A Month of Nearly Nearly Perfect Albums (#9 and #10)

Hurrah eclecticism is back….sort of.

9. Real Emotional Trash – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (2008, Matador Records)

The solo work of Stephen Malkmus can be a bit like a lucky dip at a village fayre, full of promised goodies, but often also full of cheap unwanted tat.  If you dip you hands into anyone of his solo albums (and let’s be fair, even with the joint billing that the Jicks get, this is a Malkmus album full stop), you might get an excellent unashamedly upbeat slab of slacker rock or you might get two minutes of him tuning his guitar or worse three minutes of him jamming with someone from Quasi and shouting “Woah” every fifty seconds.

To some extent ‘Real Emotional Trash’ is no different, its just that you are more likely to pull something excellent out of the lunch box than something erm, ‘jammy’.  ‘Real Emotional Trash’ is easily Malkmus’ most cohesive record, the lyrics are as usual, brilliant, and full of character based songs that spin intricate tales of life and love.  Musically it is stellar, part swaggering indie, part radio friendly alternative rock, the guitars are fuzzy, the drums pound, the bass is chirpy and all of it held together by Malkmus’ vocal style.

Dragonfly Pie – Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks (2008, Matador Records)

But and here’s the lucky dip analogy again, there is some unwanted stuff inside this box.  Some of the songs are overly long, ‘Hopscotch Willie’ for instance is brilliant for the first five minutes but peters out to be repetitive after that mark (and its seven minutes long).  The title tracks clocks in at the ten minute marks and again starts brilliantly with a proggy rock sound before just meandering off down some cul de sac that Malkmus doesn’t seem to be able to (or doesn’t want) to reverse out of.   At least four of ten tracks could be trimmed by a minute or two.

Hopscotch Willie – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (2008, Matador Records)

Real Emotional Trash – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (2008, Matador Records)

Thankfully, the rest of album is not like that at all, lead single ‘Baltimore’ is excellent throughout and is probably the closest Malkmus gets to ever making a Pavement record when he was not busy making Pavement records.  Elsewhere ‘We Can’t Help You’ is a decent slab of White Stripes influenced garage rock.

Baltimore – Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks (2008, Matador Records)

Right, Alexa, put up or shut up,

10. Pay Close Attention XL Recordings – Various Artists (2014, XL Records)

A good mixtape should above everything else by expertly compiled.  It shouldn’t just be a bunch of songs cobbled together that sound good.  It should be a bunch of songs that when cobbled together flow seamlessly, educate, and sound good.  Considering most mixtapes have a purpose, be it to make you dance, mosh, shag, run, clean the house, it also has to do the thing that it set out to do.  A good mixtape must never spoil the mood.

The purpose of ‘Pay Close Attention’ is simple, to celebrate the brilliance of one of the most forward thinking record labels out there.  A label that has dared to experiment, to invest in acts, and has led to some or all of its roster pushing music in directions that we never quite expected it to.

Out of Space – The Prodigy (1992, XL Records)

The album is kind of split into two halves of a double CD, the first half concentrates on the dance records that made XL what it is today, acts like The Prodigy and SL2, but it also reminds us of some less successful – but just as influential acts such as Jonny L, Liquid and Awesome 3.  The first half takes you on a bleeptastic journey through breakbeats, techno, house, grime, big beat and jungle that is nothing short of great.

The Piper – Jonny L (1997, XL Records)

Sweet Harmony – Liquid (1992, XL Records)

The second part of the album that picks up when the label shifted slightly towards a more commercial sound – I say that – they were still putting innovative and influential records, they were just successful.  In the space of a few years, XL Records gave us records The White Stripes, Radiohead, Adele, Vampire Weekend, the XX, The Horrors and M.I.A to name but a few.

Paper Planes – M.I.A (2008, XL Records)

Weird Fishes/Arpeggi – Radiohead (2007, XL Records)

You could argue that the label hasn’t dug that deep into its artists back catalogue to compile this album (‘Seven Nation Army’, check, ‘Rolling in the Deep’, check ‘Dizzee’s ‘I Luv U’, check, The Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’, check etc) and it could have dug a little deeper than the obvious but it doesn’t really need to, the fact that there is a label out there where the grime pop of Dizzee Rascal can sit next to the Afro pop of Vampire Weekend or where the schlocky krautrock of The Horrors can be labelmates with the feral horrorcore rap of Tyler the Creator is refreshing.  XL Records remain a bold and massively influential label.

