The Prodigy always will be one of the hard-hitting originals in electronic dance music; I'll go a little fan girl on this one and say that they're my absolute favorite. And also pretty prolific for anyone who ever did the jumping jack waving hands dance at an underground warehouse party... although they took it far beyond that scene on a commercial level. They're the group that brought electronic music fused with rock-based elements from the UK scene to the US music industry. Tracks like "Breathe," "Firestarter," and the infamous "Smack My Bitch Up" changed the face of electronic dance music and gave them the moniker "The Godfathers of Rave."
But they kept that UK underground aesthetic and continued to spit in the face of authority -namely Madonna- even as their star rose to epic proportions in the late 90's and early 2000's. Founder Liam Howlett turned her down on an offer to produce a track because he refused to let the industry steal his sound, and I always thought that this was the coolest move ever. Also bring in the verbal assaults, scary clown hair, piercings and violent dance moves of vocal front man Keith Flint along with raps from MC Maxim on their latest work and the anger package is complete. That stand against authority really hasn't changed after Music For The Jilted Generation and The Fat Of The Land as their last album Invaders Must Die took over the EDM world back in 2009.
New track "Nasty" off of upcoming album The Day Is My Enemy out March 30th on Three Six Zero and Warner Brothers Records, complete with an animated video of a troubling, urban landscape still shows the rage that the group specializes in. Like most of their productions there is an anti-authority vibe shown by a fox with glowing eyes being chased by UK themed hunters wearing deer-stalker caps. They move forward through the city with vapid stares that burst into monstrous proportions as the fox stares them down and ultimately wins the hunt. Howlett gave the industry a pretext to the new album in his official quote released today on The Day Is My Enemy.
"I can't tell you why this record came out so angry, I think it's just inbuilt in me. It's more about what I like music to do. I've always seen music I like as a form of attack. That's what I use music for, it's an attack. I didn't plan this album to sound violent, it's just the sound that came out of the studio, a kind of build-up over the last four years. 'Anger is an energy,' thats a lyric that has always resonated with me. The tension is buried deep in the music right from the first drop. It's all about the sound having that sense of danger. That's what The Prodigy sound is about."
And if their new album is this dangerous musically, I can't wait to feel unsafe.
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