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The Prodigy's long-awaited CD is supposed to convert the electro doubters. Says James Lavelle, head of England's influential Mo'Wax Records: "[The Prodigy] is one of those bands that do everything right: the right records, the right videos, it looks right, it does the show right." Says band member Flint: "We're not trying to be faceless and thinking that makes us interesting. We're up-front. We're saying, 'Look, if you're going to come out and see us, we're going to rock you.' "
The Fat of the Land rocks. The already released single, Firestarter, has some of the rebelliousness of the Sex Pistols and the funkiness of good hip-hop; the album's most ambitious track, Climbatize, has an orchestral span but maintains a rock immediacy. While only a few other tracks on the album (Breathe and Mindfields) stand out, the CD is consistently dynamic. The only real misstep is the first track, the punchy but unfortunately titled Smack My Bitch Up. Howlett says the title isn't literal; let's hope this isn't a trend, given the success of singer Meredith Brooks' song Bitch.
Howlett, the founder and creative core of the band, and a native of Chelmsford, England, says he received his earliest inspiration from American hip-hop acts like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. He subsequently submerged himself in Britain's burgeoning hip-hop-influenced, Ecstasy-popping rave culture. In 1989 he formed a band with Flint, Keith Palmer (Maxim) and Leeroy Thornhill, who became the group's featured dancer. Their early CDs featured soft techno-dance tunes. They were hits in England, but they sold poorly in the U.S., and the Prodigy's first record label, Elektra, let the band go in 1994. "Elektra did not have the balls to do anything with the Prodigy," says Howlett. "They didn't understand us."
The Prodigy's sound has since grown edgier, drawing from commercially successful rock and hard-core hip-hop. Last year the major music labels fought a bidding war to sign the band. Madonna's Maverick won with a contract worth a reported $5 million. When, earlier this year, MTV announced its intention to program more electronica and started a show, Amp, to promote the genre, the Prodigy, thanks to its anthemic song, Firestarter, became the techno band of the moment.
Which is exactly what the band members say they don't want to be. "It's not us," says Howlett. "Techno is maybe some stuff that comes out of Germany. Being called techno basically limits my music. We're definitely not techno. We're a hard-dance act that incorporates certain elements of music we like. This whole electronica scene to me is just f______ crap. We don't need that to come across here."
The electronica scene may yet catch on. It's booming in Florida (at least eight clubs have popped up in Orlando in the past three years); the sound tracks to the movies The Saint, Batman & Robin and 187 draw on it; major rock acts like U2 and Smashing Pumpkins are incorporating it into their sound. And there is some great electronic music out there. Morcheeba's Who Can You Trust? (Discovery) is a rapturous blend of bluesy vocals and electro atmospherics; Carl Craig's More Songs about Food and Revolutionary Art (Planet E) is puckishly inventive; and The Rebirth of Cool FOUR (4th & Broadway) is an excellent compilation of electro acts. Later this year new CDs are due from two of the best electro acts, Goldie and Portishead.