Review Summary: Experience is the debut of the Prodigy and one of their best CD's till today. Wild, energetic, violent beats, choruses to dance and sing along with. This album features everything a techno album should be. A CD that I recommend to non techno fans as well.
Who is the Prodigy?
The Prodigy (or just Prodigy) is a British band, whose music consists of various styles ranging from rave, hardcore techno and industrial in the early 1990s to alternative rock and bigbeat with punk vocal elements in later times. The current band members include Liam Howlett (composer/keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer/vocalist) and Maxim (MC/vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer/live keyboards) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as well was a female dancer/vocalist called Sharky who left the band during their early period.
The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown. Some of their most popular songs include "Charly," "Out of Space," "Smack My Bitch Up," "Voodoo People", "No Good (Start the Dance)," "Breathe" and "Firestarter."
Tracklist
1. Jericho
2. Music Reach [1/2/3/4]
3. Wind It Up
4. Your Love [Remix]
5. Hyperspeed [G-Force Part 2]
6. Charly [Trip Into Drum And Bass Version]
7. Out Of Space
8. Everybody In The Place [155 And Rising]
9. Weather Experience
10. Fire
11. Ruff In The Jungle
12. Death Of The Prodigy Dancers [Live]
The Prodigy Experience
The first Prodigy album was also my first album by them. I was simple amazed by them as they connected techno with those brilliant melodies, samples and such great feeling. I'm a huge Prodigy fan since I'm a kid and I own every single album by them. Now it's time to review this bad boy.
The album starts off with
Jericho which has a scary little intro with menacing sounds at first and the vocalist screaming "The horns of Jericho" until we reach the main part. The main part has fantastic single keyboards tunes that are pretty damn catchy before we enter the absolute crazy middle part with weird electronic yelling while the whole song never looses its drive due to the continueing yelling of "Keep on dancing-!". I especially love the part at 1.54 with high and violent synths. What got me very interested in the song till today was the dark feeling that added lots to it. Overall it's a fun ride and a great way to open an album.
Music Reach (1/2/3/4) starts off rather calm and not special until we get the chorus. The chorus has that classic mid-90's raving sound to it. It's kind of hard to describe - flashy electronic sounds and a driving breakbeat that keeps the song going on and you think that's it. Not if you listen to the Prodigy. We get a rather hard part with the female voice yelling out "make me wanna shout!" that adds new dimensions to the whole song. That part also fades out in the end with the song in a rather aggresive mood. We get a more happy tune with
Wind it up after that hell ride.
Wind it up features the typical reggae samples in the main choruses that they often feature which is kind of amusing in a positive way and connects always well with the techno background sound. What we are about to enter after that is a wild mix of synths and electronic beats that goes into a complete odd mood with sounds that are absolute balls. This song represents pretty well what the Prodigy is all about. Violent techno at times, with beautiful melodies and danceable sound. The only negative thing might be length of the song which seemed a bit too long for the song itself. Well, the track snaps directly
Your Love. The speed of the album keeps on getting faster and this track adds a lot it. We are now in complete raving and wild dancing mode so to speak. The song has a very cool keyboard melodie that seems a lot more different than the previous sounds. They connect very well every sound bit and part of the song into one big piece for the main part and the end. That's pretty much what you should accomplish as an electronic artist.
The next track entitled
Hyperspeed is one of my absolute favorites till today. A track that has such a violent and angry rage to it that you will forget everything that happens around you. The track opens up rather calm but quickly finds its drive.
Let's jet out, we'll cruise at hyperspeed,
I got the beat, I got the beat
and that's all we need
Check it out!
That's one of the catchiest refrains I have ever heard. Simple yet effective. It gets you immediatly when it kicks in. Those lines have such a cool feeling to it that you just can't help but dig it. After that we enter a fast and angry mood with the female vocalist yelling out "Keep Up-!" to amp the speed up as well. Overall it's just an amazing track and one of the best techno songs I've ever heard.
After that spitfire we get
Charly. A song that features very weird cat noises and a darn catchy main melody that will hunt you for the rest of your life. The context of the (only) line in the song "Charly Says: Always tell your mummy before you go off somewhere" is taken from a short 70's movie where a boy and his cat teaching kids right and wrong things (I found that out at least). If you know the raver scene a bit "Going off" means also taking your drugs and entering other world. The Prodigy always use those sample lines to hint at messages and they do it in a very catchy way.
Out of Space features another heavily catchy main synth melodie that quickly connects with the wild techno sound. As we enter the chorus we get the famous "I’m gonna send him to outer space – find another race" reggea line. Just like Wind it up it features another absolute crazy electronic beat that will completely blast your brains out while a weird electro voice keeps on yelling "I’ll take your brain to another dimension-!" to keep the speed up. An amazing track that's also a huge favorite in the community and fanbase.
No bad song yet and
Everybody In The Place doesn't break out of that sheme. The song has a fast and alternating sound intro with quick beats in the background and an eletronic beat faster than anything we had so far. It's the most typical dance song so far, but with a more brutal and angrier edge. The song gets a bit repetive after a while but not too much.
The next song
Weather Experience is an eight minute monster. This song came at the right place at the right time, as the song features a very relaxing sequence with ad reamy and delightful intro, to tone down the speed a bit. It had a very feeling as we could relax at first due to the high speed of the other eight tracks before we could enter another fast round to fade the album out. After four minutes we get a rather fast part but it's not as hard and aggresive as the ohter songs which came off very good as well.
Fire starts also rather calm and gets you back in the fast mood step by step. We get beats at a middle speed to slowly get you right back in. Nothing too wild, nothing too slow. A decent, good speed. The song features the famous classic rock sample of "I am the god of hell fire, and I bring you...Fire!" which turns out quickly into a reggea mood later with a funny eletronic voice speaking out:
When I was a youth I used to burn Cali weed in a
(warped) Rizla-o-Rizla-o-Rizla-o-Rizla-o-!
That part came off extremely well and keeped me interested throughout the song for all the years. It had such a good and catchy feeling which is hard to find.
The build is now set and done for the huge finale of
Ruff In The Jungle Bizness and
Death Of The Prodigy Dancers. Ruff in the jungle bizness features a very bizarre and at times hypnotizing main melodie that will seek you in very quickly. The whole song gets pretty hectic and absolute wild while we hear later sing the female voice singing in an eightees vibe "Feel the jungle vibe, baby!". A classic Prodigy song again. The Death of the Prodigy Dancers is a song that seemed rather wrong placed. At first I was confused why the heck they placed a live song on there. But it became very clear as the song featured the live feeling of their overall sound. And that feeling exactly amped me up to hear and attend their stuff live. This album made the Prodigy fan that I am today.
Highlights
- Jericho
- Hyperspeed
- Charly
- Out of Space
- Fire
Positive
+ No song shorter than 3 and a half minutes.
+ Violent techno compared with beautiful and catchy main melodies
+ Catchy sound
+ No boring parts
+ Great balancing
+ Great feeling/vibe
Negative
- Nothing to note
Summary
Experience features the Prodigy in their beginning but also at their best. Wild, angry, extreme and energic songs that featured a lot melodie. The whole album has great balancing with the speed to keep you interested throughout the album. Every melodie and beat is completely different to every other song here. The catchiness also adds a lot to the whole groove. If you're a techno fan or a fan of dance music in general then I know you'll love it. And even If you're not a techno fan you will like it. Mark my words on that.
