WHY isn't LIAM HOWLETT ranked alongside RDJ? [ the Prodigy ]

The Prodigy weren't innovative in their sound, which anyone would tell you from raves back in the day. I'm not saying that in 1992 Aphex was more innovative (though I think he was already better in terms of composition than a lot of other electronic musicians of the day), but you cannot deny that if you're talking in terms of artistic progression, Aphex has gone on leaps and bounds ahead of Liam.

Again - I like the first two Prodigy albums a lot, and truth be told, even Fat of the Land has a bit of something good. But the question you asked was "Why isn't Liam ranked alongside RDJ?", and the answer should be pretty obvious.

But that shouldn't reduce the enjoyment you get from those albums you love. It doesn't for me, I still go mental hearing "Charly" played out at an old-skool night.

Yeah, no doubt about it. Aphex was and is still more known for trying new things, Prodigy are more known because of the mass appeal of their music. Honestly, I love how dated early albums by The Prodigy are because it brings me to a time I would have loved to be young and dancing even though I was a wee yin when those albums came out.

If I want some manic fun that acts as a time capsule, I'll listen to Experience. It'll make me feel like I'm dancing in 1991. And I'll love it no matter how dated it is.

If I want a more unique experience, I'll listen to I Care Because You Do. It'll make me feel like I'm an introspective nerd in 1995. And I'll love it no matter how dated it is.

Okay, that was a gross oversimplification, but both are albums I greatly appreciate.

the only thing in aphex's early music that sounds dated to me is the grainy 80's digital reverb he was using. other than that it still sounds fresh

  On 6/28/2012 at 9:01 AM, vproc said:

Yeah, no doubt about it. Aphex was and is still more known for trying new things, Prodigy are more known because of the mass appeal of their music. Honestly, I love how dated early albums by The Prodigy are because it brings me to a time I would have loved to be young and dancing even though I was a wee yin when those albums came out.

  On 6/28/2012 at 9:06 AM, vproc said:

If I want some manic fun that acts as a time capsule, I'll listen to Experience. It'll make me feel like I'm dancing in 1991. And I'll love it no matter how dated it is.

If I want a more unique experience, I'll listen to I Care Because You Do. It'll make me feel like I'm an introspective nerd in 1995. And I'll love it no matter how dated it is.

 

Okay, that was a gross oversimplification, but both are albums I greatly appreciate.

one eloquent penguin.

  On 6/28/2012 at 4:55 AM, vamos scorcho said:

A short argument for the artistry, originality, and creativity of Prodigy as a group during their first two or three albums:

 

Each album is different... at least from EXPERIENCED to JILTED to FAT... there is a creative progression. I say that's a sign of a genuine and creative artist... it provides the means to frame the forward progress and ideas within a structure. By comparing the sound of EXPERIENCED to JILTED, you can see the totality of what Jilted actually is, and you get a better idea of what they were thinking. They were working with intent.

 

It's easy to just write them off as some big beat morons. I do that all the time with artists I don't like, and it's somewhat true.

 

I can probably point to about 20 albums that sound similar to Ambient Works 85-92, and try as you might, you will not be able to find anything that sounds like Experienced or Music for the Jilted Generation. I guarantee it. I guess you could make the argument that those 20 albums I find don't REALLY capture what's great about Ambient Works 85-92... but expect me to make the same argument towards stuff like Altern 8, T99, etc in comparison with Prodigy.

 

I just wanted to write this, it's something I think about a lot, as I'm hugely inspired by being a kid and blasting this stuff and driving with my dad playing it on the speakers. I can't just write it off, I still listen to it today and think there's something cool about it...the way it blends disparate sounds and ideas into a new whole. I'm not saying the same things about Moby or Propellerheads. I'm not claiming Better Living Through Chemistry or Homework were great albums...I listened to them a lot but they never compelled me like Experienced and MFTJG, because they're generic. So, just some thoughts. I have stake in this opinion because I make music that is heavily inspired by the "good/original" elements of Big Beat as I hear it.

just lol

i think in years to come you will look back on your assetions in this paragraph with a large degree of embarrassment young sir.

look, vamos is only 16 or something - everyone's a bit of an idiot when they're 16 plus the prodigy are a lot more appealling to teenage sensibilities than aphex twin - i certainly loved the prodigy around that age, and actually pretty much hated aphex... but tastes change as you grow up innit.

i'd just like to say that claiming Wind It Up is better than Acen Trip II The Moon = heresy.

