I wonder what old Keith Flint would think if he knew his new album launch was being held at Café Maude in Sandton on Thursday evening. Nice spot, but not the Prodigy crowd’s usual hangout. Although he seems like an adaptable guy. I imagine him strolling in, grabbing some salmon and mussels from the black-shirted waiter before turning to the doll at the bar and slurring “Smack my bitch up, baby”. Not quite.
The launch of the British techno-punk outfit’s latest album, Invaders Must Die, involved a sample of the press and music industry populations, most of whom seemed slightly surprised and slightly confused, but with a hint of hysterical excitement.
The older they were, the more excited they were. The one 21-year-old there was not quite sure who the Prodigy were but had a feeling they were (had been?) special. The album came as a bombshell to many people, including me. I thought their days were over. “Perhaps they drank away all their money so they had to make another album,” said a young lady munching on her Camembert toast.
Invaders Must Die, off their label, Cooking Vinyl, is the band’s first album since 1999’s The Fat of the Land, which introduced a large number of adolescents like me to some very dirty words.
I’m assuming that no one counts their 2004 album, Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, as a real album, because they only had one original member on it. The new album comes after years of ugly egos and animosity, which the band swears has disappeared completely.
The band feels that this album is “uplifting and abrasive” and “every song can be played live”. Pity I never got to hear it though, since the launch involved not a listening session, but a screening of the video for the single, Omen, currently on radio and at number three on the UK charts, an electronic promotion kit presentation and, well, some more old videos.
I am excited for this album, I really am. But it’s a special excitement because I wasn’t expecting anything more from the Prodigy, and I was okay with that. But if they’re willing to give, I’m more than happy to receive.
The album will be released in South Africa on Monday 23rd February.