We Eat Rhythm · 30th Anniversary

On September 2, 1994, The Prodigy released their iconic We Eat Rhythm. Despite not appearing on any of the band’s official albums or singles, it became widely known among fans worldwide. There is a lot of confusion and many myths associated with this track due to the limited information available. In honor of this milestone anniversary, we will debunk some of these rumours and share the most relevant facts.

Many people mistakenly believe that We Eat Rhythm was the track played at the beginning/end of the ‘Electronic Punks’ VHS, but this is not the case. Initially, the original version of the track was supposed to be included on the Music for the Jilted Generation album in mid-1994, but due to a lack of space on the CD, it was excluded from the final tracklist. Additionally, Liam Howlett shortened the length of some other tracks on the album (more details on this will be provided in our upcoming articles). The track was later released exclusively on the Future Tracks compilation cassette, which was distributed with the UK’s Select magazine. According to various sources, the tape was released on September 2, 1994 — exactly 30 years ago.

The track itself is a typical jungle banger of the time, more suitable as a B-side for a single than as an album filler. The main vocal line was taken from the same source as the famous sample used in ‘Voodoo People’ — the soundtrack to the 1971 film Right On! recorded by the legendary The Last Poets. In the 1990s, this release made a significant impression on Liam, and he sampled two tunes from this compilation: he took the line “We eat rhythm, we sleep rhythm” from ‘Puerto Rican Rhythms’. and for the iconic ‘Voodoo People’ he chopped up the track ‘The Shalimar’.

‘We Eat Rhythm’ has never been played live and has never been released on CD or any other digital format. Because of this, the track was not very popular among fans in the ’90s. It was also never featured on any bootleg-compilations, and many fans didn’t even know about it until the internet became widespread in the 2000s. However, today, there are many cassette rips of varying cleanest and quality available online, but the original digital studio recording has never surfaced.

Just six months after the release of Select magazine, in early 1995, a track with a similar vocal sample from The Last Poets — “We eat rhythm, we sleep rhythm” —appeared in the band’s live setlist. The band played this new track regularly throughout most of 1995, and in the middle of the year a piece of studio recording of this live-track was included on the official VHS release of Electronic Punks as audio for the intro and end credits. Once again, the only source of this track was analog media — specifically, analog tape.

To complement Electronic Punks, the legendary live bootleg Music For The Voodoo Crew appeared on the shelves of underground music shops, becoming a significant landmark for old-school fans of The Prodigy. The compilation contained recordings from three different shows, including one in Bristol on April 21, 1995 (‘New Trinity Centre’ venue). Among many tracks, the new tune was also played there. It was thanks to these two releases — Electronic Punks and Music For The Voodoo Crew — that fans worldwide learned about the existence of this track.

It’s noteworthy that neither the VHS nor the bootleg provided the original title of the track, so in fan circles, it was simply called ‘We Eat Rhythm’. based on the main vocal refrain. However, the record was completely different from the one released a few months earlier on the Future Tracks tape — the only thing they had in common was the shared vocal sample from The Last Poets.

If you look through the catalogs of music ownership databases and the band’s live setlists from that time, you will not find any mention of a track titled ‘We Eat Rhythm’. However, you can easily find information about a tune from 1995 that was regularly played live. The official title of it, according to these sources, is Jungle Beats. This isn’t surprising, as it is almost entirely based on another jungle track ‘Mat – Phat + Phuturistic (Part 1)’ released a little earlier.

After it became known that Liam used the same sample from ‘Puerto Rican Rhythms’ in two different tracks, the second one was referred to as ‘We Eat Rhythm (Jungle Mix)’ within the fan community. However, it still remains unclear whether the 1995 track is a second mix/version of ‘We Eat Rhythm’, which was released on tape in 1994, or if it is a completely different track that merely shares the same sample from The Last Poets.

A similar situation occurred with the vocal chop “I roll and rock, rock and roll” in both “Rock’n’Roll” and “Under My Wheels.” Only Mr. H himself can confirm or deny this nuance.

It is important to note that while the version of the first ‘We Eat Rhythm’ track is available in its complete form, albeit only on analog media, the full recording of the second track, ‘Jungle Beats’, has never surfaced anywhere in studio quality. The full one was only played live, and the studio version was only partially included in the ‘Electronic Punks’ montage.

But as always, the All Souvenirs team fills this gap: to celebrate the 30th anniversary, we’re happy to share our restored full length of We Eat Rhythm (Jungle Beats) in perfect professional sound.

Despite the fact that neither track was officially released, they still gained popularity among the band’s fans and music lovers and, in some ways, became iconic. The legendary phrase ‘We Eat Rhythm’ became popular among the masses and is still associated with The Prodigy to this day. And here we should mention perhaps the best book about the band by Martin James, a close friend and long-time researcher of the self-proclaimed electronic punks. The title of the book is precisely based on that iconic slogan.

Released in 2018, We Eat Rhythm (The Prodigy Story Part 1) impresses with a wealth of truly exclusive details, rare photos, and dozens of comments from Howlett himself. The book covers the period from the band’s beginnings in the late ’80s to the watershed year of 2002—according to Martin, part two is just around the corner! While we eagerly await the sequel, the first part can be purchased on James’ official Bandcamp account.

Headmasters: SIXSHOT
Additional thanks to: Split, Canyon Hill

SBER (RUS): 89213941б98

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