Smack my DJ up! Techno ‘treasures’ Prodigy get nasty

[Sana Muñequita Linda]

 

Mad men: The Prodigy (from left: Maxim, Keith Flint and Liam Howlett) isn't too happy with the state of modern dance music. | AFP-JIJI

 

Smack my DJ up! Techno ‘treasures’ Prodigy get nasty

BY ALASTAIR HIMMER

 

Techno-punk rock trio The Prodigy, who took the music world by storm with angry electronica and controversial videos in the 1990s, want to be viewed as a British “national treasure.â€

 

Having released its first album in six years earlier this year, “The Day Is My Enemy,†the London-based act insists it has been as influential to dance music as Britpop was to guitar rock.

 

“The Prodigy — what we did for electronic music — is as important culturally as Blur and Oasis,†says Liam Howlett, the band’s composer and main writer.

 

“We’ve always been for upholding the British sound and we should be looked upon as a national treasure.â€

 

Perched on armchairs in a hotel suite and sipping green tea, the middle-aged ravers look every inch rock-and-roll royalty. But they have lost none of their belligerence, strafing contemporary DJ culture with an abrasive new record that draws on the group’s rave roots and packs a punch with fierce cuts such as “Nasty†and “Wall Of Death.â€

 

“There was a real determination for it to have zero compromise,†says vocalist Keith Flint, he of the spiky hair, tattoos and nose piercings who frightened children with his appearance in the video for the 1996 smash “Firestarter.â€

 

“There really needed to be an antidote to the DJ scene, which made it quite brutal.â€

 

The track “Ibiza†delivers a scathing attack on mainstream dance music.

 

“We don’t really care that much but we’ll slag it off when we can,†Howlett says with a grin. “There’s no creativity behind it. (“Ibizaâ€) is a bit of vicious fun really. It popped up out of a conversation.

 

“Our lighting guy was working for somebody and had this CD and he says: ‘Here’s blah-blah-blah’s set. It’s pre-mixed, it’s his set for the summer.’ I just couldn’t get my head round it — he’s a DJ!â€

 

The Prodigy can barely hide its contempt for the Spanish party island, although the three snigger conspiratorially about recently playing there, just to unleash that tune.

 

“I don’t like Ibiza at all,†snorts Howlett.

 

“I don’t like what it represents. The whole electronic music sound has been kind of hijacked really by the pop world. There’s no bands making the harder end of electronic music and we just think it’s our job.

 

“People are just getting fed this s—-,†he adds.

 

“It’s a northern American thing. America always f—-s things up. It just takes the cool stuff and washes all the credibility out of it with money. It did it to hip-hop, it’s doing it to this now.â€

 

From behind dark glasses, Maxim (real name: Keith Palmer) interjects: “The rave scene’s been saturated. When we were in the DJ scene it was an art form, not just operating something that’s synched up for you.â€

 

Flint, less menacing without the black eyeliner and Johnny Rotten sneer of his stage persona, nods.

 

“When you were out, a DJ would make his way through the crowd with two record boxes and everyone would go: ‘Wow, that’s Hype!’ Or whoever,†he says. “Now he turns up in a helicopter, no one sees him and he plugs in a USB stick.

 

“I liked it when the needle got knocked off the record and it all f—-ing went quiet and everyone went ‘Woooaaargh!’ That was a buzz. The unrehearsed, impromptu nature of it made it exciting.â€

 

The Prodigy achieved huge success with 1997’s multiplatinum album “The Fat Of The Land†— causing uproar with the single “Smack My Bitch Up†along the way — and has sold some 25 million records worldwide.

 

But the members agree they still make music to add firepower to their high-octane live show, which they unveiled at the Summer Sonic festival this past weekend.

 

“We don’t have that baggage to be worried about whether it’s correct for radio,†Howlett says. “We just focus on what the show needs. I like to hear my records on the radio, but it doesn’t bother me.â€

 

Adds Flint: “It also feels like the finger you’re sticking in the air when your song is played on the radio is coming through the speakers. It’s a wake-up call.â€

 

Sources:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/music/we-should-be-looked-upon-as-a-national-treasure-the-prodigy/article1-1381396.aspx

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2015/08/18/music/smack-dj-techno-treasures-prodigy-get-nasty/#.VdS7NrLtmko

 

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Liam pls 

 

In any case, this is their track Ibiza:

 

What do you think? Are for you as worthy as Oasis, Blur and other well-known British acts?