Release Date: 21 September 1992
Song Count: 9
Rating: 8.0/10
Description:
Not to be confused with The Prophet, a Dutch DJ from an adjacent music scene whom I've reviewed in the past - The Prodigy is a electronic music band from the UK that primarily used to make breakbeat and rave tracks, and one that has also been on my radar for a while now, especially with a very energetic drum & bass remix by British-Australian band Pendulum of one relatively well-known song of The Prodigy, "Voodoo People", that garnered quite a bit of worldwide attention and landed underneath my metaphorical music magnifying glass. The album presented here today is their debut, Experience, after the initial foundation of the band two years previous.
Even though a lot of what defined the group's later sound wouldn't come until many years later, what Experience both promises and offers is nine tracks of pure 90's breakbeat - nothing more and nothing less, which is what gives it its true power. The simplicity of a particular style of percussion accompanying electronic sounds and samples for several minutes in a row is part of the charm of old-school breakbeat, as it makes for brilliant songs to dance or at least bop one's head to without any other connotations or expectations attached to the music. The repeating soundbyte of a person yelling a short, catchy phrase on top of a fast, catchy beat isn't expecting to be treated as some deep and layered piece of art to put one into thought upon witnessing it; it's just here to provide one thing: unfiltered fun.
Though there are far from any blindspots in terms of lesser enjoyable tracks in this album, the songs that by far have gotten my head moving to the beat most strongly were "Weather Experience", "Jericho", "Your Love - Remix", "Ruff In The Jungle Bizness", and "Out of Space" - and if you have noticed that these songs make up more than half of the entire thing, that is simply a testament of much enjoyment I took from Experience.
Breakbeat is simply a genre that is hard to resist as a big fan of electronic rave music, and what is being provided here is a stash of tracks of great quality that get the job more than done. Even in spite of the album being 34 years old at this point, it may just be safe to say that good music like this practically never "gets old".