Ideas
1. samples used in the prodigy’s The Fat of the Land album
The reason for this choice is that they explore many unrelated songs and have created samples from these different tracks, in doing so, bastardising songs for certain people.
2. The public and media perception of the prodigy in the late 90s early 2010’s
since having their outlandish look and attitudes, they changed the uk’s rave scene.
3. production techniques used in daft punks Tron soundtrack.
This is my favourite movie sound track it would be good to explore
Sources –
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestarter_(The_Prodigy_song)
The songwriting credits include Kim Deal of alternative rock group the Breeders, as the looped wah-wah guitar riff in “Firestarter” was sampled from the Breeders’ track “S.O.S.” from the album Last Splash. The drums are sampled from a remix of the song “Devotion” of the group Ten City. The “hey” sample is from the 1984 song “Close (to the Edit)” by Art of Noise. Then-members Anne Dudley, Trevor Horn, J. J. Jeczalik, Gary Langan and Paul Morley also receive songwriting credits. The “Empirion Mix”, which does not include these samples, is credited solely to Liam Howlett and Keith Flint.
https://theprodigy.info/samples/the-fat-of-the-land.html#Breathe
https://musictech.com/guides/essential-guide/landmarks-prodigy-fat-of-the-land/
https://www.mtv.com/news/06qre1/prodigy-fat-of-the-land-samples
https://repository.law.miami.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1092&context=umeslr
https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/culture/article/prodigy-madonna-xl-recordings
Notes –
All 25 Samples Used
“smack my bitch up” –
Ultramagnetic MCs, “Give The Drummer Some” , “change my pitch up, smack my bitch up”- Critical Beatdown (Critical Beatdown, 1988) – The rapper is Kool Keith from The Ultramagnetic MC’s. – IMPORTANT
sample – Indian female voice – it’s not actually a sample but the vocalist is the Middle Eastern artist Shahin Badar. Early live version of Smack My Bitch Up contained a different female vocal. It was taken from Sheila Chandra’s “Nana – the dreaming”. Sitar that can be heard in this part is also taken from this same track.
sample – intro – Kool and the gang, “Funky Man” [Live at the Sex Machine, 1971] Original sample is highly pitched up. Those intro beats are the same as in Crazy Man. – IMPORTANT
Randy Watson, “In Memory Of” Tanjah, 1973 – main bass line – IMPORTANT
sample – “wow” guitar – Cold Cut – More Beats + Pieces (Mo’ Bass Remix) [Beats + Pieces, 1987] The Chubukos – House of Rising Funk [Witch Doctor Bump / House of Rising Funk, 1973]
Mixmaster Gee and The Turntable Orchestra, “Like This’
The Prodigy, “Crazy Man”
Rage Against The Machine, “Bulls on Parade” – time stretched guitar – [Evil Empire, 1996] – IMPORTANT
“Breathe” –
Sample – drum beat – Thin Lizzy, “Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy The Weed”
The Spencer Davis Group, “I’m a Man”
Wu-Tang Clan, “Da Mystery of Chessboxing” – from the album called “36 Chambers” – (there has been lots of rumors that Liam has made these sounds with his own swords, but it’s not true) – IMPORTANT
“diesel Power” –
Fuzzy Haskins, “The Fuz nd Da Boog”
Wu-Tang Clan, “Wu-Tang Clan Aint Nothin’ to Fuck Wit”
“Funky Shit” –
Rhythm heritage, “Theme From S.W.A.T”
Beastie Boys, “Root Down” – IMPORTANT
The B-Boys – “Two, Three, Break”
Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind , “The Shining Theme”
“Serial Thrilla” –
Skunk Anansie, “selling Jesus”
“Mindfields” –
the Winstons, “Amen, Brother”
John Barry, “Hip’s Tip”
Firestarter-
Sample – Main drum loop -Zero-G – Jungle Warfare [1995] – The Roller 162
The Breeders, “S.O.S”
Ten City, Devotion (Voice of Paradise Mix)”
Sample “hey, hey, hey” Art of Noise, ” Close to the Edit. It can be found from Who’s Afraid of the Art of Noise? (Island 1984) album. The Art Of Noise originally sampled it from “Freeze-Frame” by “The J. Giles Band”.
