from the LP Experience, XL Recordings, 1992Sure, you could call the Prodigy a “band” in strict terms, thanks to the assistance of dancers and, occasionally, someone singing or rapping, but it would be misleading in the scheme of things---for all intents & purposes, Prodigy’s tunes are the work of one Liam Howlett, an Essex-born punter who was 18 years old when Britain was turning on and enjoying their Summer of Love, and like so many other kids at that time he was hypnotized by the combination of beats and E. The major difference about his DJing and, eventually, production pursuits were that he was, quite literally, a “prodigy” in every sense of the word: his early mixes were mad fresh, his ability to lace forward-thinking beats was matched only by a small few, and some of the most memorable samples from rave’s early days arrived care of his tracks. Case in point is this song right here, where he pinched the infamous vocal intro from classic prog-psych monster “Fire” by Arthur Brown, along with a killer snip from Pablo Gad (much slept-on), on what sounds like helium, “…when I was a youth I used to burn collie weed in a Rizla…” This album was pretty much solid from front to cover, a rarity in general, but even more so among electronica long-players, so props to Liam.
