Prodigy* – The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One

Party-rocking studio mix of pounding break beats, punk, funk, rock and rap from the '60s to the '90s, created by Liam Howlett using just two turntables, a mixer and an ADAT recorder. There are two slightly different versions: the original was played on BBC radio's "Breezeblock" show in 1998, but certain tracks were replaced for the commercial release. Both versions are great: the original has a better opening and is more diverse, whilst the commercial release has a few innovative additions and fixes some weaknesses.

Liam's mix reconstructs a range of music into his own b-boy image, with his break beat reworkings of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix and The Charlatans particular highlights. Hip hop classics get mixed together with their original samples (Beastie Boys' "Time To Get Ill" gets an extended dose of its Barry White sample), disparate genres collide (Sex Pistols' "New York" morphs into Fatboy Slim's "Punk To Funk"), MCs are made to battle (Biz Markie versus Beastie Boys), tracks get extended (e.g., "The Mexican" and "Funky Nassau"), and classic break beats get reconstructed (Gaz's "Sing Sing", Dynamic Corvettes' "Funky Music Is The Thing"). Liam adds some simple scratching, but his strengths are his song selection, track reconstruction, set sequencing and quick-mixing.

The main difference between the two versions is the opening sequence: the original features a spectacular remix of The Beatles' "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (mashed with Dynamix II and Hardnoise), which is sadly replaced on the commercial release with less spectacular tracks by Liam and Rasmus. Elsewhere, the beefed-up reworking of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Miss Lover" makes way for the equally good "Been Caught Stealing" by Jane's Addiction, and rappers Run DMC and Biz Markie are substituted for KRS One and JVC Force. The commercial release improves on the original by adding Primal Scream's "Kowalski" as a backing track to classic raps by JVC Force and the Beastie Boys, as well as by cutting down "Bug Powder Dust" and removing Chuck D from "Radio Babylon".

There's not much respite from the high-octane tempo, which some more varied dynamics might have remedied. The mix also gets tedious in the middle, with the KLF, Frankie Bones and Meat Beat Manifesto sequence overplayed, and the Beastie Boys sounding like chipmunks as they try to keep up with some blistering Propellerheads big beat.

But the set soon recovers, with a well-mixed section of punk, hip hop and break beats, and Renegade Soundwave's "Ozone Breakdown" reinvented as a perfect build-up to The Beginning Of The End's "Funky Nassau". The mix culminates with The Jimmy Castor Bunch's classic funk track, "It's Just Begun". Perhaps a cruel way to end the mix, as twenty years on and there's been no Volume Two, but Liam could be forgiven for needing time to top this mix of a lifetime. ★★★★★