Prodigy - Always outnumbered, never outgunned

[Merlot]

From what I read in a mag which interviewed liam howlett, basically he sampled the hardware gear and loaded it into the nnxt in reason. SO the sounds were not created using a softsynth. Basically just loaded and played. I believe it was in Remix magazine about 4 maybe 5 issues ago.

[waketek]

Liam, said in one of his articles that (as Merlot pointed out) that not only did he upload his 10 yrs worth of Samples into Reason ....But then goes on to say that he was shooting for a rough distorted sound that was not over produced. He also did not let the pro tools guy smooth the mix out and make sure all the samples were perfecty butted up to one another for any of the tracks. In the Future Music September 04 issue FM152 there is a good article giving you a deep and thorough description of the process he calls his rough and ready approach under the interveiw section Jagged Edges. I think he pretty much got exactly what he wanted a rough and ready album that was not over produced. The whole article is a good read so is the one in Remix Vol. 6 No. 8 August 04.

My opinion- Great Album, I to thought it sounded a little rough at first listen and what not but after reading these articles I now understand where Mr. Howlett was and the sound he was trying to get.

[AvS]

Originally Posted by Gopal

Its what happens when you go to software. Things just don't sound right.

You know he wrote the whole friggen album on reason. Bad idea Liam

Hehe. He WROTE the album in Reason. Not produced. IMO the album sounds superb.

You should all read the article in the SOS magazine.

The album is mixed and processed with the best of the best analog gear. The tracks are mixed on a NEVE desk. He borrowed five (FIVE!) Fairchild compressors!, Manley Massive passive EQ, Culture Vulture distortion and some other higend analog stuff! And to me the synths sound sounds very analog. No way they are Reason synths. Well perhaps some of the distortet/heaveily processed sounds are, but the raw synths sound are definetly analog.

I think what he did is great idea. Writing the album in Reason without thinking about the sound and when make the tracks sound great when they are done.

ps: I dont even like the music - I just like the sound.

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by DIGITAL SCREAMS

this album is a softsynth showcase...nothing more. Early Prodigy used alot of Moog and Sequential gear for crusty drums and ripping leads and raw bass. Now their stuff sounds restrianed......no amount of plug-in distortion can make up for it.

Hoho. Classic. The analog fan gets confused(tm).

[Timo]

The distortion came from a Thermionic Vulture. 100% analogue.

After reading Howlett's interview before AONO was released, I honestly had high hopes for the album, especially as it's been so long since Fat Of The Land. As the chap said in his interview, "I realized that just because you shout more and louder on a record doesn't mean people feel you more, so I decided to take the beats back to the street." ...Which I thought, ah, nice one!, so it's not just going down the same direction as "Baby's Got a Temper", kinda thing. Given that, I thought the album might have a little less distortion-thrashing.

So when I got to hear it I was like, wtf?! Wtf have you done! I'm not at all fond of the new album. A lot of it actually is just fatiguing over-distortion and is literally yelling it down your eardrums, contrary to what Liam had implied in the interview, in a way.
There's "punchy", and then there's "blastin-yer-crappin'-ears-off-wi'-a-brickwall-o'-mush"... Always Outnumbered's biased towards the latter.

I quite liked Spitfire, actually that song rocks (especially when processed further with mastering stuff to make it sound even bigger! ), but the rest are pretty unmemorable, at least to me. If anyone other than Prodigy made it, I'd have binned it. Given their history for usually producing damn good music, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and played the album several times to get my head around it, and now it's grown on me as much as it will, I think. - Ie. Not a lot.

Must say I miss the Roland/Jupiter-type analogue strings and the chordal tunes like Climbatize, Skylined, Weather Experience, Narayan, etc., that cropped up at least once in each album, as that was a chilled Prodigy sound that I really, really liked. The 'melodic' stabs/phrases have disappeared, as has the acid 303s (no bad thing really, although Liam always did keep his acid stuff away from sounding like the clich?d commercial sound of trance in the later years. The 303-type phrases in Smack My Bitch Up sounded damn cool, and of course he pioneered it in Experience and MFTJiltedGen - probably unconsciously inspiring and spawning what was to become a future staple and fully raped groovebox concept), but it's probably cut off the original old-skool ravers that have followed Prodigy since the beginning.
The Poison-type tunes, that I reckon may have been the influences that were carried through into FOTL, have vanished, as have the 'clear'-but-still-punchy-as-f*k breakbeats that were so characteristic of The Prodigy. Though Howlett said "He was taking the beats back to the street", whatever that means, the drums still sound a little two-dimensional and flat, even on Spitfire. I liked his production on all the other albums - powerful but still clearly defined - to me AONO just sounds noisy as hell.

The voodoo is missing.

Where's it gone, Liam, man?!

And also, what the 'eck is Gallagher doing on there! I'd prefer the voodoo, any day..

IMHO.

My fav album is still M4TJiltedGeneration closely followed by FatOTL. Although those two swap with each other depending on what mood I'm in.

PS > However, in Prodigy's defence, it's certainly not mainstream, which is probably where they didn't want to be anyway, so I guess he's done good by taking the hardcore fans and his music back underground.

At the end of the day, Liam should make music how he wants, not what his fans want. So if he likes/loves it, then he needs to stick by that, and f*ck to everyone else. Hats off to him.

[AlexHall74]

It will interesting as hell (and difficult!) to listen to this album with unbiased ears after reading all these posts.

In a way I'm glad as I am the type of person who likes to know what to expect in an album, to a degree. That way if you kind of know what's coming and an album still blows your f*@king socks off it must REALLY be a bad-ass album.

Over all, Liam and The Prodigy have given me some pretty sacred memories. I can recall SO many times when we (myself, my girl, my lads) would all be jamming out to FATOL and MFTJG at our own after parties or just a day at the beach...

Ahhh the precious memories of yesteryear!

Even if this one does stink in my book I still think there is hope for a better future release. I have a hard time believing that all the good tunes that man is going to write are out of his system. He's hardly washed up, maybe he just had a few bad day's at the office?

Thanks for all the cool links/references to articles in this post y'all!

-AlexHall74

[Juho L]

Where's DS? He's probably so embarassed that he won't ever return here again. ?hih.

[Merlot]

Originally Posted by Juho L

Where's DS? He's probably so embarassed that he won't ever return here again. ?hih.

Just had to rubb it in!!

[Juho L]

Originally Posted by Merlot

Just had to rubb it in!!

I just can't control myself. Hearing software and thinking hearing software are two different things. Muahahahaha!

[Timo]

hehe.

If you're a Sound-On-Sound subscriber, you can read the music-tech lowdown in the recent Howlett/AONO interview [here], or you can find it in the Oct 2004 mag. It's quite a good interview, actually! Howlett seems like a really decent bloke.

A sneak peek, to put a few cats among the pigeons, if I may be so very cheeky:

"Turning his back on most of the equipment in his studio, Liam bought a laptop and, after hearing about it through a friend, a copy of Propellerhead's Reason software. He then selected just five pieces of kit from the studio ? a Thermionic Culture Phoenix valve compressor and Culture Vulture distortion unit, a Korg Micro Keyboard, a Manley valve EQ and a 1980s Korg MS20 analogue keyboard."

purrrrr....