Hi everyone, I am studying Graphic Design in Brazil and my class is working with box sets from electronic music artists, I was lucky enough to steal, I mean, get... The Prodigy out of a raffle. I am very very perfectionist and I am very fond of the band so I thought I'd register here and see if anyone could give me a hand because I want to make my box set as truthful as possible. So, what I'd like to know is:

what would you love to see in a box set? I. e. What is essential to make a Prodigy box set special?

Best regards!

I can only give examples of some great boxsets that I've seen...

Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman super deluxe reissue
The Smashing Pumpkins - Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness reissue boxset

Both were made with good materials and feel solid and some thought were put into it.
They both came with unheard material, collected material spread across releases from that era, artwork (new & old) along with pictures, as well as a written behind the scenes about the whole album process. All of The Smashing Pumpkins reissue boxsets have been awesome, but the most was put into their Mellon Collie reissue.

The Invaders Must Die boxset was pretty cool as well, but could have felt more solid package-wise.
Both the Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Mellon Collie were big, vinyl-size.

For example, if The Prodigy were to re-release The Fat Of The Land boxset I would love to have all of the b-sides and remixes from the singles from that era along with unreleased material and demos that show some of the song's progression from idea to full on song and alternate takes. I would love to hear from the band about the making of the album and its tracks along with personal photos during that era. It should also be remastered properly and not brickwalled. Sadly some of The Pumpkins reissue bonus content was brickwalled. Underworld's reissue sounds absolutely amazing since they went back to the actual project files.

Wow, thanks a lot for your detailed answer Those box sets you've mentioned are pretty neat, I didn't know them. As for the Fat idea, that gave me a good clue to work with, we have to make a cut so the box has a concept, not really what I'd prefer but mostly something well grounded. I think the IMD era has already too much material (sadly I never saw that box around here, from pictures it seems awesome, good to have an opinion from someone who's actually touched it), and the two first ones already have a few things also, the least explored are AONO and TFOTL (I wouldn't like to work with something so recent as TDIME). I though about putting a box set to capture live stuff from 1997 to 2008 so I can cover those albums and focus on the energy of the band as my concept.

Underworld is releasing another reissue boxset for their album Second Toughest In The Infants in November.
The 4th disc is dedicated entirely to Born Slippy, starts with their first idea/demo and includes a bunch of alternate takes and live versions until it finally ends with the officially released version of Born Slippy we all know and love. So you'll actually get to see how the song was developed and progressed over time. I thought that was a pretty cool incite into their writing process. Would love something like that from The Prodigy.

Im a graphic designer / artist also. Done some vinyl - cd / sleeves designs (for example during studies). Will post inspiration stuff soon if u want.

But main thing - "what would you love to see in a box set?"

Not only "in" but outside First look, package design is very important (for me) - material, texture, form, design, project. Inside? For sure some rarities like unreleased tracks, live versions, bsides, demos - on vinyl with original design that fits band style etc.

First, I hope I quoted right, been such a long time since I last used a forum that maybe something stupid may happen, sorry for that.



I really like the idea of making something this unique and this reissue (the other one too) have such special stuff that kinda comes like a gift to the fans. For this project I could even "make up" things that are not available, like the ones you've mentioned for a FOTL (better) reissue, that was my first though, something like a "treasure box", you know? But then the teacher asked me to just focus on a concept like period, early career, songs with collaborations, podcasts (some people got DJs that actually have) etc... and when I mentioned that Pearl Jam has very neat boxes around only one album he was like: "that's boring" (though I disagree). It kinda crushed my whole concept, that's why I am trying to develop on live performances, I'm just not sure what specific cut to make, we can only have 5 discs in total.




That's very nice! I'd love to see what you've created The package design is also very important to me but I think I need the concept first in order to make something as customized as possible, plus we are a little restricted this semester, past classes were able to be a lot more inventive, now we have to focus more on visual stuff like booklets, promotional posters, flyers and even outdoor; the box itself shall not be extravaganza-shaped or wooden made, that sort of stuff, we have to stick to the different cardboards available and we have to glue the prints on it with all care because we cannot send the project for someone else to do, this part I agree but the material/shape part is a bit sad. Anyway, I'm trying to bring the "explosion box" idea from scrapbooking and make it work for a musical box. Ah! The vinyls! That was the first thing I had in mind, I love vinyls! But again, that's not allowed.. Just 3 to 5 discs and then you can add extra stuff if you want (souvenirs, stickers, band posters,...). But now we are just defining contents, tomorrow I have to present mines.

Another idea that helps stick with the whole live performance would be something like a Warrior's Dance Festival collection boxset.

How cool would it be to have each Prodigy set from each of their Warrior's Dance Festival performances in one huge set???

You can see where and when each WDF happened here... http://warriorsdancefestival.com/

I think there was actually 6 WDFs though, but each disc could be tailored to the country they did it at.
Then you could bring in cultural things from that region with the art along with a live photo collection.

OR...

Another idea would be a live collection where each disc is from a certain time period... different album eras.

Just spitballing ideas here, thinking out loud, throwing out suggestions.
Do as you may

I love your WDF idea! The country division works perfectly as well as the cultural thing, I could even leave Malaysia out and turn one disc into DVD, so many possibilities! Today I was rehashing (is this the right word?) over and over around the live period concept, I was thinking of joining tours of different albums to fit the 5 cds but I wasn't satisfied at all, then I got home very disappointed and read your suggestion which I totally adore, thanks so much for that!

Happy to help
Good luck, man!
I'd love to see what you come up with when this is all over.

I really appreciate the ideas you gave me and I was actually working on the WDF one. Wish I had something to show you but I have to admit I chickened out and gave up on the project when I realised it just wasn't good enough, guess it is indeed better to work with artists you don't like so you don't feel like disappointing a fan (your own self, in this case). Or maybe I'm really not good enough. Anyways, thanks for being so kind! And just for the record, I'm not a man

box set is my dream for a many many years - viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2037

The Prodigy need to re-release their albums in 24 bit audio.

i see u r mad about 24 bit audio

24 bit audio can sound amazing with certain production/masters. Older Prodigy albums like Experience, Jilted, and FotL were nice and warm and quieter, not a part of the loudness wars of today. They could sound quite amazing in 24 bit audio, especially if they went the Underworld route.

Underworld went back to the original tapes when they reissued Dubnobasswithmyheadman and did a proper full on reassembly of the individual separate tracks for each song when they remastered it. The 24/96 audio for Dubnobasswithmyheadman sounds fucking stellar! Sadly with the Second Toughest In The Infants reissue, it doesn't seem like they went that deep and instead just did the standard usual remaster, which sounds good but nowhere near how good they made Dubnobasswithmyheadman sound.

AONO is especially hot in the mix, pumped into the red... which a full on remaster could be good for it. But from AONO and on, they boys have participated in the loudness war and use of overcompression. 24 bit audio is especially beneficial for music with depth and warmth. You'll see a lot of older music being reissued in 24 bit, which would work much better than compared to today's music. A lot of music today is just pushed too far and cranked too loud, you lose a lot of the depth, nuance, and atmosphere.

At the moment, Blu-ray and/or SACD are the only ways to get 24 bit audio physically. Honestly we should move music over to Blu-ray instead of CD.