The Octopus is incredibly clever and powerful, and sometimes he likes to use that to his advantage, looking into the future to catch a glimpse of big releases that are just on the horizon. Here, he relays his findings to you, and lets you know what to expect from upcoming albums and other releases.
This time, he'll be looking at The Prodigy, and what their new album might bring...
It's been a long time coming, but it looks like finally we might be about to get some new music from the bastions of rave that are The Prodigy. Their last album, Invaders Must Die, was released all the way back in 2009. At the time, it was a breath of fresh air, both for the electronic music scene, and for The Prodigy themselves. It seemed to breathe new life into the old band, and whilst some purists may have felt that the new material was a step in the wrong direction, it proved to be a successful departure for Howlett and co., who seem to have been on the road ever since.
It's five years on now, and fans are clamouring for more. The thing is though, if you've been fortunate enough to attend one of The Prodigy's recent live shows, there's a good chance that you'll have actually heard some of their new material. I saw them back in December 2012, and even then we were treated to the odd new song. So now lets round up what we know, and what/what not to expect from their new album when it finally arrives.
What We Know
Umm... not an awful lot, to be honest with you. Even for the almighty Octopus, the future seems a bit hazy. However, there have been some tantalising bits of information in the form of interviews with music publications, and the odd foray onto social media.
Would you believe it, but this album has been on the horizon since May 2012. Back in that month, Liam Howlett revealed to NME that the album would be called How To Steal A Jet Fighter. Great! We've got a name at least!
Well, um, no. No we don't. Because fast-forward two years, to just last week in fact, and Howlett gave another interview to NME, where he said the album will "definitely not" be called that after all. Ah. He did also say that it has a new name... but that we weren't allowed to know what it is yet. (Having said this, they did just play a headline slot at Sonisphere in front of a massive jet fighter, so who knows what's really going on there.)
Okay, not so great, but we might finally be getting closer to a release, as in the same interview, we were given the extraordinarily vague release date of "this year". Sill, that's a tighter timeframe than we've had up until now. However, this Octopus foresees that it could well be early 2015 before we actually see it, as we're in July now, and that doesn't leave much time to start an album campaign for a release of this scale. Prove me wrong though, boys, prove me wrong.
How about some actual music then, do we know anything about that? Well, yes, surprisingly! Aside from the new tracks being played at the live shows (more on those shortly), the boys seem to be more willing to open up a bit on Facebook/Twitter now, and we've been given a few morsels. A month ago, they posted this photo to Facebook:
Post by The Prodigy.
Look closely: there's a file not-so-sublty placed on the screen called "get ur fight on - new version for album." This is one of the tracks that they've been playing at their live shows, including their run of shows at The Warehouse Project last December (I was at the last one, and I can tell you that they absolutely killed it). Here's some footage of the new track, this seems to be the best version around.
Look closely: there's a file not-so-sublty placed on the screen called "get ur fight on - new version for album." This is one of the tracks that they've been playing at their live shows, including their run of shows at The Warehouse Project last December (I was at the last one, and I can tell you that they absolutely killed it). Here's some footage of the new track, this seems to be the best version around.
At those shows, it's thought they played at least four new tracks. To have that many ready to go, you'd think they must be getting close to being finished,
The other significant thing we've given sadly no longer exists. Back at the beginning of April, they posted a 15 second clip of a new song to their Facebook page. For whatever reason, it's not there now, and it's been taken down, but I can tell you that it's an updated version of an unreleased track that leaked in 2012 called Destroy The Melody featuring Wiley. The new version didn't appear to feature the rapper, but it's hard to be sure from a 15 second clip. You can hear the old leaked version below though, and it didn't appear to have changed too much.
What To Expect
Well, let's start with what not to expect. Certainly don't expect some sort of direct follow up to IMD. That was a very of-the-moment thing, and they certainly aren't looking to do it again. You can see this in the way that they're starting to move away from the album slightly in their more recent live shows. Some tracks, like Warrior's Dance, are seldom played now.
What you can expect is an up to date take on their old sound. The one thing that has been consistent through the various interviews that Liam has given, has been the assertion that this will be a much darker, more aggressive album, and won't be anywhere near as radio friendly. Anecdotally, I can back this claim up through my experience at their show last December. All of the new tracks they played saw a return to the signature sound of The Prodigy - massive kicks, repeated vocal snippets, and grungy as hell. To quote Liam: "It's more violent-sounding; it feels wilder. It's not so much old-school. It's neither guitar-based not synth-based; it's kind of a mixture." So basically, a contemporary take on their old sound.
****
You can never be sure when to expect stuff from The Prodigy, but we're hopefully on the home straight now. Their willingness to open up a little bit more, share a little bit more, and the fact that a lot of these tunes already seem to be polished and ready to go is very promising indeed. Liam says they're just working through all of the tracks now to make sure they're ready to go. Great, it must almost be time! But then, he also said that they weren't really going to play any new stuff at their headline shows this summer, because no one wants to hear it.
I give up.
Writer, musician, and all-round top guy. I set up Excited Octopus. Currently, I'm on a one man team. It gets lonely sometimes. But I don't mind, because I love you all.
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