously far too young but there was a palpable energy in the country that even at that age we could all sense.
There were smilies all over the place, snatched phrases of breakbeats drifting out of car windows while sub bass lines rumbled the pavement underfoot. Tape packs from older brothers being rinsed on the hifis in school common rooms.
Something was definitely up.
And this was the perfect place to find out about it.
If you’ve got the time, stick the whole album on. It’s wall to wall bangers and absolutely stands the test of time.
I must call out one of rave culture’s best opening tracks.
Jericho
A real statement of intent.
Biblical. Literally.
Those horns never fail…
Rather than being an LP in the classic sense, Experience was really a collection of the best tracks from a series of 12”s Prodigy had put out with XL over 1991 and 1992. A refined set of the most high impact beats from their legendary live shows that had been fully battle tested, updated and optimised through direct dancefloor feedback every single weekend during the absolute peak of hardcore hysteria across the UK.
An approach very simliar to the way in which Gerald recycles and repurposes his own tracks, as I wrote about recently.
A prime example:
Everybody In The Place (155 and Rising)
The LP version in all its high-octane glory.
Everybody In The Place (Fairground Mix)
The OG 1991 version from the XL EP of the same name.
With the official video provding many of us with the first glimpse of Leeroy Thornhill’s legendary footwork that would inspire an entire generation of aspiring shape cutters.
Everybody In The Place
A lower tempo and slightly less in-your-face version, but no less potent, from the What Evil Lurks EP, also released in 1991.
Take your pick, they are all top drawer.
A couple more standouts.
Weather Experience
One of the tracks that placed Liam Howlett on a completely different level to pretty much any other producer operating in hardcore at the time.
A restrained and epic masterpiece across multiple movements and tempos that gave us some early clues as to where the Prodigy would head next.
Fire
More ideas in one track than most artists these days manage in an entire album.
Really, I could have picked any of them.
What an era.
MUSIC FOR THE JILTED GENERATION
Where to start?
Ok, a word on the artwork.
I’ve spoken quite a bit about how rave culture has become corporatised and commoditised over the past 30 years. Well I can tell you with absolute confidence that the people running things in the ‘industry’ right now, whether it’s RA, Boiler Room or any of those other corporate sellouts are very much on the dystopian police state side of this picture.
Literally, they are regime assets for ther Babylonian beats systenm and they need to gtfo of this thing we call rave.
The goal is to break out and be on the right side of the bridge, the sunlit uplands of blissful rave unity outside of corporate control. Which is why we’re relaying the foundations, after all…
Let’s all take a leaf out of Spiral Tribe’s book:
Anyway, to the music.
While Experience placed the Prodigy at the pinnacle of UK hardcore, Jilted was a boisterous leap into completely new territory. Out went the cartoon samples and euphoric pianos, in came creeping paranoia and guitar riffs. A mash up of styles that that would ultimately turn them into one of the biggest global stadium acts of the 1990s and early 2000s.
Some standout moments:
Break & Enter
Apocalyptic hardcore throwing you straight in at the deep end.
Poison
Swaggering broken beat mastery at 104bpm.
No Good (Start The Dance)
The classic Prodigy sound brought bang up to date.
Lithe, taught, relentless rolling breakbeats and rave stabs alongside one of the most iconic vocals in dance music history.
3 Kilos
An underrated gem. Post rave, back at the gaff skinning up and watching the sun come up. They really did thnk of everything.
Claustrophobic Sting
The album closer. IMO saving the best for last. A track of towering and majestic energy that is without question one of the best acid techno tracks of all time.
At which point I will call it a day.
While Fat of the Land was a (fairly) decent album and Firestarter and Breathe are undeniable heavy hitters, it will alway be about those key years 1991-1995 for me with the Prodigy.
The first two LPs, the run of 12”s on XL.
The feeling of something bursting into life, still underground. Still emergent and finding its way.
After that, it all got a bit self-indulgent.
Anyway, til next time.
Peace and love.
Rubin