TheProdigy

Artist: The Prodigy

Title: Invaders Must Die

Release Date (Australia): February 23, 2009

Tracks: 11

Record Label: Take Me to The Hospital

Every four or five years the electronic music community comes alive with a familiar buzz of noise - found not exclusively, but blazingly in a release by The Prodigy. The band has been releasing LPs since 1992, since the release of their debut ‘Experience,’ and through flagship releases “Music for the Jilted Generation” and “Fat of the Land.”

It is here in 2009 that we see the originators behind the grunge-fuelled dance band, Liam Howlett and Kieth Flint, release a similar album, except packaged in newer samples and hooks. In this sense, the Prodigy chart the electronic music landscape with a flair of punk and anti-establishment music. Heavily influenced by recent trends such as drum ‘n’ bass, high BPM rave music, the likes of which has seen artists such as Pendulum and Röyksopp blast into notoriety in the last 5 years.

Some of the songs cover content which is nothing new to the well-listened Prodigy fan. Album opener ‘Invaders Must Die’ is a classic rebellious underground sound, a digital antagonism which speaks of terminating threats, in an upbeat fun way. Flint sings “the writing is on the wall” and in typical Prodigy fashion, their album opens up without concern for how their musical statements are received. The Sex Pistols are remembered for their lack of social conscience in lyrics, and perhaps the Prodigy are traversing such a social battle in this new release too. Their new label “Take Me to the Hospital” is also the title of one of the new tracks, and it is here we get the feeling that the Prodigy provide a sickly travel guide to the rave music scene.. an insight into the sweat, heat, and often fatal club-life.

If front-man Keith Flint still purchases bottles of crimson hair-dye, then we know that “World’s On Fire” will be an anthem such as “Firestarter” was, off the 1996 album Fat of the Land. Such songs allude to anarchic themes of destruction.. in sorts an apocalyptic landscape of beats that feed a listener’s curiosity into flame and fire. Friederich Nietschze would have approved of such notions, if only this album was available for playback on a ward gramophone.

Still, The Prodigy are encasing their tribal theatrical sound walls, even in new songs such as the track “Warriors Dance.” From here, the listener is taken back to the first two mash-up dance remix albums of Experience and the B-Sides to that album, which showcased the song “Death of the Prodigy Dancers.” Today, the Prodigy has dancers as part of their stage act, and their stage presence do emit a soldier-of-the-beat feeling.. dancers that march to the beat. Upcoming tours both in the UK, and worldwide, will see Invaders Must Die be brought alive in a filthy array of beat, singing, dance and samples. Such is the spectacle of a Prodigy performance, truly a tour-de-techno.

http://funkink.wordpress.com/2009/02/18 ... ic-return/

Kitty Empire The Observer, Sunday 22 February 2009

Forget the 1980s revival. One particular 1990s revival is really selling tickets. When renegade basshounds the Prodigy announced an arena tour last autumn, it sold out in an hour. They will also be supporting mainman Liam Howlett's brother-in-law's band at Oasis's Slane Castle gig in June and are headlining Download, metal's annual powwow.

Prodigy Invaders Must Die Take Me to the Hospital/Cooking Vinyl Buy Invaders Must Die at the Guardian shop This appetite for the Prodigy's brand of electronic destruction is remarkable, given that it's been a decade since this most kinetic of outfits seemed to have run out of steam. Their fourth album, 2004's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, found a sullen Howlett operating solo from deep within his Essex mansion-cum-studio. Without Keith Flint and Maxim Reality, this Prodigy were soon outgunned by bands like déclassé Australian drum'n'bass outfit Pendulum, who mopped up the testosterone the Prodigy had smeared across the globe's dancefloors. Canny French techno crew Justice siphoned off a new generation of thrill-seekers. And the new rave craze made the veteran Essex crew look passé.

Against these odds, then, the Prodigy's fifth album comes as a surprise. Aggression intact, Invaders Must Die comes out fighting for Howlett's reputation as a boy's own beatmaker, but stays for the party afterwards. The tracklisting bristles with pent-up spleen; songs such as "Run with the Wolves"are both lairy and armoured, with live beats donated by fan-boy Dave Grohl.

But rabid underdog posturing isn't the main attraction. The fun - fun! - here lies in listening to Howlett recycle rave with a glint in his eye and flesh-hooks fixed to his tunes. Happy hardcore, acid builds, acrylic basslines and even housey samples litter Invaders Must Die like a chemical flashback given fresh currency. The oboe-strewn "Warrior's Dance" was the first song written for the album and displays its swivel-eyed brio best.

None of these are exactly new tricks, and Invaders Must Die does suffer a little from rave nostalgia, blissfully deaf to latter-day rackets (various global ghetto beats; bass-heavy variants of grime and dubstep). But if starting the dance with massed firepower is what we require of the Prodigy, then this album cancels out their last decade of damp squibbing. KITTY EMPIRE

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/22/prodigy

This could have been the most almighty dog’s dinner: gnarled old ravers back for one last payday, a tired retread of sonic signatures long past their sell-by date, the sort of comeback that offers not reaffirmation but embarrassment. Yet Liam Howlett, Keith Flint and Maxim go at it so ferociously, and with such a will, that most (though not all) misgivings are dispelled. The current single, Omen, is the best of the opening section, though Thunder, the demented son of Out of Space, deserves an honourable mention, its speed-techno whizzing the listener into a time machine straight back to 1992. It isn’t until the bracingly violent Take Me to the Hospital, though, that the whole enterprise clicks crazily into place, as Flint intones “Along came a spider”, and what sounds like an army of run-amok Daleks wail the song’s title refrain.
3 stars from 5
Dan Cairns
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/ ... 759778.ece

Reviewed by Simon Price
Sunday, 22 February 2009

“This is the Prodigy,” a robotic voice intones two minutes into the title track. But the thumping Old Rave beats and divebombing “neeeow” noises have left you in no doubt as to who you’re listening to.

