The Prodigy – Music For The Jilted Generation

I seem to have a variant that isn't listed - EMI UDEN 4841012 @ 2 2-1-10-NL

Anyone seen this before?

Motorhead got cred for making music that spoke to both punks and metalheads (apparently that was a big thing back in the 70’s) but The Prodigy somehow managed to make f**king TECHNO that appealed to fans of Nirvana, Bon Jovi, Cannibal Corpse and goddamn NKOTB alike. Hats off to that. RIP Keith!

That's strange. I bought it on Amazon. I have the exact same records, but in a gatefold sleeve.

That's strange. I bought it on Amazon. I have the exact same records, but in a gatefold sleeve.

Jilted
adjective
(of a lover or spouse) rejected or cast aside, especially abruptly or heartlessly.

After the success of their first album, Experience, it would have been easy for The Prodigy to churn out more Breakbeat rave anthems. I don't think many people would begrudge them either if they went down that road. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. However, Liam Howlett chose another road, probably called Fuck This We're Doing Something Different Street. On Independence Day 1994, The Prodigy dropped their sophomore effort, the curiously titled, Music For The Jilted Generation. But is the double platinum record that David Bowie calls "an amazing album" really as legendary as people claim? Short answer: yes, long answer.......

The start of the album tells you up front what's happening with fuck all subtlely. For me I really like the typewriter as part of the back drop, an ancient artifact I have fond memories of, nicely immortalised here. Also Intro is a good intro for a DJ set.

Break & Enter is the first track on display and firmly sets the tone for the rest of the album. With little to no knowledge of Breakbeat Jungle Techno at the time of purchase, the slightly off centre time signature of the drum pattern immediately stuck out to me. After a lull in proceedings this grungy heavy handed synth line takes over. However, a more engaging synth riff riding that fine line between the light and the dark takes centre stage. Squeaky stabs and this wonderful rolling synth line join in on the action dominating play in the second half. There's another tasty rolling synth melody towards the end. The Baby D sample is good, did Liam Howlett have to do his remix of Casanova to use the sample or is it the other way around? The glass breaking sample throughout is surprisingly effective. Some people question Break & Enter's duration, but with the number of interesting sounds smashed into the sequencer, it's still a pretty good start and retains some of the rave elements from Experience.

The same cannot be said about Their Law, a complete change of direction, and a view to the future. Of all the songs on this second effort by The Prodigy, this one was my least favourite, mainly due to my stringent apathy towards Rock music. With age comes wisdom. Over the last 30 years I've learnt to appreciate it for what it is, a massive one finger salute to John Major’s Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 and a harsh goodbye to Charly. Overall, its a fairly interesting splicing of Hip Hop, Electronica and Punk Rock. The accompanying Prodigy VHS is called Electronic Punks, and Their Law really does fit that title. The fusion of sharp Techno sounds and remorseless Punk Rock is something to admire, and you have to give Liam Howlett credit for doing something that may garner (un)warranted criticism. Also I do wonder if The Prodigy were inspired by the Beastie Boys and their albums Check Your Head and more specifically, Ill Communication. Their similar change of direction cannot be ignored. This all lead to a well known beef between the two legendary bands over Smack My Bitch Up and the Reading Festival of 1998..... The first and only time I'd heard of British Pop Will Eat Itself, although their song Ich Bin Ein Auslander may confuse Germans and Australians....

Normal programming resumes with Full Throttle, and fuck me its awesome! Those breathless basslines, brooding tribal drums and bass bits and Liam tapping on those milk bottles, well that's what it sounded like to me! The first significant breakdown contains an apprehensive piano melody that is atmospheric but totally killer in design. The farting but dead serious synth stabs are also really good, with that glorious build up somewhere in between, and holy moly those piano key drops are cool. My only complaint is that its hard to DJ mix with that last outburst at the end, choose your cue point wisely. I rediscovered this gem when DJ Panic, a Hardcore Gabber DJ from Rotterdam, played it on one of his mixtapes. I love Full Throttle and its my favourite song on this album, despite so so many to choose from. It slightly horrifies me that Liam Howlett considered taking Full Throttle off the album due to it going over its run time. Rhythm Of Life was not so lucky....