Here is Monday’s rather bleak lyrical clue

“Northampton General, 1994. Mixed race baby born. Christmas well a week before. Mum’s 16, family’s poor”

The Best 40 Crossover Tracks – #3 Tripping over badly positioned chairs

3. Voodoo People (Dust Brothers Mix) – Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

Before I went to University, I spent most Friday nights and the early part of Saturday mornings at a club called Subsonic, which was held in a cavernous nightclub on the outskirts of Gilingham at the ambitiously named King of Clubs complex (which was actually part of a massive hotel chain if I remember it rightly).   It wasn’t always held there, it used to be upstairs at a small club just off of Gillingham High Street which was next to door to a pub that had the reputation of being the most violent one in the area. 

Anyway, if you went to Subsonic, and remember this is probably between 1992 and 1994 you would get a healthy dose of guitars, some baggy some jangly, some thrashy, some punky and some post punky.  What you wouldn’t get would be dance music, by and large this would be because the crowd were mainly goths, indie kids and grunge kids all mingling together in their distinctive (and strangely stereotypical) sets.  For instance, the Goths always sat in the same corner cradling their pints of snakebite and black looking miserable until the DJ played Sisters of Mercy – oh go on then but only because it features Ofra Haza and she rocks.

Temple of Love (1992) – Sisters of Mercy (1992, Merciful Release Records)

Until the very early parts of 1994 that is, when suddenly the DJ stuck on ‘No Good’ by the Prodigy and whilst at first there was some trépidation (tiptoes from the Stone Roses fans amongst the crowd one suspects) by the end of the song the whole dancefloor was packed and it seemed to me at the very least, that the subcultures were mingling together.  I maybe remembering this with nostalgia tinted spectacles but back then it smelt like change.

See Also No Good (Start the Dance) – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

‘Voodoo People’ came out the week I went to university.  I certainly remember it being played all over the radio – or rather the non remix version was – during my first few days on campus.   Including one occasion when in my first week I was fashionably late for one of my first lectures and forgotten to change the alarm on my clock radio from 0900am to an earlier time and ‘Voodoo People’ woke me angrily from a blissful slumber.  It was followed by a lot of cursing as I sprinted across campus in order to get my lecture – I burst in late, tripped over a nearby badly positioned chair and caused much hilarity to about 60 people – yeah I know, I always did know how to make an entrance.

Voodoo People (Original Mix) – Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

The Dust Brothers remix of ‘Voodoo People’ had of course been around for ages, it surfaced at least nine months earlier when it featured on the ‘NME XMAS Dust Up’ cassette, which as you know featured a couple of weeks ago when I featured a remix of a Manics track.

Of course it was the next eighteen months or so before The Prodigy really took off, on the back of two number one singles (‘Firestarter’ and ‘Breathe’) and the huge gigs at Brighton’s much missed Essential Festival and supporting Oasis at Knebworth.  By the tie that happened, The Prodigy and pretty much any of their songs from 1992 to 1996 could be guaranteed to blow up a dancefloor. Yes, you have ‘Firestarter’ and ‘Breathe’ which pleased the rock crowd sat by the bar that were undoubtedly the most popular tracks of their but for me, it was the only rave-y tracks that did it for me.

See Also – Firestarter – The Prodigy (1996, XL Records)

One Love – The Prodigy (1993, XL Records)

Fire – The Prodigy (1993, XL Records)

Oh and today marks the 800^th No Badger Required post, so let’s have a bonus song.  It is the track that Alexa chose when I asked her to ‘Play Music’ – which when you consider what she could have chosen, isn’t that bad.

