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

[SR4]

[youtubehd]XMn_YFuQd-c[/youtubehd]

 

Ive still seen people lose their shit to this. One of the most epic tracks ive ever heard at dj sets.

[modey]

Yeah, it still gives me a total weird-synth-melody boner every time I hear it.. and I've had that album for around 15 years now!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

Music For the Jilted Generation is 4 me the best album of The Prodigy. I've got all The Prodigy albums, but i prefer Richard D. James. Liam & Richard have not the same style. & Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards. Richard's music is more complicated than Liam's music... But there's indeed a difference between these 2 composers, the 1 is more punk side, the other 1 is more modern classic side...

[modey]

Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards.

Really? I've never seen any footage of either of them playing live keyboards.

[BCM]

Music For the Jilted Generation is 4 me the best album of The Prodigy. I've got all The Prodigy albums, but i prefer Richard D. James. Liam & Richard have not the same style. & Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards. Richard's music is more complicated than Liam's music... But there's indeed a difference between these 2 composers, the 1 is more punk side, the other 1 is more modern classic side...

 

I think you're getting "punk" confused with having a spiky haircut and shouting.

 

the punk aesthetic is all about defying convention and being anti-establishment - something RDJ does very well - think of tracks like kpta parts 1 & 2 or "equation" etc.

 

the prodigy are in NO WAY punk - they may try to stylise themselves as such externally, but just "looking punk" by colouring your hair and getting a nosering is so un-punk it's not even funny: the prodigy are essentially a mainstream dance group.

[Mindphaser]

Music For the Jilted Generation is 4 me the best album of The Prodigy. I've got all The Prodigy albums, but i prefer Richard D. James. Liam & Richard have not the same style. & Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards. Richard's music is more complicated than Liam's music... But there's indeed a difference between these 2 composers, the 1 is more punk side, the other 1 is more modern classic side...

 

I think you're getting "punk" confused with having a spiky haircut and shouting.

 

the punk aesthetic is all about defying convention and being anti-establishment - something RDJ does very well - think of tracks like kpta parts 1 & 2 or "equation" etc.

 

the prodigy are in NO WAY punk - they may try to stylise themselves as such externally, but just "looking punk" by colouring your hair and getting a nosering is so un-punk it's not even funny: the prodigy are essentially a mainstream dance group.

C`mon man The Prodigy were Punk, Hardcore was my generations Punk and Howlett was one of the best producers in that genre. Charly, Everybody In Place, Out Of Space, No Good[start The Dance], Voodoo People, all top tunes within the genre, but also great exciting top ten pop tunes as well. The deserves guy a lot respect for that, and on a personal level I proper buzzed off those tunes when I was a kid first getting into music.

[Soloman Tump]

I am a complete prodigy nerd. Sure, my musical tastes have changed somewhat since MFTJG and FOTL when I lived and breathe-d (lol, gettit?) everything they did, but they still kick fucking ass and as a live show their energy is rarely matched by anyone else out there.

 

Also, Liam did this

 

Which also shows what an awesome range of inspirations the prodigy music comes from. Still waiting for volume 2 please Liam!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

Music For the Jilted Generation is 4 me the best album of The Prodigy. I've got all The Prodigy albums, but i prefer Richard D. James. Liam & Richard have not the same style. & Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards. Richard's music is more complicated than Liam's music... But there's indeed a difference between these 2 composers, the 1 is more punk side, the other 1 is more modern classic side...

 

I think you're getting "punk" confused with having a spiky haircut and shouting.

 

the punk aesthetic is all about defying convention and being anti-establishment - something RDJ does very well - think of tracks like kpta parts 1 & 2 or "equation" etc.

 

the prodigy are in NO WAY punk - they may try to stylise themselves as such externally, but just "looking punk" by colouring your hair and getting a nosering is so un-punk it's not even funny: the prodigy are essentially a mainstream dance group.