One thing that has irked me about The Prodigy is the lack of remixes of their stuff that have been released over the years. Barring a few exceptions (obviously Pendulum's take on Voodoo People was pretty massive) there have been some proper lame official attempts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdPR6NH3DD0

Audio Bully's remix of Out of Space. Just complete lol. If this had stayed an unofficial mashup, then fine, let the audio bullys have it. But to release as an official remix is pretty fucking dismal on all counts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqmDZfWx_xA&feature=fvwrel

Not a bad attempt before Sub Focus went really shit on us

One of the best remixes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QLn7sZlnWA

Hardcore beats! This remix used to drive me insane. And you thought the beat slowed down.. come on

Unofficial psy-trance remix of Voodoo People by Eskimo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mg-QFvD1YEo

Not too bad, heard this dropped at Glade the other weekend and it went down quite well at the time. Not so sure again listening now in the midst of sobriety.

So in summary, Prodigy stuff seems to work quite well with D&B remixes, house DJs should leave it alone.

  On 6/28/2012 at 1:11 PM, BCM said:

  On 6/28/2012 at 4:55 AM, vamos scorcho said:

A short argument for the artistry, originality, and creativity of Prodigy as a group during their first two or three albums:

 

Each album is different... at least from EXPERIENCED to JILTED to FAT... there is a creative progression. I say that's a sign of a genuine and creative artist... it provides the means to frame the forward progress and ideas within a structure. By comparing the sound of EXPERIENCED to JILTED, you can see the totality of what Jilted actually is, and you get a better idea of what they were thinking. They were working with intent.

 

It's easy to just write them off as some big beat morons. I do that all the time with artists I don't like, and it's somewhat true.

 

I can probably point to about 20 albums that sound similar to Ambient Works 85-92, and try as you might, you will not be able to find anything that sounds like Experienced or Music for the Jilted Generation. I guarantee it. I guess you could make the argument that those 20 albums I find don't REALLY capture what's great about Ambient Works 85-92... but expect me to make the same argument towards stuff like Altern 8, T99, etc in comparison with Prodigy.

 

I just wanted to write this, it's something I think about a lot, as I'm hugely inspired by being a kid and blasting this stuff and driving with my dad playing it on the speakers. I can't just write it off, I still listen to it today and think there's something cool about it...the way it blends disparate sounds and ideas into a new whole. I'm not saying the same things about Moby or Propellerheads. I'm not claiming Better Living Through Chemistry or Homework were great albums...I listened to them a lot but they never compelled me like Experienced and MFTJG, because they're generic. So, just some thoughts. I have stake in this opinion because I make music that is heavily inspired by the "good/original" elements of Big Beat as I hear it.

 

just lol

 

i think in years to come you will look back on your assetions in this paragraph with a large degree of embarrassment young sir.

 

look, vamos is only 16 or something - everyone's a bit of an idiot when they're 16 plus the prodigy are a lot more appealling to teenage sensibilities than aphex twin - i certainly loved the prodigy around that age, and actually pretty much hated aphex... but tastes change as you grow up innit.

I'm ove 20 years odl. I was listening to "Bucephelous Bouncing Ball" , RDJ album, etc ... at the same time I was listening to Prodigy. I was like 12 years old. Not to pull the hipster card here but I consider eclectic taste to be superior to the blinders view of what's good or bad. There are many different ways music can be good. there is no single criteria.

As for "Wind it Up" > Acen... heresy? IDK. I'm not concerned, they're both good.

is it heresy to say this is as good as ambient works material? ( I don't actually believe what I write, just saying )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzJt6nZdmZk

I've got plenty of knowledge on many different areas. I'm not as purely devoted to any one 'scene' or style, or purity as you guys. I think that's often been why I get so much shit on different forums which I find overly specialized at a certain point. also by writing what I really think in great detail I become more and more specialized... it's said that the closer you get in investigating something, the more confused you get, thus the more disagreement. hence why there are so many arguments online, because people are so focused in on their specialized own view that nobody ever can agree.

I refuse to just submit to the idea that one is objectively better than the other. someone might scoff: Skrillex isn't as good as Ligeti, Skrillex isn't as good as Bob Dylan. what was Schnittke doing in his music?

uh? What? they're 100% different. so what if they're both "music." they can only be appraised on their own terms. the experience of hearing each is completely different. it's like comparing a stealth bomber to a cool bike or a hot wheels toy. they're physical objects with different purposes. I can say "Britney Spears isn't as good as JS Bach" - - - they're two different styles rendering the comparison 100% useless.

so a mind studio occasion is created:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjVUgbwkQ1I

samples+vox, drums, diva vox, strings, synths, "aggression" (actually, it's ENERGY)

I like the sound that comes in at 1:15 "wee waw" followed by increased synth "call and response" with the WOEW

the drums continue to increase in complexity

extremely well paced crosshatching

ACEN is good but come on, it doesn't have this pure sense of progression and singularity of "what it is"

strings, melding into a greater sense of purpose building to a climax of the music

2:25 (an astounding sense of progression)

2:30 diva vox combined with some sort of new effect on the machines

the drums are pretty good in this section (climax)

a totally new section at 3:13

a totally new drum style... sounds fucking good in terms of production and "timbre"

the track is coming to a conclusion with a new sound introduced in the background

a final drum section for people to dance to (the repetition that sometimes makes the album tiresome)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPEW_2Q8ejI

The Chemical Brothers remix of Voodoo People was pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYJHYIEkWI8

And I can't believe I forgot about this monster from 92:

(find the rest of the chapters on youtube - banging).

