The Prodigy broke free of the old UK Hardcore scene that they were a large part of, with this album. It’s also a very good EDM album, and has aged very well and has its own sound. Let’s dive in and have a listen to this masterpiece. It’s also a semi political album as well.

We begin with the dark sounding Intro with a typewriter and some dark sounding electronic textures. It’s a great piece to hear, short and interesting.

The first tune is Break & Enter. It’s an excellent introduction to the album, with the sound of glass smashing and a dirty, dark electronic riff. This album is completely different to the previous album by The Prodigy and kicks ass. The beats are bigger, the textures are more unique and the breakdowns are intense. This piece in particular sounds dark and eerie. A great piece, even though it goes well over five minutes. A must listen.

Their Law (feat. Pop Will Eat Itself) is the best electronic political piece you will ever hear. It has drum and bass style breakbeats, chugging metal guitars and that refrain, “Fuck ’em and their law!”. It is definitely a political piece, although main man Liam Howlett denies this. The UK Conservative government implement a law around this time preventing underground raves and parties from occurring, and The Prodigy reacted very well in this respect. A classic tune.

Full Throttle is a more upbeat and textured piece that sounds mega. It contains some truly great samples and instrumentation. The laughter is actually sampled from the original Star Wars movies (it’s Emperor Palpatine laughing). The piano is a wonderful riff throughout and it’s never a dull listen. Truly great, maybe some of today’s EDM artists can take note of pieces like this more often? We hope so.

The hit single Voodoo People actually has the Very Ape Nirvana riff, but like people really recognised that. The piece is great though. Some great breakbeats and samples here brought this song into the charts. It’s awesome, and a trip as well. A must listen for fans of The Prodigy. It’s another rather long piece, but never dull for a moment.

The next piece, Speedway (From Fastlane) is a great piece designed for high speed driving. It has some wicked sounds in it, mainly car sort of noises. There are more pounding beats, plenty of acid squelches and science fiction sort of sounds. The breakdowns are intense, and this album is very consistent throughout. A great job here done by Liam Howlett. It sounds urgent all the way through.

The Heat (The Energy) is a good piece to return us back to more ambient style sounds here. It’s a really intelligent sort of album this one, with twists and turns you’d never expect. Case in point, tunes like this. There are liquid and surreal sounds throughout, a great listen. It then morphs into a good dance tune. A great listen all the way through.

Poison was a big hit. It begins with cocaine being chopped up by Liam Howlett. Yes, really. It then kicks off as a killer EDM classic. This may be even the best piece off the album. It was designed to be a punchy, slower than drum and bass sort of thing. It works well and the sampled phrases and the beats just make this a classic tune. Mint. The Prodigy really come into their own here.

The next tune is an older one from this era, but it’s great. No Good (Start The Dance) is a great piece which is a transitional piece between the first two albums by The Prodigy. It’s a very good piece indeed, and sounds killer. It has some great sound effects here, and is fast and pacing. Nice effort here. It sounds a little cheesy and dated, but so what? It’s a good listen.

Following up is One Love (Edit) which is a good tune, although the vocals at the start are super annoying. But then it gets 10 times better, with some likely drug influenced acid noises and pounding beats. Proves that even a bad sounding tune at the start can get better over time. Unfortunately the vocal samples ruin this piece as it is reoccurring.

The Narcotic Suite:

3 Kilos begins this three piece song kit without any vocal samples. But it’s mega. It’s sounds like the song was done under the influence of a lot of drugs. It’s a chill piece with flute and other great melodies in it. A more kind sounding piece than the stuff beforehand. It ends with some strange sound effects, including some frequency modified sounding wind. Excellent.

Skylined is a more concise piece from Liam Howlett’s brain and sounds much more exciting in general. It’s a non vocal piece again, but has some reassuring melodies within. It slowly builds and releases, a bit of a proto Narayan here. It transforms from structure to structure and just sounds epic. A good listen. It ends with crashing waves before entering the last piece on this album.

The last piece of the suite and album, Claustrophobic Sting, begins with creepy laughter and launches into a great sonic based and textured piece, with some really great samples here. Definitely worth listening if you can hear it. It has a vocal sample, “My mind is glowing!” which makes it seem partially psychedelic. A great tune, and we finish the album after this seven minute track.

This album brought The Prodigy closer to the mainstream of music, and gave them the success that they deserved. It’s probably better and worth more of your time than The Fat Of The Land. If you want to hear some darker EDM and want a good starting place for it, here will do. Try the More Music For The Jilted Generation if you can, a re-release with some extra goodies with this album too.

9/10