C`mon man The Prodigy were Punk, Hardcore was my generations Punk and Howlett was one of the best producers in that genre. Charly, Everybody In Place, Out Of Space, No Good[start The Dance], Voodoo People, all top tunes within the genre, but also great exciting top ten pop tunes as well. The deserves guy a lot respect for that, and on a personal level I proper buzzed off those tunes when I was a kid first getting into music.

Exact! The Prodigy likes mixing the rock, punk styles, etc. I don't say it because of their hairstyle, but by the listening of their music. And then "kpta" r a noise tracks, nothing 2 do with the rock or punk. Also for the track "equation" which is only the pure electronic music side IDM. The Prodigy doesn't make Braindance or IDM...

I know there very well in music 2 say of what I think of it, it's up 2 you 2 contradict me, but know that I don't put labels on the artists, but in what they make musically...

The only ones which is punk-rock-IDM-drum'n'bass-breakbeat-drill'n'bass is Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin & Arched Maid Via RDJ by AFX...

 

Richard plays better than Liam in keyboards.

Really? I've never seen any footage of either of them playing live keyboards.

Listen The Prodigy & listen Aphex Twin, & u'll C the difference! Richard's musical complexity gets better with regard to what plays Liam... Imagine Richard's partitions/scores and partitions/scores of Liam: big 1 difference but if u r not a musician I can't help u more...

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

I am a complete prodigy nerd. Sure, my musical tastes have changed somewhat since MFTJG and FOTL when I lived and breathe-d (lol, gettit?) everything they did, but they still kick fucking ass and as a live show their energy is rarely matched by anyone else out there.

 

Also, Liam did this

 

Which also shows what an awesome range of inspirations the prodigy music comes from. Still waiting for volume 2 please Liam!

is out in 1999, not sure there is a second volume... I've got it, & i believe that the 2nd volume may b Back to Mine under his moniker Liam Prodigy with a new track of The Prodigy : Wake the Fuck Up

[BCM]

"kpta" r a noise tracks, nothing 2 do with the rock or punk

 

again, i think you're confused as to what "punk" really is - it's not necessarily a style of music, just because something has guitars in it compared to a pure noise composition does not make one more punk than the other. punk is an ethos, a way of doing things or an approach to the creation of art, not really a type of music per se.

[Guest sljiva]

Aphex was signed to a major label, where's the punk in that?

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

i'm sorry, punk is also a style of music, the real word is punk-rock

[BCM]

yes - punk rock = style of music

 

punk = ethos

 

therefore if you want to get down to brass tacks, i guess the prodigy are more "punk rock" than rdj. but that's fine with me - avril lavigne is more punk rock than rdj.

 

Aphex was signed to a major label, where's the punk in that?

 

so were the sex pistols? dunno what you're getting at?

[Ivan Ooze]

FIYYAAAAH!

[Dan C]

NOISE ISTHEH NEW PUNK!!

[Aphex_Squarepusher_Twin]

yes - punk rock = style of music

 

punk = ethos

 

therefore if you want to get down to brass tacks, i guess the prodigy are more "punk rock" than rdj. but that's fine with me - avril lavigne is more punk rock than rdj.

Yeah, i understand u, i'm really sorry, in France, we r used 2 shortening the words, instead of saying 'punk-rock', we say simply 'punk' but it's true, we tend 2 put confusions, similar 4 'Gothic' while it's at 1st about a fashion or about a subculture/ethos... ;-)

[BCM]

exactement

[Guest sljiva]

Aphex was signed to a major label, where's the punk in that?

 

so were the sex pistols? dunno what you're getting at?

 

I'm getting at your definition of punk as an ethos that never really existed. As you said Sex Pistols and Ramones and The Clash too were signed to majors, and all of them were making music for mass consumption and their anti-establishment stance was just a gimmick. In fact Throbbing Gristle has more to do with punk than punk bands themselves, but they too were far from real anarchy and anti-establishment.

