The Prodigy - Firestarter (UK82 Punk Version) 🎸

What if...The Prodigy played UK82 punk? Imagine, if you will, that it's 1996 in an alternative universe, not unlike our own. The Prodigy are preparing the long awaited follow up to 1994's breakthrough release, 'Music For the Jilted Generation'. Keith Flint has already stepped forward to add sneering, snarling vocals to some of the group's new songs, and main man, Liam Howlett, decides to bring in former English Dogs guitarist Gizz Butt, to complement the punk edge that this new material already possesses. He's so taken by the success of this experiment that he decides to go a step further, abandoning electronic music altogether, and converting the Prodigy into a punk band, playing the abrasive style of hardcore known to fans as UK82. With Leeroy and Maxim taking up drums and bass respectively, and Liam himself taking on second guitar duties, the band sets about recording a whole LP full of blunt, aggressive punk tunes, heavily indebted to GBH and Chaos UK. Unsurprisingly, this sudden change is a step too far for the group's established fan-base, but luckily, the band are welcomed with open arms by the punk community, playing to eager crowds of punks, skins and crusties in squats and dives across the nation, and becoming a mainstay of Rebellion festival for decades to come!

Written by Howlett/Flint/Horn/Dudley/Jeczalik/Morley/Langan/Deal

I do not own the copyright to the song, Keith's lead vocal, or any of the clips used. Backing track performed, arranged and produced by me, using GarageBand and whatever instruments came to hand.

I started by syncing the vocal to the grid, editing out as much excess noise as possible (it's not a very clean isolation, I'm afraid), and cutting it down, as I decided the UK82 version should be short and to-the-point. I programmed the drums, then cranked up the tempo to a good, thrashy speed. I recorded a bass line with a clanking, gnarly tone, and a pair of rhythm guitars, with a third guitar crashing in on the choruses. I recorded the guitar solo in two overlapping parts, with two distinct sounds, to sound like two guitarists playing off each other (not very authentic, as most well-known UK82 bands only had a single guitarist, but it sounds cool!). I wanted some aggressive 'Hey! Hey! Hey!' chants to go between lines of verse, but didn't want to record them myself, as I didn't want to upset my neigbours! I solved this problem by cheekily sampling some from another record - bonus points if you can spot which one.

There's a nerdy companion piece to this video, with discussion and recording insights. View it here: https://youtu.be/NW3V5HZMwwI

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