Take It to the Max – Dan Deacon (2015, Domino Records, Taken from ‘Gliss Riffer’)

Fifty Twelve Inches – #8 – The Prodigy

Poison (95EQ) – The Prodigy (1995, XL Records, Taken from ‘Music From the Jilted Generation’)

There really are a lot of records from the so called ‘Big Beat’ era of 1995 to 1998 in the twelve inch cupboard.  If this style of music wasn’t your thing I can only apologise – there are some obscure indie twelve inches in there somewhere, its just that the finger of fate isn’t being directed by the ten year old voice of command to STOP on them just yet. 

However, to keep you lot happy, this twelve inch (which is yet another promo) sits next to the album ‘Italian Flag’ by lofi indie merchants Prolapse and my finger was sort of half on that as well when the command was given to STOP so we can have a bit of that if you like.

Autocade – Prolapse (1997, Radar Records, Taken from ‘The Italian Flag’)

‘Poison’ was the fourth single to be released from The Prodigy’s all conquering ‘Music from the Jilted Generation’ album and is perhaps the song that dropped the heaviest hints that the band would take a more ‘techno rock’ (if that is even a thing) with their next set of songs (more of that later).  ‘Poison’ is lashed with massive breakbeats, punchy electronics and always caused absolute carnage whenever it was dropped into DJ sets at the basement indie club with the sweaty young things hollering along to the bits about having the “rhythmical remedy” before going mental as the beats crash home again.

My twelve inch copy of this is a bit battered and it is missing an inner cover but it contains four tracks – the same four tracks that were on the commercially available single release. You get the special prepared ‘95EQ’ version of ‘Poison’ which was stripped back to just over four minutes for the single but the twelve inch version clocks in at just over six minutes, you get a few more bleeps, a few more tweeks and a few more industrial sized beats but you ain’t missing that much.

The next track is the official band remix of ‘Poison’ which was called ‘Rat Poison’ – which kind of tied in with the theme of the single – the cover featured some dead rodents behind a big jar of poison if I remember rightly.  ‘Rat Poison’ adds some thrashy guitars to the mix – and again hints that this might be something that band play around with in the future.  It’s pretty good ‘Rat Poison’ as industrial techno remixes of already industrial techno tracks go, certainly worth a listen or two.

Rat Poison – The Prodigy (1995, XL Records)

After that you get what I think was a new track – or rather one that the band swept up off the studio cutting room floor, given a name that fits in with the ‘poison’ theme to the single and pumped out as a B Side. ‘Scienide’ is more based in the bands warehouse rave roots – it certainly runs along at a fair old pace, you keep expecting to hear sampled crowd noises and whistles come in to reinforce that ‘warehouse’ feel. 

Scienide – The Prodigy (1995, XL Records)

Last up you get The Environmental Science Dub Mix of ‘Poison’ which has, as you would expect deeper more dubby beats and has an almost psychedelic feel to it, especially the twirly effects that kick in at around the two minute mark.

There are two more piece of vinyl by The Prodigy in the cupboard.  Both of them come from the ‘Fat of the Land’ era (in fact one of them is the double vinyl album of ‘Fat of the Land’, the other is the twelve inch of ‘Firestarter’), when the Prodigy managed to become one of the biggest bands on the planet.

Firestarter – The Prodigy (1996, XL Records Taken from ‘Fat of the Land’)

Welcome to May – Alternative Versions – #1

May As Well – Angel Olsen (2014, Jagjaguar Records, Taken from ‘Burn Your Fire for No Witness’)

As May rolls sunnily into view, we usher in this month’s theme, a theme that came to me one evening as I watched an excellent documentary on Simon and Garfunkel on the usually rubbish Sky Arts Channel.  In that documentary Simon and Garfunkel were shown in their studio where they were recording their classic ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ album.  It showed them larking about and generally doing a lot of things other than making music (Here’s Art Garfunkel eating some pasta, here is Paul Simon talking about baseball with some gonk with a beard and here are the pair of them playing cards together, that sort of thing).

Then around half an hour it cuts to them actually making some music, a voice comes on the telly and tells us that what we are going to hear is the original demo for ‘Bridge over Troubled Water in which Garfunkel records his vocals in a different part of the studio whilst Simon strums away and records his vocals in the main bit – or something anyway, you can hear Garfunkel but you can’t see him, if that makes sense.