 

So it's funny that you gave AFX some credit before, when in fact The Prodigy's refusal of TOTP and controversial music and videos that were being banned extensively has more to do with punk than anything AFX has ever done.

[Soloman Tump]

^ Also the fact that they stayed with XL Recordings all that time is pretty decent of them to be fair. It's only recently they started up their own offshoot label to handle their own releases.

[BCM]

 

Throbbing Gristle has more to do with punk than punk bands themselves

 

The Prodigy's refusal of TOTP and controversial music and videos that were being banned extensively has more to do with punk than anything AFX has ever done.

 

totally agree about throbbing gristle and i would say that afx has a lot more in common with throbbing gristle than does the prodigy.

 

also i don't recall the prodigy ever refusing to go on TOTP - i've seen them on it before. maybe they refused once or something but they've definitely been on it. the "controversial" music videos by the prodigy were just PR hype done for mass effect and marketing purposes - but i don't blame the prodigy for this, much the same has been done with videos for afx's music - but videos are not really by the artist, just a marketing vehicle sorted out by the record company.

 

i can't really think of anything the prodigy has done that is particularly punk - they've done some stuff that could be called, or associated with punk-rock though as i said earlier.

 

afx has done loads of punk things - playing a harcore noise set when supporting bjork etc. look, i'm not even trying to say rdj is punk or anything, just that he is more so than the prodigy who are really just a popular dance ensemble. nothing wrong with that and i like a lot of the prodigy's music - just saying let's just not get too carried away with their artistic merits and claim they are something they aren't.

[SR4]

"kpta" r a noise tracks, nothing 2 do with the rock or punk

 

again, i think you're confused as to what "punk" really is - it's not necessarily a style of music, just because something has guitars in it compared to a pure noise composition does not make one more punk than the other. punk is an ethos, a way of doing things or an approach to the creation of art, not really a type of music per se.

 

like distributing your own unique style of rave music independently to build reputation? Prodigy was very much a DIY organization for a long time.

 

RDJ sells music rights to businesses for use in commercials. Can we please not argue over what is and is not "punk"? That's part of the reason the movement consumes itself.

 

Anyway:

 

-Voodoo People

-Jericho

 

These two tracks alone will forever earn my respect. You don't get many bangers like these anymore.

[Soloman Tump]

DA RIDDIM

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxuA8iQ4DcQ&feature=related

[delet...]

afx has done loads of punk things - playing a harcore noise set when supporting bjork etc.

 

That's not punk, that's just annoying.

 

Unless in that case you were meaning punk, as in being a little punk, as opposed to actively living the 'punk' ethos. Actually perhaps in this example you were using the punk rock sense of punk. Ala using shock for twisted personal amusement and notoriety would be punk rock.

 

;-p

 

 

heh,

 

[vamos scorcho]

I don't think it's a stretch to say The Prodigy were the Sex Pistols for the "Jilted Generation" (Playstation generation) [if only because the Sex Pistols weren't really genuinely punk were they... more of an image/aesthetic than anything 'political'] - and it was huge

 

I don't necessarily think the comparison in the title is solid, I meant more to draw attention to the fact that their early music was all made on hardware similar to what James was using, and that Howlett is similarly a single minded producer who pulled all of his tracks from the depths of his mind.

 

I do genuinely think that there are moments on the first two Prodigy albums which reach very high peaks of musical artistry/creativity. I'm not saying it's introspective music, but there are some deep things going on in tracks like Speedway and Your Love, etc. There is a spiritual quality to the music, and also certain elements are clearly rather abstract.

[AnalogueCreamPie]

The Prodigy are good at rocking a stadium-sized festival audience, but it's kinda like how Coldplay are Radiohead for the average joe (AFX obviously being Radiohead). Prodigy make very easily digestible stadium-dance, whereas RDJ's music is deeper & more visceral. I have to agree with one of the above posters that early Prodigy tracks haven't aged very well, with RDJs music, even the early stuff that might sound dated in terms of sound quality has a timeless feel.