Album: Experience
Artist: The Prodigy
Label: XL Recordings
Year: 1992
Rating: 4/5
Summary: Amateur sounding but fun and great to dance to.
By the time The Prodigy's first full-length album came out, Charly
and Everybody In the Place had already achieved success in the UK
singles chart thanks to the popularity of the rave scene. For once,
completists could let out a sigh of relief, however: the album
featured different remixes of the songs. It's a shame this great
idea didn't continue throughout The Prodigy's subsequent releases.
Like a lot of rave music, this album is easy enough to fault, should
you want to pick holes in it. It's littered with short vocal samples,
although they're less irritating than most, with the possible exception
of Charly the cat. Several synthesiser presets are used, which some
musicians might consider cheating. The production feels amateur,
pumping out far too much sub-bass and generally sounding rough around
the edges. If you don't like rave music with its quick house pianos
and fast breakbeats, this won't exactly convert you.
Such criticisms are missing the point, however. Experience came
long before Liam Howlett's dark, moody and professional sounding
later work. It was made back when he was part of the rave scene,
and perfectly reflects the happy, fun, naive culture that his
contemporaries had created. It's very much a young person's album,
sounding energetic and carefree.
Above all, Experience serves a purpose: it puts you in an upbeat
mood. While there's nothing stopping you from sitting down and
listening to it, it's much better suited to spurring you on when
you're dancing, working out at the gym, or trying to cram a full
day's work into a couple of hours.
As flawed as it is, Experience is a shining example of the kind of
music that can be created in a youthful culture built on love, drugs
and dancing.