Climbatize –
The Who, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
Egyptian Empire, “The Horn Track”
Jedi Knights,”Air Drums From Outer Bongoli”
Notes –
The incendiary power of The Prodigy’s 1996 mainstream breakthrough Firestarter was followed up with a controversial album that re-wrote the dance music rule book and caused a tabloid frenzy not seen since the days of The Sex Pistols.
Howlett’s main instrument for songwriting and idea generation during this period was the Roland W-30 Sampler Workstation, although initially Liam ignored the all-in-one sampling capabilities and focused on using the W-30 as a MIDI programmer and keyboard. Most of the ideas that became the The Fat Of The Land’s tracks would be envisioned with just the W-30
– “I got the W-30 and, you know, for about four months I didn’t go out. I stayed in every day with the headphones on learning how the thing worked. Man, I just had to learn that keyboard inside and out.”
Howlett used the Korg Prophecy to create the main riff on Smack My Bitch Up
The E-mu SP1200 drum machine was the brawn behind the breakbeat in Firestarter
The album’s mixing was done entirely with Steinberg’s Cubase on an Apple Power Mac
There is no better word for Liam Howlett than ‘prodigy’. He composed, mixed and produced every track on The Fat of the Land at the young age of 24.
“I’m not a singer,” says Flint. “I love the fact that there’s people out there that have been trying since the age of nine to sing and get the voice right — do, re, mi and all that — and I can roar in, not ever written anything or performed lyrically anything, and write a tune that’s so successful. I think that’s a brilliant piss take on a lot of people, and that gives me a buzz.”
Firestarter was The Prodigy’s biggest-selling single to date, topping the charts in the UK, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. In Ireland, however, it made it to #2, kept off the top spot by Richie Kavanagh’s Aon Focail Eile
Plan –
the production for the Prodigy’s Fat of the land, and how it changed the UK’s rave scene, and how it was perceived by the public –
first paragraph – overview on Liam howletts production techniques , and the hardware and software he used, as well as the influence “the fat of the land” had on the rave scene, and how it changed British dance culture in the late 90’s
second paragraph – most important for samples used- “smack my bitch up” overview , the samples used and the importance they had to the track, and the album.
third paragraph- “firestarter” – how it was made and how “firestarter”, “broke the mould” and its rise to stardom in multiple countries.
fourth – paragraph- production of additional songs in the album, such as, “breathe”, “diesel power”, and “funky shit”.
conclusion – the impact it had on music and the rave scene
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The “Fat of the Land” was The Prodigy’s 3rd album released in 1997. The album received critical acclaim and topped the UK album charts and the US billboard 200. In 1999, the album entered the Guinness World Records, as the fastest selling UK dance album and was also nominated for a Grammy award. The Fat of the Land was Keith Flints first appearance as a vocalist since they started back in 1990, and this was the album that changed the band forever.
Samples are a prolific asset to this albums production, tracks such as “smack my bitch up” contain a high quantity of samples ranging from samples from their own previous tracks, to Rage Against the Machine’s “Bulls on Parade”. During this time Howlett’s main instrument and idea generator was the Roland W-30 sampler workstation, initially Liam ignored all other all-in-one samplers and primarily used this as a MIDI programmer and keyboard. Most of the ideas that became the Fat of the Land’s tracks were envisioned on the W-30, “I got the W-30 and, you know, for about four months I didn’t go out. I stayed in every day with the headphones on learning how the thing worked. Man, I just had to learn that keyboard inside and out.” (tech, 2015) Ultramagnetic MCs, “Give The Drummer Some” is where the sampled lyric, “change my pitch up, smack my bitch up” came from, without this lyric the track wouldn’t be, “smack my bitch up”, although one of the most controversial songs of the bunch, this made headlines, and otherwise gave the band more attention. This backlash lead stores to pulling the album from the shelves and other acts from the likes of Beastie Boys telling them not to play the track at the Reading Festival in 1998, in which Keith’s response was, “I do what the f*** I want”(Donoughue, 2019), with this all in the public eye, Liam had this to say in an interview. “We know what the song is about and the song gives us energy on stage … People have got to be pretty silly to think that we’re writing records about smacking women up. It’s like Firestarter — the record was not about starting fires”. during this era the Prodigy were very much anti establishment, since In 1994, the British Government introduced new laws aimed at curbing certain kinds of “anti-social” behaviour, targeting rave culture (which included the phrase “the emission of a succession of repetitive beats”) in there response from their 1994 album “music for the jilted generation” they imposed the ambiguous lyric, “F*** ’em and their law.” then continuing this theme onto the Fat of the Land.
