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Can't say I really enjoy it, but I didn't like any of the Prodigy albums much on first listen. They grew on me massively.
Spitfire is pretty good, with an ace beat and lots of trademark Prodigy samples going around, but why Keith Flint couldn't have screamed "If I was in world-war two they'd call me Spitfire!" instead of that hick actress?
Girls is the track that sounds most like old Prodigy, a lot like SMBU but with a more hip-hop flavour- pretty good. Memphis Belles is just a bit crap, ever so slightly like an Orbital track.
Get Up Get Off is absolutely horrible. Twista sounds like Sir Mixalot sped up and raps far too fast for the lurching breakbeat to keep up. And the vocalist who did those fantastic soaring Indian vocals on SMBU is totally fucking wasted as Howlett electronically distorts her voice into a screeched chorus that is too annoying for words.
Hotride sounds like Faithless- Mass Destruction performed on dustbins lids in the background, but the track is actually a punkish cover of some old 70s song about floating away in a balloon. Once again with hick actress on vocals, but why? Keith Flint sounded more raw and punkish on Fuel My Fire, which this track is just an inferior version of.
Wake Up Call is one of the best tracks. Kool Keith sounds as wickedly cool as ever on vocals, and there's an awesome flute sample that sounds like a weird electric guitar at times. Neverthless, Maxim could have done his job just as well, and Kool Keith is pretty wasted here, compared to his truly outstanding rapping on Diesel Power. This track also has some samples that sound like Claustrophobic Sting, but alas no 303s.
Action Radar is one hell of a weird tracks. To start off with it sounds like a sample of a train leaving the station, before morphing into a cheesy breakbeat/bassline combo that sounds like it belongs on the Doom 2 soundtrack. And the vocals are just punkish shouting, much like Keith Flint on Firestarter, but it's a woman, and it just doesn't work.
Medusa's Path is atmospheric and damn cool. It reminds me a fair bit of Climbatize, which is no bad thing. Lots of soaring Arabian sounding strings throughout. Phoenix is a slow, dull track with a totally out of place vocal sample, and some vaguely Middle-Eastern synths.
You'll be Under My Wheels is the music from the new BMW advert, and it sounds pretty much the same as that, but with some scratchy and treated guitars, and Kool Keith chanting "I rock I rock I rock, I roll..." and so on. Not bad but the repeated return to that annoying sample breaks it up somewhat.
The Way It Is is one of my favourites tracks, because it samples Thriller by Jacko in a brilliant way. Where the sample is played, it sounds like a totally amazing acid rework of that track, but Howlett keeps dragging the track of into other directions. Still good, but he should have just remixed Thriller and kept his own hooks out of it, which would have sounded so much better.
Shoot Down is just a bizarre track. It sounds a helluva lot like Setting Sun by the Chemical Brothers, with a very similar beat, and of course an electronically distorted Gallagher on vocals. Liam here, though, doesn't match his brother's hypnotic contribution to the Chem Bros track. He just whines and shouts through this track, almost as if he's trying to show how alternative he is. In other words, totally wasting his talent. Also it uses a truly bizarre piano sample in places that sounds like it belongs in the Silent Hill soundtrack. And those fantastic sirens that made Setting Sun aren't there either.
Anyways, the album has nothing on their last two, and it's not even as good as the very patchy Experience. Howlett drenches the track in left-field beats and loops of loud, brash noise to try and keep things aggressive, but take that away and it's built on badly realised samples, and vocal covers of old tracks, only with new vocalists. Why Liam why? Either sample the original, or do a bloody decent job of covering it. I put it down to his inability to write lyrics that makes him grave-rob other tracks for lyrics to work into the tracks. There's far too few originally created samples, none of the beats are really fast enough to recapture the energy of old Prodigy albums and there's no bloody contribution by two perfectly good vocalists- Keith and Maxim!
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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24
Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/
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) and they worked on it.
