Album: Music For The Jilted Generation
Artist: The Prodigy
After the heady days of Chicago house and Madchester, dance music self-divided into a dizzying array of subgenres, and the clunking fist of government came down heavily on one burgeoning scene: rave music. The Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 made it illegal to gather in fields and dance ecstatically to hardcore dance music. After releasing light-hearted, juvenile hits like Out Of Space and Charly in the early 90s, The Prodigy suddenly got very serious when their way of life was under threat. The Prodigy were also being blamed for the death of rave music by trying to bring this underground scene into the mainstream, so this album also channels the group's rage at their critics. In many ways, Music For The Jilted Generation is so good that it transcends rave music entirely, and hints at how dance music would permeate throughout pop and rock music during the 90s. The influence of hip hop on Liam Howlett is pretty obvious in the album's sound, which mixes electronica with heavy beats and samples. Many of the audio samples are taken from contemporary films, such as The Lawnmower Man on Intro and Poltergiest 3 on The Heat (The Energy). Voodoo People also contains a riff sampled from Nirvana's Very Ape, hinting at the fusion of dance music and grunge / punk that The Prodigy would explore further on later album, The Fat Of The Land (1997).
The Prodigy proved they were moving beyond their rave music roots with the extended techno stylings of Speedway, while The Narcotic Suite of songs at the end of the album showed a bold move into chill out music. 3 Kilos in particular is a masterful tune with a heavy dub influence, perfect for winding down after a night of glowsticks and crazy shapes. On tracks like Break & Enter, Poison and Voodoo People, the group show a much harder edge and gave voice to the anger they felt at being "jilted" by the authorities. I also really like the interplanetary menace of The Heat (The Energy). Some of the tracks are a bit overlong for my liking, especially Break & Enter but also Their Law, which features the industrial rock group Pop Will Eat Itself, but comes across as a little self-indulgent. Things really start to pick up from Full Throttle onwards and the thrill of listening to No Good (Start The Dance) still hasn't abated after all these years. This is not just a fitting tribute to the death of a music scene, but it also pointed the way forward for the likes of Leftfield and Goldie, showing that dance music could look to the album and not just the single as a way of making a compelling statement.
Born: Braintree, Essex
Released: July 1994
Genre: Rave
Genre: Rave
After the heady days of Chicago house and Madchester, dance music self-divided into a dizzying array of subgenres, and the clunking fist of government came down heavily on one burgeoning scene: rave music. The Criminal Justice Bill of 1994 made it illegal to gather in fields and dance ecstatically to hardcore dance music. After releasing light-hearted, juvenile hits like Out Of Space and Charly in the early 90s, The Prodigy suddenly got very serious when their way of life was under threat. The Prodigy were also being blamed for the death of rave music by trying to bring this underground scene into the mainstream, so this album also channels the group's rage at their critics. In many ways, Music For The Jilted Generation is so good that it transcends rave music entirely, and hints at how dance music would permeate throughout pop and rock music during the 90s. The influence of hip hop on Liam Howlett is pretty obvious in the album's sound, which mixes electronica with heavy beats and samples. Many of the audio samples are taken from contemporary films, such as The Lawnmower Man on Intro and Poltergiest 3 on The Heat (The Energy). Voodoo People also contains a riff sampled from Nirvana's Very Ape, hinting at the fusion of dance music and grunge / punk that The Prodigy would explore further on later album, The Fat Of The Land (1997).
The Prodigy proved they were moving beyond their rave music roots with the extended techno stylings of Speedway, while The Narcotic Suite of songs at the end of the album showed a bold move into chill out music. 3 Kilos in particular is a masterful tune with a heavy dub influence, perfect for winding down after a night of glowsticks and crazy shapes. On tracks like Break & Enter, Poison and Voodoo People, the group show a much harder edge and gave voice to the anger they felt at being "jilted" by the authorities. I also really like the interplanetary menace of The Heat (The Energy). Some of the tracks are a bit overlong for my liking, especially Break & Enter but also Their Law, which features the industrial rock group Pop Will Eat Itself, but comes across as a little self-indulgent. Things really start to pick up from Full Throttle onwards and the thrill of listening to No Good (Start The Dance) still hasn't abated after all these years. This is not just a fitting tribute to the death of a music scene, but it also pointed the way forward for the likes of Leftfield and Goldie, showing that dance music could look to the album and not just the single as a way of making a compelling statement.
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