And therein lies Liam Howlett’s dilemma. Make a record that doesn’t sound like the Prodigy at all, and nobody will buy it. Make a record that sounds exactly like the Prodigy, and people will accuse him of complacency. He has, this time around, erred on the side of the familiar. Overall, the fire’s gone out.

Pick of the album: ‘Warrior’s Dance’ reprises the hi-speed handbag of ‘No Good’

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-enter ... 28552.html

by Lou Thomas
20 February 2009

Five years on from their last album, Keith Flint and Maxim Reality have joined Howlett in the studio to make what many will consider a last attempt at proving their relevance. Invaders Must Die then is the musical equivalent of a day spent on a bouncy castle: old-fashioned and loud, but damned good fun.

During the 1990s The Prodigy sat slightly above Underworld and The Chemical Brothers as rulers of British dance music.Yet by 2004's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned the Braintree, Essex mob had lost their way. That unremarkable album was made solely by leader Liam Howlett and largely met by indifference.

It would have been pointless trying to channel all the disparate progression electronic music has made in the last five years, so our trio have barely bothered.

What they have done is created a stonking batch of bangers that'll get fans and new converts leaping around as they listen.

The blatant, stirring calls for rebellion and anti-authority rants are still here. Check Piranha's ''They pull you under if they take a hold'', or Omen's ''The writing's on the wall/it won't go away''. Have they tried a board rubber?

Old-rave trademarks are here in spades, too. Warriors Dance, which sweeps in on a seductive snake chamer's riff, has a sped-up female vocal so old-skool it's like being pummelled in the face with a glowstick, while World's On Fire is so early 90s it wears a shellsuit.

Another highlight is Run With The Wolves: a track built around a Dave Grohl drum part. It epitomises torn metal and bright orange sparks and sounds like the soundtrack to a particularly vicious bare-knuckle robot boxing match.

Fans of Australian drum 'n' bass crew, Pendulum, will recognise familiar beats and motifs, but that's because their beloved antipodeans stole them from the Prodge in the first place.

If you want to hear where clubbing is heading, the likes of Diplo and Kid Cudi are worth checking. But for a satisfying lesson in bringing the noise taught by grandmasters, return to these twisted firestarters.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/release/fq3n

The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die
Monday, 23 Feb 2009 10:55
The Prodigy: Invaders Must Die

The electro punk kings of dance return with their fifth studio release.

Take Me To The Hospital, out February 23rd.

In a nutshell...

Raucous, rabid, retro, relentless rave.

What's it all about?

With 11 new adrenaline-fuelled tracks, the Prodigy are back with a smorgasbord of beats that want to smash your face in while convincing you that making all the world's leaders take drugs and get on the dancefloor will secure world peace.

Who's it by?

Having emerged as part of the mainstream rave sound that exploded in the early 1990s, the Prodigy firmly established themselves as the face of the chemically induced counter-culture with hits like Charly and Everybody in the Place.

The band went from strength to strength throughout the decade before disappearing towards its end, following the release of 1997's Fat of the Land.

With the exception of a mixtape-style offering from the band's creative force Liam Howlett in 1999's The Dirtchamber Sessions, the group remained out of sight until 2004's Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.

Now, Howlett returns with founder members Maxim and Keith Flint on vocal duties to remind everyone why they have always been an audiological force to be reckoned with.

As an example…

"I hear thunder but there's no rain, this kind of thunder break walls and window pane." – Thunder

Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys

Critical acclaim is something that the Prodigy have always enjoyed and even with a mixed response to their last offering, the band have always generated the interest of the press and the public.

A bombastic live act, the trio will no doubt pack venues when they tour later this year and looking at the record’s first two singles – Omen and Invaders Must Die – it would seem the band have not lost any of their firestarting capabilities.

What the others say

"You hear it once and you want to hear it all over again. It is, quite simply, the big, brilliant, dumb rave album we have secretly wanted them to make for the past ten years." - Pete Paphides, Times

"The Prodigy have produced a collection with some welcome additions to their catalogue, but it doesn't sustain the quality for the duration of the album." - Alex Lai, Contactmusic.com

So is it any good?

Looking at the Prodigy’s career from 1992's debut The Experience – which took the acid rave music of the late 80s and gave it a new twist – it could be argued the band's discography is something truly worthy of note.

However, where Music for the Jilted Generation refined the heavier elements of their sound and The Fat of the Land saw them enter the stratosphere with tracks like Firestarter, some have argued the Prodigy have since lost their way.

Largely seen as a solo project by Liam Howlett, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned failed to capitalise on what had gone before and instead sought a fresher, more innovative approach.

Happily, I can say Invaders Must Die makes no such mistake and is nothing short of a blessing to the ears. Returning to the band's rave roots in tracks like Take Me to the Hospital, such reminiscences still manage to sound fresher than ever.

Thunder recalls 1994's Voodoo People and elsewhere the sound of The Experience echoes throughout – which is definitely no bad thing.

But that is not to say the record is without its problems; tracks like Piranha and Colours feel a little bit phoned-in and the albums swaggering Primal Scream-style climax Stand Up feels a bit out of place.

Overall, the spirit of The Prodigy is very much alive in Invaders Must Die, only time will tell if everybody in the place will agree.

8/10

Noel Mellor
http://www.inthenews.co.uk/entertainmen ... 271748.htm