The Prodigy are alive. Back from the graveyard. after ‘the fat of the land’ this is a resurrection. 10 years later but still pure and powerful. Again with Keith and Maxim on the vocals. Recorded in their own label ‘take me to the hospital’. Great beats and old fashion dance techno music. I become younger, I remember my youth. I feel the energy. I can dance till the end of the album, and I just press repeat to keep the spirit alive. “Omen” reminds me something from “no good” and “voodoo people”. I can’t believe the energy of this release. This album is great. I enjoy the beats soooo much. “Thunder” strikes me down. Unreal experimental dance music. Fantastic sound production. This track is the new “their law” or “fire”. Rock smell and Grohl on the drums. “Colours” is extremely intelligent and it can push you violently to the dance floor. “Take me to the hospital” shouts everybody is in the place, loudly. “Warriors dance” mix pure 90s rave with psychedelic vibes. Vocals from 80s pop dance hits and an old atmosphere. You got to “run with the wolves” with a dance punk midlands fear. The release set world on fire. RATM from Liam’s machines. “Piranhas” “stand up” just to dance and bring the party to an end.A synth brit pop hit to close this diamond after the bloody teeth of the shark.

Since the heady days of punk, few bands have grasped the mantle set by the Sex Pistols and managed to make themselves vilified by the tabloid press and championed by originality seeking anarchic youth. 1997’s “The Fat of the Land” hardcore electro punk sound and provocative titles secured suitable notoriety and fame. Now 12 years on they have released their 5th studio album and continue to vibrate our intestines with extreme drum and bass, but it all now seems much more accessible and instantly likeable.

The album starts off with the title track’s deep pounding bass loop before it all kicks off big time. The throbbing vibes will rip the arsehole out of your standard issue apple earphones and I had to abandon this album on my normal sleepy morning listening session on the train, as it was just far too jarring. In fact I think you can probably only legitimately listen to this album at 6am when you haven’t actually been to bed yet.

I’m also not convinced that listening in the car was a particularly good idea either as my driving speed seemed to increase erratically with the beats per minute. Perhaps video game developers could take advantage of this trait and use some tracks on their next racing game.

However, once the wife buggered off to Guides for the evening, I was able to crank the amplifier up to 11, and start to appreciate what’s on offer.

“Thunder” adds some Bob Marley styled reggae vocal vignettes liberally distributed amongst a slower thumping sequence.

“Colours” builds on the standard heavy drum and bass rhythms by overlaying keyboards that are pure Dave Greenfield from the Stranglers.

“Run With The Wolves” features the absurdly talented Dave Grohl knocking four bells of shite out his drum kit.

Liam Howlett must have spat out the banana skin he was smoking when The Klaxons won the Mercury Prize in 2007. Those pretentious, genre-grabbing wannabes had probably never been to a rave in their lives, let alone a ‘nu-rave.’ After 2004’s Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned didn’t do too well, possibly due to having guest vocalists instead of the usual vocal fire of regulars Maxim and Keith Flint, it seems as if the band have gone back to their rave roots for new album Invaders Must Die.

In preparation for this album, it seems Howlett has listened to first album Experience on a constant loop, whilst at the same time ingesting every single soundtrack to every Commodore 64, Spectrum ZX and Atari ST game ever made. It seems as if some of the tracks slip these in almost subliminally, like in Colours, World’s On Fire and Omen.

Take Me To The Hospital harks back to the days of SL2 and The Awesome 3, but the modern incarnation sounds so much better, bass-heavy and driven, and ultimately sinister. For me, the highlight is Warrior’s Dance, which is like a No Good (Start The Dance) for the new (jilted) generation, replaced with the techno rock sound that only this band can pull off. It makes you yearn for those nights where you were monged off your face in a field at 5am, dancing like a damned fool. Run With The Wolves is a more visceral assault, like an angry Voodoo People. If you look hard enough, the references to the past are there in every song, but as a record nothing else sounds quite like it. Who knew music rooted in the old school could be so fresh?



Naysayers will be queuing up to point out faults, and there are some, but only a few. As good as all the tracks are, they are all one-paced affairs that could seamlessly merge into each other, as some tracks in the latter half of the album sound similar to others. It’s not like The Fat Of The Land, where no track sounded like another, because the influences on the songs were separate rather than all lumped in together. But with songs as good as Invaders Must Die and the brilliant Omen, it’s hard to argue.

Now, where did I put that old World Dance record bag and smiley face T-shirt?

http://noiz.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/prodigy-the-invaders-must-die-2009/

When you're walking across campus with your earphones plugged in, have you ever imagined that the song flooding into your ears is the theme song to whatever you're doing? It's like you're being filmed as the central character in a movie, with your MP3 player providing the movie's theatrical score.

If you have, then the Prodigy's newest album, Invaders Must Die, will seem less like the theatrical score to a college student walking morosely to his next class and more like a cheesy Mentos commercial that, strangely enough, involves kicking ass as a protagonist in a 1980s arcade game. The game's premise? Invaders Must Die.