It was an excellent version, one I hadn’t heard and one that no matter how hard I try and how hard I look that I cannot find it anywhere, but it did give me an idea for this series.  A series which I am calling ‘Alternative Versions’.  A series which will look at demo versions of songs, Peel Sessions – or other recorded sessions of songs, remixes, acoustic versions, live versions, versions recorded with an orchestra backing them, studio outtakes, rehearsal versions, instrumentals and anything that falls in between all that lot.  

This kind of thing really: –

Eat Y’Self Fitter (Peel Session #6)– The Fall (1983, Rough Trade Records, Taken from ‘Peverted by Language’)

Prague (demo) – Mega City Four (1992, Big Life Records, Taken from ‘Sebastopol Road’)

Disarm (acoustic) – Smashing Pumpkins (1993, Hut Records, Taken from ‘Siamese Dream’)

Breathe (Glitch Mob Mix) – The Prodigy (1996, XL Records, Taken from ‘The Fat of the Land’)

But of course, I’ll post the original version as well so we can have some light hearted banter about which version is better. 

Let’s just pop back over to Simon and Garfunkel because whilst I couldn’t find the studio demo of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ I did stumble across this rather fine live version of the song, which is essentially just Paul Simon on piano and Art Garfunkel’s voice and I think it’s one of the first times they ever played it live.

Bridge Over Troubled Water (Live in 1969) – Simon and Garfunkel (2008, Sony Music, Taken from ‘Simon and Garfunkel Live in 1969’)

Tomorrow – Fontaines D.C

Someone Else’s Nearly Perfect Albums – #16

Music for the Jilted Generation – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

This week we welcome back Mr L, who since we last heard from him (when he told us all about Orbital’s ‘Brown Album’) has retired from work, fitted a bathroom, and then gone back to work again so that his wife can’t make him do anymore lengthy DIY jobs. 

Oh and something new that a friend pointed out to me a few weeks ago – from now on – I will put a link to stream the entire album at the top and then link back individual songs. 

Here’s Mr L

The second album to be released by The Prodigy was a complete game changer in 1994!

1994 was a time where the music scene outside of the pop charts was a strange landscape. Dance music was waning, Grunge had exploded and imploded, indie was slowly slipping back into the underground again and modern alternative rock was in its infancy. The kids were crying out for something new and The Prodigy gave it to them!

Growing up in South East Essex, I was well aware of The Prodigy in local nightclubs like The Barn in 1990 and then I witnessed them explode first hand onto the national rave scene in 1991. The first album ‘The Prodigy Experience’, was basically all the best tracks Liam had written that were tried and tested in raves up and down the country in 1991, then released to the mases in 1992. It was sure a fire hit with the rave scene, as ravers knew all the tracks, but it mostly only appealed to those into the rave scene or wider dance scene.

The difficult second album was going to be a challenge for Liam Howlett , after such huge early success. The rave scene was changing and splitting into different sub genres like Jungle, Happy Hardcore and Techno. Liam was attuned to this change and the growing Techno/Trance sound. Club nights like Universals Final Frontier at Club UK and The Knowledge at SW1, both embraced the new Techno elements of Rave, with more European sounds , the influence of both Gabba and Goa sounds, plus the UK’s own Techno influences. DJs like Dave Clarke, Carl Cox, Richie Hawtin, Dave Angel, Loftgroover & Both Colin Dale and Colin Faver from KISS FM, were all pioneering this new techno influenced rave/electronic dance music sound. Also acts like Jam & Spoon, Hardfloor & Plastikman all released exciting Techno albums in 1993 that were influential on the Techno club scene.

I attended Universals ‘Big Love’ event in August 1993 and The Prodigy, were the headline act. I had seen The Prodigy in 1991 and 1992 playing experienced album tracks. But in 1993 they showcased a new set with half the material from the Experienced album and the other half of the material, more techno based, from the future Jilted Generation album. The new material ‘Full Throttle, ‘No good (start the dance)’ plus ‘Now Hear This’ (that would eventually turn into ‘Claustrophobic Sting’), were all were much harder, with less breakbeats and more mature. The new material went down a storm at ‘Big Love’ and I loved the new direction too!

