481 – The Prodigy – Firestarter (1996)
Written by Liam Howlett, Keith Flint, T. Horn, A. Dudley, J. Jeczalik, P. Morley, G. Langan, Kim Deal
Produced by Liam Howlett
Label – XL Recordings
Dark, intense, a huge break beat, and a manic guitar sample from The Breeders Kim Deal. To combine a chilling dance track with the essence of punk rock is a very rare achievement, but Howlett, Flint and co. pull it off with bombastic aplomb. Take away the electronic rhythms and this is as close to the musical revolution of 1976 you will ever witness.
Firestarter
Have to disagree here this ” record ” was created by howlett ( the only member who can play an instrument and was a classicly trained pianist prior to his career within The prodigy ) as a tool if you like to create a 2nd wave of youth rebellionism within the music industry . The rave culture was fast fading into a distant memory on which The prodigy had built their initial reputation with the likes of “your love ” “everybody is in the place ” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKmhlA2S2KU&feature=related ( complete with paco style dancing ) and ultimately charly , it was that particular release that catapulted them on to the mainstream ,but true to their word they refused to publicly appear on the then commercial top of the pops for fear of making the underground rave scene a commercial commoditity and didnt want to tarnish themselves with the stigma of being the ones who killed the rave scene in that respect regardless of other rave bands releases none had reached success or impacted like charly . The prior release of poison which may have been a better choice for you was borderline and could of gone either way and at least did have some meaning and depth to it rather than trying to Resurrect them selves as an electronic sex pistols x widow twanky on acid appearance . This is proved later in howletts career when he did a solo release mash up album called the dirt chamber sessions a montage mix of howletts real influential sound admitadly theirs a bit of punk in their too ,grab your self a copy . hope this sheds some light on your minimal view of probably the biggest rave sound band who managed to go commercial in the end but maintain the respect of the original raver
I was under the impression that Keith Flint was equally important in terms of lyric writing for this song. I can’t deny that Howlett created the overall sound, but I’ve found evidence that Flint and Howlett wrote the lyrics together and so fully deserves the publishing credit. Your assertion that the “record” was created by Howlett therefore is erroneous.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1996_articles/sep96/prodigy.html
By the way, refusing to appear on Top Of The Pops wasn’t unique either, as any Clash fan will tell you.
Thanks for the comment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e62AOl1rmtI a sample of dirt chamber sessions
WELL CREATED AND PRODUCED ARE THE SAME IN MY BOOK AND HOWLETT “PRODUCED ” IT FLINT WAS PROBABALY IN THE ROOM AT THE TIME CHUCKING HIS TWO PENNETH IN TO BE NOTED AS A WRITER
Writer(s) Kim Deal, Anne Dudley, Keith Flint, Trevor Horn, Liam Howlett, J.J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan, Paul Morley
Producer Liam Howlett
UP THE WOLVES !