Prodigy
Music For The Jilted Generation

Well, I really wanted this album in my collection of reviews.

Talking about The Prodigy and what they've created is like splitting an atom or synthesizing an atomic bomb, no one has been more influential than this group on today's mainstream and underground scenes. Without them, we'd have no people at raves, no heavy productions.

The nineties were indeed the years of Brit-pop, grunge, cross-over, and the rap explosion, but more than anything, the genre that characterized them for me was the revolution of the beat. With the spread of the first drum machines as a compositional tool, the artist could start withdrawing from the stereotypical musician canon, beginning to create electronic music purely for the sake of subversive pleasure. Liam Howlett, the brilliant mind behind The Prodigy, has held the scepter without passing the baton to anyone until today, and this album from 1994 still sounds damn current.

Critical examples to cite are few; I prefer to start with the weak points. First, track number 10 sounds a bit like 'Experience', then there's an excessive yielding to the down-jungle-tempo rhythms that tribalize listeners into a true union of musical belonging. The spectacular intro and Break & Enter are groundbreaking for everyone, Their Law is a megabeat to nod up and down to, Full Throttle begins to technicize the album, and Voodoo People brings jungle from the speakers, Speedlane transmits industrial techno, The Heat (the energy) shows the dance floor. Here's the masterpiece, folks, enjoy track number eight called Poison with all you've got, which encapsulates acid-breakbeat, a scream from Keith Flint, and a memorable spoken word from Maxim about the potion-medicine he possesses and won't lose. It could stop there, but the masterpiece forces the genius, Liam, to do better, No Good (start the dance), with a video shot at the end of a rave in Brixton included, is a drugged and captivating tribal-techno piece. Then, to predict which substances the world will prefer, there's the Narcotic Suite, spanning three songs, comprising a singular journey towards the sonic alteration of normal vision on narcotic music, notable is the verse in the last "Claustrophobic Sting" 'My mind is Blowing'.

Why intertwine so many genres in such a simple, pure, and spontaneous manner? Why capture a genre, make it your own, launch into the market, and send your followers to pursue unknown trends? Because... without 'Music For The Jilted Generation', we wouldn't have listened to any of what we hear today. It's that classic ring which, if missing, doesn't close the chain, too short to tie it to the post... it's the perfection sought and achieved... it's a mystery, but it strikes me as a masterpiece. Come on, I cite it to those who have never used it. Get This And Enjoy, if you come back the same, let me know!