Full Throttle – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records) – At 1:45 an unbelievable bassline kicks in, which gets me every single time.

As well as testing new possible Jilted material live, Liam released ‘One Love’ and ‘Rhythm Of Life’ as untitled white labels by ‘EarthBound’. This was in response to growing criticism from the rave community about The Prodigy having sold themselves out and become purely commercial dance. Underground DJ’s praised the white labels as some of the best of the year, and with this act, Liam had shown that The Prodigy was still capable of making pioneering dance music praised by the underground.

One Love – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

At the same time the criminal justice bill was starting to effect raves and events, The Prodigy were playing at, so it certainly influenced the sound and had an angry backlash from Liam, who felt the need to advocate youth culture rights, via his music! So onto the album itself…..

(SWC interjects – I’ve edited this at this point as Mr L mistakenly submitted his 50,000 word thesis on ‘The Impact The Jilted Generation had on modern music’ instead of his review – what I’ve done is include five of the thirteen tracks that Mr L wrote about)

Their Law – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

Now we are in new territory with a guitar riff courtesy of a collaboration with ‘Pop Will Eat Itself’, who I very much liked in the early 90’s. PWEI were an Alternative band, who also liked to introduce elements of EDM. Their Law opens with vocals “What we’re dealing with here is a total lack of respect for the law!” as a heavy guitars riff irrupts with a distorted groove and baseline. The song builds until a anti- criminal Justice bill war cry of “FUCKEM AND THEIR LAW”. This is a far cry away from the band that bought us ‘Charly’, just two short years ago. It is a monster track, which The Prodigy, then embraced live, introducing a guitarist and percussions, to heighten the intense live show experience, even more. Until now The Prodigy had mostly appealed to a rave/dance audience but with this track, they were now introducing themselves to indie & rock fans, as well!

Voodoo People – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

Possibly my favourite track on the album. The Prodigy use that mix of slightly old and new style again, but too-much better affect with a Nirvana-inspired riff running throughout. It’s heart pumping and exhilarating, a dance floor killer, and A core track that never loses its place on the set list, as witnessed in 2022 tour.

Poison – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

So another new direction for Liam, who used to be in a hip-hop act called Cut 2 Kill, who got signed, but he fell in love with the rave scene, which inspired him to start DJing and making Mixtapes, which led to The Prodigy being signed by XL recordings. Anyway, ‘Poison’ is another storming track, slower beats, but aggressive and nasty, with Maxim on vocals. Liam’s big hip-hop influence was the ‘Ultramagnetic MC’s’ crew and you can hear that drum pattern influence on ‘Poison’.

It’s another track that widened their appeal to a bigger audience and not just rave heads. The track really rocks and with a great video it was a big success on MTV in Europe and USA. Again, another live favourite with live drums and percussion introduced for more action on stage. You can also start to feel the attitude of The Prodigy coming out in this track, which led to their self confessed title of being ‘Electronic Punks’.

No good (start the dance) – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

Well this series is called ‘nearly perfect albums’ and this track is why Jilted Generation is not perfect. Although it sounds more techno based, for me, it’s my least favourite track on the album (weirdly it’s my favourite – SWC). It’s not a bad track, but it just feels slightly out of place and more mainstream dance. This track was released as a single and entered the charts at number 4. Say no more.

.The album finishes with ‘Claustrophobic Sting’.  What a track to finish and Liam just brings it all together with Gabba and Goa influences , entwined with wicked acid noises for another 7 minutes of pure joy to finish. Different and similar versions of this track had been played previously live like ‘Now Hear This’ , ‘Acid Breaks’ & ‘Vibe’. But ‘Claustrophobic Sting’ got the final slot on the album.

Claustrophobic Sting – The Prodigy (1994, XL Records)

 The album is 1 hour 18 minutes long. XL recordings were nervous about its wider appeal and asked Liam to shorten the first cut. Liam obliged, slightly with ‘Rhythm Of Life’ being completely cut from the album, which was a live band & fan favourite, plus ‘One Love’ & ‘Full Throttle’ got edited shorter.