  On 6/28/2012 at 8:21 PM, chenGOD said:

The Chemical Brothers remix of Voodoo People was pretty good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYJHYIEkWI8

Love that remix, hell most CB remixes from that era are gold imo

Experience was awesome.

The first time I heard MFTJG I was blown away, but I havent returned to it as often as I have to Experience

I think both the Liam and RDJ are great in their different ways.

At first I found it quite hard to figure out the essential difference between them, but then I hit upon this idea:

Which one of them would you reckon reads the most?

Fuck it's been too long since I listened to some Prodigy. Weather experience reminds me of my newspaper delivery round, cos i used to cane this album whilst delivering newspapers 20 years ago. It was invariably raining.

Think it's incredibly difficult to compare Liam and RDJ. They're both really talented, and The Prodigy's earlier work is awesome. I was also more into The Prodigy than Aphex at the age of 14.

Yeah... I guess I didn't have a connection with the prodigy back in the day for me to listen to them again now. I got into Aphex in 93 and didn't listen to the prodigy til around 95 or something. Of course I was already into Aphex, mu-ziq, squarepusher by then so when i caught wind of the prodigy it didn't stick with me, but I liked it. but not so much now.

Why aren't bomfunk mc's ranked alongside Autechre?

  On 10/7/2016 at 1:25 PM, perunamuussi said:

Why aren't bomfunk mc's ranked alongside Autechre?

 

flol

  On 10/7/2016 at 1:46 PM, beerwolf said:

 

  On 10/7/2016 at 1:25 PM, perunamuussi said:

Why aren't bomfunk mc's ranked alongside Autechre?

 

 

flol

 

lol

Why aren't Safri Duo rated as highly as Saafi Brothers?

Why isn't Rodriguez rated alongside Bob Dylan?

Why isn't Richard Clayderman ranked alongside Arvo Pärt?

  On 10/7/2016 at 12:24 PM, Mesh Gear Fox said:

this is such a baity thread title, and an absurd concept...apples and oranges.

 

however i would consider music like this just as "intelligent" as any other music this forum circles around. you'd have to be a very clever cat to know how to make interesting and engaging tracks that are as fun to listen to as they are to dance to.

the amount of energy in these tracks is phenomenal.

 

listening to the prodigy as a teenager who had previously only listened to rock music was a very liberating experience. opened my mind to a whole world of music, surely other watmmers have similar stories.

how did you even stumble upon this thread

has to be the most ridiculous fred read on this site

the Prodigy were dodgy hardcore that morphed into some uber rrrrrrave-PA, underpinned by a drug trend, XL's marketing and MTV

how do i know this? from avoiding dodgy hardcore rooms/tents at the time when there was so much quality House doing the rounds, yeah old cunt in the area and old enough to know better

Aphex made Selected Ambient Works, a seminal moment in 20th century music

so in summary, like comparing McDonalds to one of the finest roast dinners ever made, hence no comparison at all

i still sing "I'm the fya sta-sta" to this day so he must be a good producer 

All I remember about them is the tunnel and the crab.

  On 10/8/2016 at 1:25 AM, Deer said:

i still sing "I'm the fya sta-sta" to this day so he must be a good producer 

or an active or unrealized pyromaniac ;)

cos of that track its almost part of subliminal British word association with fire now, you only gotta spark a lighter......

  On 10/8/2016 at 1:29 AM, doublename said:

All I remember about them is the tunnel and the crab.

or the £$£ ka-chings of a cough dodgy video

tbh as a grumpy old cunt they were always the more gimpy, lets be honest commercial & all out shit end of the break-beat spectrum, although without doubt they served their time/dues in the E'd up chaos trenches of the late 80's/early 90's (if that should even warrant consideration)

see, i dont even like d&b but from hardcore, its rougher previous guise which the Prodigy grew out of (if you heard people like Mickey Finn), you got so many subsequent d&b names, records, labels, faces, profiled nights out, that evolved with folks like Fabio (who even played House for a good few years) in fact the list is endless but probably peaking with Alex Reece, LTJ Bukem & then Roni Size nationally, then the eventual 4/4 garage of Todd Edwards et al morphing and sliding toward Tuff Jam & 2-Step

so the truth is the years have not been kind to L.i.am's legacy & its friday night, there's no fkn lighter in the 'ouse which means no firestartin this cunting joint