I never understood the attraction. But then again I didn't understand what all the fuss was about over the Prodigy and "Firestarter" either. Or Underworld after they moved from rock to dance. All seemed vastly overrated to me. There is something I must be missing.
>Both seemed vastly overrated to me. There is something I must be missing.
Drugs, probably.
Firestarter is an amazing track when it comes on at 3am and you've been dancing for hours. In the cold light of day, not so much.
EDM of that era was very much designed to be experienced with MDMA and the KLF in particular really needed a stadium full of people in a similar state to fully appreciate them.
All the extra Discordian stuff was just icing. Hail Eris!
Firestarter was way past the "second summer of love", m25 party circuit days that was pure gurning pillheads getting crazy to samples of 80s cartoons.
It's when the Prodigy had become mainstream and this was was dance/indie-rock crossover type track that they used to headline Glastonbury the following year. Pre-teens loved it - energetic and edgy... but really it wasn't subversive, just broadly available pop music that hit the top of the charts. If I went to a mid-90s techno or hard house event and they played this, I would have been as disappointed as if they played 2 Unlimited. Despite this, I still liked and went to Prodigy concerts and saw them at festivals.
Being there are the time of release and it capturing a certain feeling and mood of that time.
I was, and looking back on it, its very nostalgic but some of the music hasn't aged well such as some KLF tracks. Early Liam Howlett (The Prodigy) tracks I must admit I find interesting just because of all the sources sampled and how it was worked with the hardware available at the time with a raw energy that I remember when I was 17/18