If Their Law was jarring sonically, Voodoo People is a cleaner transition and a far superior product of Rock and Techno music. Lance Riddler's guitar riffs (based off Nirvana's Very Ape) really gives the song the testicular fortitude that makes Voodoo People memorable, and that's coming from a dude who doesn't really like Rock music. Can we take a moment to enjoy those punchy drum kicks, damn they sound good. That echoing bassline and crawling voodoo sound effect is fantastic but that razor sharp synth melody is the real MVP. The video clip is equally intense, the boys went out of their way here. How Keith Flint fits into that suitcase, I'll never know! One of the biggest Prodigy tracks ever made, with a tasty Dust (Chemical) Brothers remix. There's something nice about The Prodigy sampling Nirvana: two of the biggest bands of the 90's and adored by Gen X'ers.

Speedway, Fastlane, that Grand Prix intro, upon an initial guess, its 9/6:24 minutes of motor racing masturbation, but that's not really the full picture here. There's several driving keyboard elements employed by Liam Howlett early on and when played together it makes for entertaining ride. It has a Broken Beat Trance feel to it, taking some cues from German Hard Trance but still being its own beast, and to that end its rather enthralling. There's still debate as to what Fastlane is. And Side A on the cassette slowly fades with this ultra relaxing ambient sound..............

.......Ejecting the tape and flipping it over to Side B, that lingering ambient sound fades back into the picture. It has that futuristic sci-fi feel to it, as someone who loves science fiction, its quite enjoyable. Before the drop there's an open hat synth line and after the drop there's a sound I can only best describe as an electronically distorted vinyl scratch. Those drum rolls add a certain intensity to the track. Continuing the cinematic theme, another movie-esque Pad pops up majestically and the vinyl scratch is slightly altered. Squashing more samples into the sequencer is a nice female "yeah yeah yeah?" vocal plus that Poltergeist III sample is effective. It's a creative mixture of a few different styles blended together with precision by Liam Howlett. Geez, it even samples Moby - Thousand. Like a number of good movies, there's a sequel to The Heat (The Energy), called Goa on the Voodoo People single, which is a lovely Acid remix!

Following on from the downtempo trajectory of Their Law, is the final single off Jilted Generation, Poison. I always thought this was trippy Hip Hop, although I don't know if it fits the Trip Hop definition. As someone who listens to Hardcore Gabber, hearing those double time drum rolls instantly stands out to me. It works well with the slow Hip Hop beat. Speaking of which, I've definitely heard that beat before, or maybe Howlett was clever enough to create his own 808 kicks. There's a number of crafty sounds on top of each to create a, dare I say it, Poisonous concoction. That bass kick is filthy! There's this Industrial sheet of sound that is noticeably piercing and on the flipside there's a very quiet "underground" sample underneath everything. This lays down a platform for the centrepiece of Poison, that hypnotic synth line and Maxim's vocals. Considering he's a MC, I was expecting more from him, but its perfectly serviceable. The videoclip to Poison makes the song dirty, grimy and far more Punk Rock, poor Keith suffering for his art once again, hope he had a good shower after that! The sound of Poison and it being the last videoclip for the album shows the direction The Prodigy were taking heading into The Fat Of The Land.

In stark contrast, the next track is the dynamic rave anthem, No Good (Start The Dance). Alongside Full Throttle, No Good for me sounds like the natural progression of the music made on Experience. Still Breakbeat Rave style but ever so slightly different. Those booming laser gun synth lines are a good start. The main synth melody though is classic Liam Howlett ravey goodness. Somewhere between uplifting and solemn. Those blunt stabs are quite good too. And then there's the Kelly Charles vocal sample. It does sound good here, and no doubt it gets a lot of people singing, including myself! Having said that, Liam Howlett wasn't sure about the sample and never really used female vocals again. It shows how much The Prodigy wanted to distance themselves from the rave scene, and Liam's forward thinking view of music. That is illustrated clearly in the videoclip with a half naked Liam smashing a wall with a sledge hammer. Great song! Interesting to note, there's a CJ Bolland remix to No Good. CJ Bolland would later be accused of sampling/ripping off Poison for his track Sugar Is Sweeter.