 The Prodigy mostly stayed true to their musical developments & beliefs, but had grown so much by the time ‘Jilted…’ was released. They were now crossing and challenging the musical genres. They were dance, alternative, rave, hardcore and they rocked like nobody else live!

 ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’ established the band as the genuine article with its finger on the pulse of the youth. It laid the path for The Prodigy, to become huge and one of the biggest bands of the 90’s.

RIP Keith Flint.

A Month all about Names – #5 – Charlie

Good Grief Charlie Brown – Carter USM (1990, Big Cat Records, Taken from ‘101 Damnations’)

This week wasn’t supposed to be all about cartoon characters, it just seems to have turned out that way (so far).   Anyway, Charlie Brown is, for those of you who live under rocks, the hero (is he a hero, or a bit of a loser?) of the comic strip ‘Peanuts’ that has graced various media outlets since November 1950.  When he was first introduced Charlie Brown was four years old.  He made it to his eighth birthday by 1963 and has stayed that age ever since.   He is of course the owner of Snoopy, a white beagle who is prone to wearing sunglasses and being associated with TShirts that suggest that a dog wearing shades is just about the pinnacle of being cool.  Is not cool, it is just cruel and Charlie Brown should probably be banned from keeping pets if he is going to just plonk shades on their face and let them wander off willy nilly. 

He is also the worst baseball coach in the history of baseball coaches.  If no one minds I’ll skirt over the fact that Coldplay also have a song called ‘Charlie Brown’ – I’ve listened to it so that you don’t have to – and its garbage, you can thank me later.

‘Good Grief, Charlie Brown’ is a track from Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine’s debut album ‘101 Damnations’.  It is a sort of play on the fact that “Good Grief” was Charlie Brown’s catchphrase and the inevitable cartoon series usually ended each episode with him saying it after some form of comedic event had unfurled hilariously.

‘101 Damnations’ is a strange beast, because unlike its successor, the quintessential, nearly perfect ’30 Something’, it hasn’t aged that well and its nowhere near as much fun.  It’s also not as polished as ‘1992: The Love Album’ but it doesn’t matter hugely because it still has something of a naïve, DIY charm and it still contains songs of such anthemic quality that you can pogo yourself stupid to them in your lounge and not feel remotely self conscious about it. 

There is a whole host of Charlie (and various differently spelt versions of that) songs in my music library.  Here are just three.  The first two are from different ends of the indie pop spectrum.  Colour TV’s ‘Charlie’ is an absolute indie pop monster.  The sort of track that just nibbles away at your earbuds quietly until you find yourself humming it for the next three days.  It is all kinds of brilliant but I’ve told you all that before.  

Charlie – Colour TV (2021, Tip Top Recordings, Taken from ‘Is That You’)

The second one is from New York’s Bodega and it is a deeply personal sort of track about a friend who drowned.  There are poignant lyrics about a body being “covered in leaves” and it ends with the sound of someone coughing and the gentle lapping of waves against a shore.  Its marvellous.

Charlie – Bodega (2018, What’s Your Rupture Records, Taken from ‘Endless Scroll’)

And finally one from the alternative spelling crowd, its controversial, public information advert sampling, rave behemoth ‘Charly’ by the Prodigy.  It comes from a time before they went all heavy rave metal and still wore stupid hats and did gigs in abandoned warehouses on rural Essex industrial estates.   It’s infuriatingly brilliant and is considered now by many to one of electronic music defining moments. 

Charly (Alleycat Remix) – Prodigy (1991, XL Records, Taken from ‘Experience’)

Up Next Jasper, but outside it will still be Wednesday.

The One Word Countdown – #26

The birds fly a lot better than we do…..

Spitfire – Public Service Broadcasting (2013, Test Card Recordings, Taken from ‘Inform, Educate, Entertain’)

Points 121

I saw Public Service Broadcasting at the end of last year, and they were brilliant, they have expanded from being a two piece that were obsessed with fusing together old pieces of film and dialogue together with experimental sounding indie rock into a five piece playing Kraftwerk inspired krautrock sung in German.

