The Prodigy
No Tourists

Three years ago, a sad tragedy unfolded on these virtual pages: my not-so-enthusiastic review of The Day is My Enemy by The Prodigy, known to friends as TDIME, because acronyms are always appealing. Now, I return to the scene of the crime after a suspiciously short time with this No Tourists, the latest effort by Liam Howlett and his crew, showing no signs of slowing down with their relentless worldwide tours. After all, this is now their exclusive field of action, the last stronghold of rebellious young souls from St. Petersburg, at least considering the steady stream of comments in Russian on their YouTube channel. But that's another story. No Tourists, as we were saying. A new album with a concept reminiscent of an edict, and it's Liam himself who explains it: the band has its own identifying sound and is not interested in straying too far from it. The manifesto also projects a vaguely polemical tone within the album, which we’ll look at shortly. My expectations, having grasped the direction from the previous album, were practically non-existent and I can say I wasn’t proven wrong, however the album is substantially better than TDIME, the tracks are more inspired and manage to shake off, albeit not completely, that truly annoying aura of self-parody.

This doesn't mean the sense of deja vu is gone, simply that the cards have been shuffled more intricately, drawing more deeply from the group’s discography: Champions of London takes on the same language and rhythm as Piranha or Run with the Wolves, Timebomb Zone, which is the best track on the album, is ultimately another variation of Warrior’s Dance, with rather heavy references to N-Joi. Howlett had already played this game with Invaders Must Die in the track World’s on Fire, where he openly cited Vamp by Outlander. It's a shame he's not the only one in the universe who loves 90s techno rave, such blatant references always cross the line between reverential citation and armed robbery. But oh well. We continue with anarchic singularities: Light Up the Sky and We Live Forever even recall the first masterpiece album Experience, but there are also references to the synths of Voodoo People from Music for the Jilted Generation. Fight Fire with Fire is a kind of new Diesel Power, another well-executed moment partly thanks to the collaboration with Ho9909. Not everything flows as it should and there are some awkward moments, like in the title track No Tourist, ironically the only piece attempting something new, but unfortunately slipping into a questionable citation of Closer by Nine Inch Nails. It’s probably an unfortunate coincidence caused by unconscious influence (who doesn’t love that track madly?), anyway, if I were Trent Reznor, I’d probably make a call.

Need Some1 and Boom Boom Tap are the weakest tracks Howlett has ever composed in his career, the first is bland and without clear direction, the second plays with a vocal sample that makes you want to press the skip button, and for such a brief album, that's not a compliment. The impression is that, to churn out new material primarily usable in a live context, the musician retrieved some random demos from his hard drive. Even the production and mastering are not exactly stellar, especially for a notoriously slow and meticulous producer like the prodigal son of Essex; the rush can truly be felt. Resonate seems like a parody of modern popular electronic music, especially dubstep, with the usual yelps in the beat with which the genre is often identified, but even here, an annoying filler track aftertaste lingers. A good but not stunning finale with Give me a Signal, where we see another collaboration, this time with Barns Courtney. The track is a bit disjointed but retains an appealing punk spirit, and the abrasive acid lines of the timeless TR-303 vaguely recall Claustrophobic Sting. This, in essence, is No Tourists, a maxi EP disguised as an album, hastily packaged to bulk up the band’s playlist in anticipation of their tour, exactly what I predicted three years ago. Don't expect big news or to be left with your mouth and ears wide open. Nonetheless, it remains an album that is listenable, at times even capable of making your head move quite a bit. In short, it fulfills its role. Let’s just try not to forget that it was created by the mind and hands that revolutionized electronic music, the same person who gave us Firestarter.