The Prodigy - More Music For The Jilted Generation + The Prodigy Experience: Remixes & B-Sides (XL)
1/5
By: Dickon Stone
More Music For The Jilted Generation (4/5) is a fully re-mastered re-release of the 1994 Prodigy masterpiece. Yeah, it's the one with 'Voodoo People', 'Their Law', 'No Good' and 'Poison' on it. Cool!
'Intro' begins the 2 disc collection sounding as if Pink Floyd had written a section of soundtrack and monologue for Apocalypse Now, and then POW! We are in the zone we all know and love; The Prodigy still sound every bit as solid as they did...FOURTEEN (I can't believe it) years ago.
I suppose you can never take class away from forerunners of any music genre; there are definitely sections throughout the album that scream "90's! ARGH!" and come across pretty dated, but if you can't appreciate the importance and quality of this music you shouldn't have been given ears as far as I'm concerned. This is real techno; Crystal Method, Orbital, The Chemical Brothers; you simply cannot fault it.
But why the re-master and re-release? I definitely think that 14 years on from it's original release the world is ready to be re-acquainted with this album; techno is back, and people who love music from Drum'n'Bass to Tech House, Breaks to Trip Hop and even further a field into the many realms of modern Trance will be sure to love this; especially if they didn't catch it first time round.
You still have to question the motive though. Nirvana were pioneers, and I see no re-mastered re-release of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. Is More Music For A Jilted Generation really necessary? Perhaps. With the birth of genres such as Drill'n'Bass and Breakcore (among others) and the growth of electronic music in popular culture there really could not have been a better time to throw 'The Prodigy' back into our lives. I suppose that on top of being a truly great album, ('Voodoo People'... crikey; it alone makes this re-release worth it) More Music... is also a history lesson; and a very important one for ravers, producers and DJs alike.
You may recognise much of this collection; film soundtracks, computer games, rip offs used in more recent releases from other artists. Tracks such as 'Speedway' (it does exactly what it says on the tin...) and 'Claustrophobic Sting' bring about the full force of Techno; a hundred miles an hour, really brain numbing stuff. Think Hackers, The Matrix, and Wipeout '64 and you are basically there...
Add some sweet basslines, a touch of jazz flute in some places, some female vocals that make Fake Blood sound like a thief and pour in some samples and synth sounds that simply wouldn't get used today, and you have The Prodigy's classic album in your hands. Much of the other stuff present such as the edit of 'One Love' and the soulful, funky, '3 Kilos' are more along the lines of 90's dance anthems - pre-21st century Ibiza if you will.
In short, there is nothing new to be found here, nothing you won't remember vividly from the first time, and why the tracks needed re-mastering baffles me. But we do get a few bonus re-edits including a 'Dust Brothers' remix of 'Voodoo People' and a live version of 'Their Law'. Do we care that much? Well, yeah. Regardless of the fact that this is so last century, it is well worth giving a good, loud blast into the early hours of the morning. And Beyond.
And as for The Prodigy Experience Expanded: Remixes + B-Sides (3/5), the band's debut LP, well, to be honest, much as the above seems to be a relic of what has come before, this collection does much of the same. I'm beginning to think that this is some kind of bumper pack for Prodigy fans, or people who would like to be Prodigy fans; like selling a box set of the Back To The Future films, but with a bonus disc of 12 minutes of deleted scenes on it.
'Jericho' sounds like 'Out Of Space', and a LOT like stuff by Fake Blood. Perhaps The Prodigy have been thrown into the recycle bin of dance music..? There's lots and lots of piano sampling, cheesy vocal snippets and I could literally sing 'I'll take your brain to another dimension' over most of these tracks. It's brutally same-y. There are plenty of remixes, but unless you knew the originals you wouldn't realise, or care.
Interestingly, there are elements that sound almost Dub-steppy; which I find pretty fascinating; the broad spectrum of dance music that The Prodigy must have had influence on. You cannot forget other artists leading the way of course, but The Prodigy were certainly there at the front of the line; fighting the laws prohibiting raves at the time.
A couple of tracks could hold up today, perhaps; 'Hyperspeed' is D'n'B all over, but most of this second 2-disc release is a tome of dance music history, less current even than the pretty dated Jilted... Still, as a historical document, it's worth hearing. I most definitely can't criticise some of the masterpieces present simply because they practically defined a generation. 'Out Of Space', 'Everybody In The Place' and a few others are just pure greatness, but to be honest, a lot of what is here is a bit Ali G; dated, a bit funny, but if you are in the mood and can put up with it, why the hell not.
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