Speaking to the Guardian recently, Liam Howlett of the Prodigy lamented that dance music producers these days play it too safe: “There’s no pushing forward any more.” Though “safe” would be the wrong word to describe his band’s sixth album, an angry buzzsaw of a record that grates and spits for 56 minutes without respite, it marks no great progression for their music. There is a crunching inevitability about the metal-breakbeat synthesis on tracks such as Rok-Weiler. Their energy is still impressive, though, and some of the venting hits the mark: the vacuity of superstar DJ culture is nicely savaged on Ibiza.
