Niki N. Phaser

After more than a month ago we had an article about The Prodigy’s future single, Take Me To The Hospital. Well, the video is finally here, for the actual release of the single you’ll have to wait till August 31. The video was made available through the band’s official website on August 5, after premiering on the PlayStation 3 application, VidZone (like U2′s latest single). The video for Take Me To The Hospital was directed by Paul Dugdale, who fans might know as the author of the frequently updated mini-movies documenting The Prodigy’s tour. Surprinsingly, it was filmed at the Pinewood Studios and not some old, abandoned… something. To achieve a more grainy picture, Dugdale went for VHS and the result really does look like some old video you had stashed somewhere in the garage. After a Noel Clarke video, a live video and an animated video, it was about time for the band to make an effort and shake it a little bit for the camera. With some shots reminiscing of the Firestarter video, Take Me To The Hospital it’s pretty simple and dirty and also ant-logo-free. However, whenever the chipmunk voices kick in with the chorus, we do see an army of little vandals wearing… chipmunk masks.

SEE THE VIDEO HERE

From all the other arts, music could best be compared to painting. A painter is able to communicate emotions through the images he creates. Sometimes, these are very complex, filled with all sorts of details, shades and colours and sometimes, they are very simple, just a few lines and yet they are still as strong, if not even more. In this respect, songs are very similar to paintings. Some are multilayered, with all sorts of sounds an instruments filling the sonic space, while others are very minimal, played on one instrument or composed of one melodic episode. The music of Vangelis is a good way of exemplifying this theory. He has plenty of tracks that use dozens of sounds and create an universe which offers something new to discover at every listen, but he also has very simple compositions which are very effective in creating moods.

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We all know (or do we?) the story of The Prodigy’s The Fat of the Land album and how, because of it, the rave elders of the tribe ruled the world for about two years, before taking a long break. The three singles released from this album, Breathe, Firestarter and Smack My Bitch Up have all made history: the videos included in almost every countdown of controversial mv’s, the tracks covered and remixed by legions of dj’s, they haven’t missed from any live set of the band ever since. But an album does not achieve such success and notoriety on singles alone. Amongst non-single masterpieces like Funky Shit, Mindfields or Climbatize, we also encounter the first official collaboration between Liam Howlett and rapper Kool Keith of Ultramagnetic MCs fame. The hip-hop crew is one of Howlett’s favourite to sample, but this is the first time Kool was actually invited to do the vocals and the lyrics. Before being included on the album, the track used to be played live, known as Blow Ya Mind with Maxim doing some freestylin’ over the beat. The Kool version retained the chorus “Blows your mind drastically, fantastically” and most importantly, the sick d’n'b line, punctuated by a base hit that will test ya speakers and blow ya mind, all in one. It’s interesting that despite hip-hop being one of Howlett’s primal preferences, this is about the only Prodigy tune that would qualify in this genre. It is one of their most powerful tracks, displaying once again Howlett’s ability and pleasure of creating beats that no matter at what volume you play them, they still sound too loud for the neighbours.

LIVE PERFORMANCE OF Blow Ya Mind IN 1996