The album comes off as a 1980s video game as it retrofits old synthetic sounds that seem culled from "Space Invaders" or "Galaga." The Prodigy then uses these revitalized sounds to compose up-beat, energetic and campy songs such as "Omen." Yet the Prodigy raises the level of adrenaline as the album progresses, with intense vocals and fast beats, making the listener much less intent on popping a Mentos than on punching his foe in the face. In fact, the album starts to sound like the score to a dark, edgy action movie, like "Blade."

Although the album is essentially electronica, the Prodigy were not afraid to experiment, especially in the second half of the album, with segments of minimalist ambient soundscapes and ska pervading a few of the songs. Yet the album retains its coherence and exudes a raw, irresistible energy.

Released five years after their last album, Invaders Must Die does not disappoint: It isn't your standard hypnotic, catatonic fanfare. If you are looking for an album that will get your heart racing and your fists pumping, then look no further.

-Matthew Peters

My history with The Prodigy goes back to their early days in the mid 90's. Before I made the move to being a fan of more danceable beats, I was all about the Industrial scene - Skinny Puppy, Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, FLA, Minsitry, and so on. To some degree, it was acts like The Prodigy, with their harder, more aggressive sound, that helped bridge my tastes into the broader electronic scene.

I still remember when I first heard 'Music for the Jilted Generation', with the iconic tracks 'Voodoo People' and 'One Love' becoming almost universally known, and then later on the bombtrack 'Firestarter'.

For any act that manages to stay around for nearly twenty years, there inevitably comes that awful fork in the road...do we evolve our sound, and perhaps alienate our early fans, or stick to our classic sound and risk stagnating?

But great acts manage to play it a little differently...they can update their sound, without ever giving up the original elements that made them great. In the case of The Prodigy, being a little ahead of your time doesn't hurt.

Their latest effort, 'Invaders Must Die', captures much of the classic Prodigy aggression while giving it some modern tweaks. There are elements of drum'n'bass, electro, big beat, breaks, techno, and early 'rave' mixed in with the heavier industrial and punk elements that sum up to make the trademark Prodigy sound.

With 2004's 'Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' they started to tone down their classic techno and big-beat sound for something a little more electro, but with Invaders they've managed to bring back some of the retro early rave sounds into the mix without sounding like an old-school throwback. For example, the track 'Take me to the Hospital' starts out with classic rave synth stabs and pitch shifted vocal samples, but then they mix it in with heavy, distorted big beats.

Definitely recommend picking up the album when it's released in the US on March 3rd, 2009.

Just found this on altsounds:

"Invaders Must Die – The Prodigy

When The Prodigy released the free download, Invaders Must Die there was a degree of skepticism in the air, had The Prodigy really lost it? Sounding like a cross between Pendulum and Justice, the record failed to give us that fresh sound that The Prodigy are famous for.

Following a tragic fourth album, Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned, fans were hoping that the band, who were once hailed the kings of dance music, had something better to offer. They did, but it’s not without it’s flaws.

Let’s focus on the positive to start. Omen, Take Me To The Hospital, Warrior’s Dance, World’s On Fire and Stand Up, stand out as brilliant pieces of music. There’s something for the 90s fans in World’s On Fire, when the rave piano makes a comeback and in Take Me To The Hospital with some brilliant old school synth lines. On the other hand, Omen and Warrior’s Dance bring back something from the Fat Of The Land era with the heavy sounds we heard in Firestarter and Breathe.

So what’s the problem with this album? Well, the first thing is, I haven’t mentioned the other tracks. Why? They’re forgettable. What’s the problem with them? My theory is that these tracks were written to have vocal parts, which isn’t really how it works. With the classics like Firestarter and Breathe, the intention was never to have vocals on those tracks, it just so happened that they sounded good on them.

The second problem is something I mentioned in the positive side of this argument, the tracks sound like stuff they’ve done before. That’s fine, but it’s not what The Prodigy are about, compare their first album, Experience, with Fat Of The Land and you’re surprised that it’s the same band, the fresh sound is lost on this album. My favourite track on this album was Stand Up just because it was a new sound for The Prodigy.

And that isn’t the only flaw with the new tracks. They’re good in their own ways, that’s true, but there are just no Firestarter’s, no Smack My Bitch Up’s or Their Law’s. This album isn’t going to shake the music scene in the same way it’s predecessors did.

Overall, this is the album that Always Outnumbered Never Outgunned should have been, take that album away and Invader’s Must Die has a pretty fresh sound. Also, I feel Liam Howlett overcompensated for the lack of Keith Flint and Maxim in the last album by using their vocals just too much. This album could have scored a solid 4 stars. Instead, the lack of originality, combined with the lack of exceptional tunes gives it an average 3 stars. The Prodigy haven’t completely lost it, but they haven’t really found it either."