Weirdly enough, the foursome thought to start off their new album with One Love, a song they didn't like, barely made the cut, they didn't want to appear in the video, and only appears as an edit for album purposes. Well there's not a lot of Love here. Despite the full on Hardcore Techno feel of the track, with all those tasty Techno rave elements, it should be a sure fire hit, and yet I'm kinda complaining about it. The Prodigy's failings is every EDM bands' best effort, and yet Liam Howlett was that close to dropping One Love and had the foresight to edit it. I guess XL Recordings insisted the first single should appear on the album. The main reason I like this song is because it appears in the 1995 movie, Hackers.

The Narcotic Suite Trilogy. 3 Kilos is by far the most laid back tune of them all. Some people might have a whinge over Their Law, but this one negates any of that. The Prodigy were chillin' like a villain and had the audacity to incorporate the sexiest flute melody you'll ever hear by Phillip Bent. The rest of the song is like a lucid dream, that intergalactic arpeggio and those deep sound effects. 3 Kilos is a nice song to chill out to.

I always thought Skylined was The Prodigy's response to German (hard) Trance that was fairly popular at the time. I have to say, its a bloody good response! After a lengthy intro which sounds like a didgeridoo, an epic Pad melody gets the track going. The vibrating stab, that pronounced "steam train" sound effect and the quick riff underneath. It's probably why, out of all the songs on the album, Paul Oakenfold played Skylined in his Essential Mix. Maybe that's the reason it got released on the Minefields record. I like how you think the track is fading out to finish and then BANG we're back into it for another minute.

Finally, we have Claustrophobic Sting. In retrospect, it's a severe contrast to go from epic Trance to what is an intense and relentless exercise in Acidic Jungle Techno. It's probably why I've always found it unnerving. I remember the first time I heard it, it felt like I'd endured a bad dream. And because the album ends, you sit there in silence contemplating what you've just listened to. The dark thick atmosphere of the track is amazing in of itself. Those vocal samples really work well. Before Claustrophobic Sting, I'd heard the TB-303 used in an uplifting/melodic way, this is the first time I'd heard the instrument being applied in such a ruthless manner. And honestly it sounds brilliant alongside the rolling Amens and those drum breaks in the background. Even that breakdown after five minutes is a little creepy. The 303 is played at full tilt till the very end, and thus ends one of the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. 🅼🆈 🅼🅸🅽🅳 🅸🆂 🅶🅻🅾🆆🅸🅽🅶!

Well, that was a rather nice release by XL Recordings. :) And what did the chin stroking self appointed arbiters of music rate it out of five stars, well, mostly fours and fives. It was critically acclaimed, and rightly so! I wonder if it vindicated the band's change in direction, and continue to be electronic punks? According to Stuart Heygarth, he was paid 400 quid for the striking album cover. The painting by Les Edwards is pretty awesome and shows in no uncertain terms what they were doing both politically and musically. The shout outs were important too, that list of DJs helped me understand who to check out as I was taking a deep dive into underground rave music in 94/95. Music For The Jilted Generation is one of the greatest Electronic albums ever made, and dumping a truckload of evidence onto the fact that Liam Howlett is a musical genius. It's an important moment for Generation X and shows how exciting this music was/is and the limitless possibilities it had to offer. Proud member of the Jilted Generation.

Rest In Peace Keith Flint.

Gatefold sleeve and a great pressing. I've played this against the original and it stands up - good choice of repress to get.

I had the cassette, the cd, now the vinyl. Play it into the ground

I used to own this on tape, prodigy at their best!

Also this is a repress of the OG, uses the same plates as the 1st press Variant 1, runout matches, non gatefold.

This sounds about as good as I could have ever hoped this could sound on vinyl. Spacious, punchy, and very little surface noise. I was a little skeptical about buying it because a lot of times this type of music doesn’t lend itself very well to vinyl but this thing sounds great. Found it cheap and didn’t hesitate. If this record is a favorite for you (as it is for me) then I recommend.

probably, THE album of my life! Bought on day of release the 4th of July 1994 and up to this day it has not lost one gram of it´s energy and originality. This really pushed the boundaries of electronic music and slammed down the wall between rock and electronic music. Not that it had not been before but not at this level. The departure from their first album was big and strong, although some elements remain, the Prodigy elements. Still their best album up to date. 1994, what a year in music!