‘EXPERIENCE’ 30th anniversary!
The Prodigy’s debut ‘Experience’ became a true rave phenomenon of the early 90s — on September 28, 2022, it turned 30! Quoting yesterday’s BBC Radio 6 Music post, ‘Experience’ was central to the transition of rave culture into the mainstream. It catched the energy and spirit of the movement and translated it into an album, which no other act was able to do. We tried to capture the most important milestones of the band’s beginnings: we got into the context of the album making, and also dug lots of interesting facts about the design of the LP, the first costumes of the band and shared a lot of unobvious details!
Liam Howlett exclusively to BBC 6 Music: I was so submerged in the rave culture from 1990 leading up to this first album and that sound was just in me. To me the whole album is like a snapshot of the sound of that period and what we were about at that time, it’s a more 1992 sound, you can tell by the speed of the tunes, everything started to get faster from 1991 to 92.
With a provisional release date of September 1992, Liam started work on the debut album. Initially, he wanted to make a ‘rave concept album’ along the lines of the early Pink Floyd work, but this idea was shelved once he realized the limitations this might have on his future musical creativity. This approach might tie him too closely to a scene that was dramatically quietening down and, besides, he was no longer inspired by it to the same degree as when he had first started. Considering Liam’s highly economical method of working, wherein he can write, record and produce the entire track alone, the actual album’s recording was a lengthy process. During the summer of 1992, the band were gigging so frequently that he was rarely given lengthy uninterrupted periods in the studio. Under increasing pressure from the record company to capitalise on the band’s high profile and market strength, Liam held out until he felt his work was finished, eventually requiring a total period of six months. The resulting double album, entitled Experience (a playful echo of the 1971 Jimi Hendrix posthumous classic) was a brutalist, uncompromising statement, full of hyperspeed breakbeats, bewildering sonic tapestries and thumping rhythms throughout. It offered an ‘experience’ that both documented the scene the band had emerged from, and offered slight clues as to where they might be heading.
ALBUM TRACKS
Speaking about the album’s tracklist, it can be divided into two even parts: one half was comprised of absolutely new material, whereas the second half contained remixes of already known tracks: ‘Your Love (Remix)’, ‘G-Force (Part 2)’, ‘Charly (Trip Into Drum & Bass Version)’, ‘Everybody In The Place (155 And Rising)’, and ‘Fire (Sunrise Version)’. The reason for that was that ‘Experience’ was one of the first rave scene albums ever, since rave artists would release their stuff as singles or EPs on 12″ vinyl. And when they released a CD – it was top-hits compilations. To make the Prodigy’s first album as fresh as possible and at the same time recognizable, Liam decided to remix some of his tracks that had already been known to public before September 1992. As of ‘absolutely new tracks’, of course Liam tested them live beforehand – Liam still does test his new stuff at gigs. For instance, such tracks as ‘Death Of The Prodigy Dancers’, ‘Wind It Up’, ‘Ruff In The Jungle Bizness’, and ‘Out Of Space’ were performed about six months before the LP’s release, whereas the beta version of ‘Music Reach (1/2/3/4)‘ debuted a year prior.
Our team has almost restored this beta of Music Reach (1/2/3/4).
High quality audio will be freely available on our Bandcamp!
Trouble At Sandy Heath
