Smuggled Sounds: the Prodigy: A rock band that plays dance music???

The Prodigy is a British Big Beat band, whose music consists of various styles ranging from rave and hardcore techno in the early 1990s to alternative rock and bigbeat with punk vocal elements in later times. The current band members include Liam Howlett (composer/keyboards), Keith Flint (dancer/vocalist) and Maxim (MC/vocalist). Leeroy Thornhill (dancer/live keyboards) was a member of the band from 1990 to 2000, as well was a female dancer/vocalist called Sharky who left the band during their early period. The Prodigy first emerged on the underground rave scene in the early 1990s, and have since then achieved immense popularity and worldwide renown. Some of their most popular songs include "Charly," "Out of Space," "Smack My Bitch Up," "Voodoo People", "No Good (Start the Dance)," "Breathe" and "Firestarter."

The Prodigy are a difficult band to classify, because they have developed significantly with time. Each of their albums represents a distinct stage in the band's musical development. From their initial inception as a psychedelic rave band with scene staples such as "Your Love" and "Out of Space", to the much more mainstream dance of "No Good", to the rock-oriented "Their Law" to punk tracks such as the L7 cover "Fuel My Fire" in more recent years, the Prodigy continue to innovate and surprise. The Prodigy have had the ability over the years to appeal to widely varying cross-sections music fans; from the purist dance festival Creamfields, to the more general appeal of T In The Park, to the heavy metal oriented Download Festival.

Because of their broad appeal to fans across several genres, The Prodigy have been described as "A rock band that plays dance music," which many would agree was a fair summation of their work. Others see them as a rave band forced to diversify to survive.

535_small During the Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned tour the band debuted two new songs, 'Warning' and 'Dead Ken Beats'. 'Warning' features Keith Flint on vocals and consists of heavy basslines and guitar riffs, whilst Dead Ken Beat contains a sample of the Dead Kennedys song 'California Uber Alles' that features prominently throughout, and has Maxim doing vocal duties.

Both these tracks have undergone significant development during the recent tour, and on at least one occasion Liam Howlett has confirmed that Dead Ken Beats would feature on the next Prodigy record,

"Dead ken beats will definitely be on that record, we were talking about it tonight. Dead ken is a track we really like, we like the groove and the beat and it’s really fucking tough. its still developing. It’s a different groove; it’s really kind of fresh sounding. It’s a track im really going to have to go and find the right vocal for, which is one of the things I am doing right now." A track that mixed 'Spitfire (Nitebreed Remix)' with 'Wake Up Call' has been played frequently live by The Prodigy, and was released in January 2006 as 'Wake The Fuck Up' on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation.

Another new track was played during the 'Their Law' tour, which was printed on a setlist as Prodigy_small being called 'Heatwave'. It is thought that it has been renamed 'Heatwave Hurricane', due to Liam listing it as this among his current favourite songs for a recent interview. It has been described as "something like a cross between Hotride (live version) & the Firestarter remix". A short clip can be seen on Youtube, revealing that the song includes a sample of 'I'm Five Years Ahead Of My Time' by The Third Bardo, a song which is also featured on Liam's 'Back To Mine' compilation. The new album is set to be released in summer 2007.