Firestarter, being one of the Prodigy’s most successful songs was The Prodigy’s biggest-selling single to date, topping the charts in the UK, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, and Norway. In Ireland, however, it made it to #2, kept off the top spot by Richie Kavanagh’s “Aon Focal Eile”, this is especially amazing considering Keith’s had never before performed as a vocalist, he was always a front man and a dancer. Here was Keith’s thoughts, and what he had to say in an interview, “I’m not a singer,” says Flint. “I love the fact that there’s people out there that have been trying since the age of nine to sing and get the voice right — do, re, mi and all that — and I can roar in, not ever written anything or performed lyrically anything, and write a tune that’s so successful. I think that’s a brilliant piss take on a lot of people, and that gives me a buzz”. After the failure of their first professional video recording of the song which set them back £100,000 Firestarter as a whole was riffing on the idea of “DIY”. Keith’s famous stars and stripes jumper was very much impromptu, he jumped out of Liam’s car on the way to the shoot, and bought it from Camden Market, which the shoot in itself was a disused train platform, Keith’s spontaneous and unlikely adoption of American iconography would contribute subtly to the band’s crossover success in the US, after the release of Firestarter however, the band gained much more attention, yet before this point The Prodigy had struggled to gain any traction across the Atlantic, with their debut album “Experience” on XL records they started to take the UK by storm and helped XL records to be taken seriously. XL Recordings founder Richard Russell recalls how the band finally broke through Stateside with “Firestarter”, Other British electronic artists, including the Chemical Brothers and Underworld, were also receiving unprecedented levels of US interest by this point, as the music industry at the time had decided that “electronica” was going to be the next big thing, and with the explosive release of “Fat of the Land” The prodigy made it possible. With it’s global success, on the night they received the news of its no1 status, Liam arrived in soho wearing a pair of socks a fan made him with a portrait of himself on them, and when Richard Russell queried his surprising apparel of choice, he flashed a gold- toothed grin and said, “no one can say shit to me now”
Other songs included in the album are, diesel power, breathe, and funky shit. With songs like funky shit containing the likeness of the rap group “Beastie boys” within the lyrics , “oh my god, that’s the funky shit” ,there comes the legality of using samples, but luckily in The Prodigy’s case, they settled on a £3000 settlement between XL records, and the rap group, so there lyric could be used in the track. also included in the track “funky shit” ,were the use of theme songs like “the theme from swat” and “the shining theme”, Liam became quite creative with the use of samples. in the song “smack my bitch up”, he uses a guitar riff from rage agains the machine’s, “bulls on parade” which some may say has bastardised their sound , however Liam reconstructed the riff and turned it into its own unique thing, completely unrecognisable from the original sample . There has also been lots of rumors that Liam made sounds with his own swords, but it’s not true, the swords in the track “breathe” , was in fact the “Wu-Tang Clan’s”, “Da Mystery of Chessboxing”.
Bibliography
Donoughue, P. (2019). Keith Flint was the twisted firestarter — unafraid to pick fights and offend. ABC News. [online] 5 Mar. Available at: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-05/keith-flint-brought-the-ethos-of-punk-to-dance-culture/10871206 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2023].
tech (2015). The Making of The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land. [online] MusicTech. Available at: https://musictech.com/guides/essential-guide/landmarks-prodigy-fat-of-the-land/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2023].