Prodigy
The Fat of the Land

THE REVIEW

Year of Our Lord 1997: two little siblings receive a strange object as a Christmas gift. Made of plastic, gray, compact, rectangular with a sort of circle on top.

Attached via a wire is an extension of similar material and color with a futuristic shape and full of buttons. It was talked about everywhere, and some said it "would revolutionize the world of video games." As an essential accessory, the package also contained two discs, to start getting familiar with this new gaming reality.
Enthusiastic, the younger sibling immediately connects the new gift to a small TV and inserts one of the two discs at random. Immediately, music booms so loudly that, in the next room, the older sister begins to go wild and thinks "Damn, what an invention".

The invention was the Playstation, the game Wipeout, and the song "Firestarter" by the Prodigy. The cassette (ORIGINAL!!!) took a firm place in the stereo and didn’t leave for quite some time, later coming out battered in tape and especially in the case, strained from numerous loans and duplications (but I still have it!). "Smack my bitch up" overwhelms you, the hoarse screams of the great master of ceremonies Keith Flint break in to violently disturb your tranquility and leave you no escape for the entire duration of the record.
The video, it was said, was censored and MTV only broadcasted it at night (which is why I never saw it), was the hooker from the title involved? The tracks follow one another, relentless and without a moment to breathe, "Breathe" is a punch in the stomach, and here, for the first time, I see their faces. I see a maniac with wild eyes, face pierced by absurd (for the time) piercings and two tufts of hair spiked and colored like the craziest of Pennywise, and a bulky man of color dressed in black with white pupils, both rolling around in filthy rooms full of cockroaches. The girl raised on bread and Take That is immediately won over... and the cassette keeps playing. "Serial Thrilla" and "Mindfields" lead straight to the masterpiece, "Narayan". Everything blends in this track: techno, hardcore, jungle, rock and even a touch of indie in the obsessive chant that keeps repeating the title for all of nine minutes.

Then, in a deadly one-two, "Firestarter", the first love never forgotten, with its threat "I’ll test ya psycho-somatic, atic-insane, come play the game, inhale, you’re the victim" unfolded over a beat punctuated by sounds like hammers striking. The booklet is up to par, inside a comic version of Keith, Maxim, and company (proto-Gorillaz?) truly strong. When asked about the genre... I shrug, I can’t answer now just as I never knew how to answer in the past.

The fat one of the region is... a banging album by the Prodigy, released at the right time, post-produced sublimely and undoubtedly a masterpiece in its own way. Definitely a reference and influence for all the DJs and producers to come, with Chemical Bros and Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim) leading, whether they like it or not. "Oh my God, that’s a funky shit!"