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By Lily Moayeri Beat junkie I never understood, after a night out, people just going home, relaxing and listening to laidback chill-out music, says Liam Howlett, the Prodigys mastermind. That doesnt happen in my house. Howletts version of what you would be hearing at his place is showcased on his installation of the Back To Mine series. While the Prodigys music is a messy hybrid of breakbeats, nonsensical lyrics and just plain noise, evident on their recent greatest hits collection, Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005, Howletts personal tastes are varied and noteworthy. In the brief hour on Back To Mine, he includes numbers from Queens Of The Stone Age (Feel Good Hit Of The Summer) to Dolly Parton (Jolene), Meat Beat Manifesto (Radio Babylon) and a triple threat from the Specials, the Stranglers and the Jam. These are slotted in easily among hip-hop staples from Public Enemy, Method Man and Noreaga. All the tracks revolve around a series of parties I was having at my house, says Howlett. It was a question of one morning after one of the parties, my birthday, going downstairs and looking at what was played and remembering how those songs worked during the night. It is a souvenir from those evenings across the summer. Its quite self-absorbed really. Howletts concern is not so much making the beats match as it is shifting the moods enough to make the transitions work. His choices, not only of artists, but of the particular songs he picks and the eras they represent are significant. Theres a reason why every track is on there, he explains. They are key moments in my life, he says. Music means more if things happen out of it. For me, culture, or if you feel youre involved in that sound, or you discover it and its something amazing. This isnt Howletts first compilation. In 1999, he put together Dirtchamber Sessions, which is a mix album with more tracks, chopped up to fit and occasionally chosen simply to make the mix work. Back To Mine is a more accurate, current representation of what makes him tick now, tracing back to the songs and Howletts, origins. The first time I was exposed to music properly, I was in school, he remembers. My teacher said, I wont be in school tomorrow because Im going to see the Sex Pistols. It was on the news that night, right in the middle of the controversial time of the Pistols. I was in horror. It was the first thing that really affected me. My dad bought me an alarm clock radio my dad cant be this cool, he must have picked any record off the shelf but he picked up a ska 2 Tone compilation. You could set this clock to Too Much Too Young by the Specials and I was woken up for school by this record every day. From that I used to stand in the record shop, look at pictures of the Specials and think, Fuck, I wish I was in that gang. That was really it for me. On the web: www.theprodigy.com |
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Copyright © 2002 Mean Street Magazine, LLC |
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