Blue Heaven – Public Service Broadcasting (2021, Test Card Recordings, Taken from ‘Bright Magic’)

The gig was amazing and if I was the sort of person who endlessly ranks things and then waffles on about them to people, I would say it was easily in my Top Ten gigs ever (possibly in seventh place just behind Carter USM at the Venue in New Cross and just before Six by Seven at Exeter’s Cavern Club).  But I’m not, obviously.

On that night ‘Spitfire’ sounded tremendous, the film dialogue from ‘The First of the Few’ rattled across the venue bouncing of speakers and the behind the band on the stage, a video played actual footage from the same movie and that guitar hook that lines that song so marvellously developed from that melodic indie sound into something that resembled thrash metal but unlike most thrash metal it sounded incredible.

‘Spitfire’ originally surfaced in 2013, as part of the bands debut EP ’The War Room’.  Their sound was one that was heavily influenced by the likes of the Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk (albeit with added film dialogue) and it is the only track from that EP that made it on to their debut album a year or so later.

Dig For Victory – Public Service Broadcasting (2013, Test Card Recordings, Taken from ‘The War Room’)

Of course there were a couple of other Public Service Broadcasting tracks that were considered.  We’ve already discussed ‘Go’ (See number 50) but you could also have these two

Gagarin – Public Service Broadcasting (2015, Test Card Recordings, Taken from ‘The Race for Space’)

Roygbiv – Public Service Broadcasting (2014, Test Card Recordings, Taken from ‘Inform, Educate, Entertain)

Oh and here is the second best song in the world called ‘Spitfire’

Spitfire – The Prodigy (2005, XL Recordings, Taken from ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’)

The One Word Countdown – #47

God Bless You Keith Flint…..

Number 47

Firestarter – The Prodigy (1996, XL Recordings, Taken from ‘The Fat of the Land’)

Points 91

Let’s me honest here, any record that annoys the Daily Mail so much that they call for it to be banned is automatically a wonderful record.  The fact that the Daily Mail’s rage and squawking went largely ignored as everyone from city bankers to hairdressers to children all lapped up The Prodigy’s big beat fireworks and lyrical vitiol.

Of course, according to Liam Howlett, ‘Firestarter’ came about because he was bored with rave music and started exploring what happened if he mixed it with rock music.  He’d sampled a fairground ride noise and looped it, twisted it and contorted it beyond all recognition and that became that ‘guitar riff’ at the start of the song and soon ‘Firestarter’ was being hailed as a total revelation and dance music had seemingly, just like it did with indie music about five years earlier, got into bed with rock music, whether rock music liked it or not because for once rock writers couldn’t trip out clichéd descriptions about ‘faceless techno bollocks’.

The other thing about ‘Firestarter’ that was so fantastic, was that Liam Howlett refused to play it live on Top of the Pops the week it went to Number One.   He said that the energy of the song would be missed and wasted being watered down into peoples living rooms.  So, after the cuddly tween pop of Gina G, the BBC showed the video to ‘Firestarter’ and exposed thousands of kids jut before Eastenders started to Keith Flint, all mad eyed, and punk hair, twitching and screaming away like a banshee had possessed him deep in some disused tube station.  God bless you Keith Flint, because, sir at around 7.27pm on a Thursday evening, you caused thousands of parents to hyperventilate with a mixture of repulsion and amazement at the same time – and piss off the Daily Mail whilst you were at it, you were indeed, to misquote you, “the bitch, they hated”. 

There were two other Prodigy tracks that were up for selection before I plumped for the ‘filth infatuated’ brilliance of ‘Firestarter’, they were of course,

Poison – The Prodigy (1994, XL Recordings, Taken from ‘Music for the Jilted Generation’) – which was the first Prodigy track I ever owned, having found a copy of the 12” in a Guildford charity shop, directly behind a record by Sade and directly in front of one by Go West.  It cost me 75p and remains as a good a reason as you will ever need to check any record box you see in a charity shop. 

Breathe – The Prodigy (1996, XL Recordings, Taken from ‘The Fat of the Land’) – which I bought on CD single from Our Price on Cheapside in the City of London one lunchtime, the joke of course being that Cheapside isn’t that cheap and the bigger joke being that I got home from work and found a copy waiting for me on the doorstep.