Music Theory #10: The Prodigy

Earlier this week, Keith Flint the frontman and lead singer of The Prodigy passed away. In honor of the incredible music that The Prodigy made over the course of several decades, this week’s Music Theory will be about them.

Artist: The Prodigy

Latest Album: No Tourists (2018)

Genre: Electronica/Electronic rock

Favorite Track: Omen (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Poison, Breathe, Firestarter, Run With The Wolves, World’s On Fire, Rebel Radio, Rhythm Bomb, Roadblox, No Tourists

Why I Enjoy Them: While I definitely had a soft spot for The Prodigy and their singles during the 90s and early 2000s, it wasn’t under 2009’s Invaders Must Die that they really became a band I truly appreciated. I’d grown into electronic music as I got older and the song Omen was like a bolt of lightning to the music adoration part of my brain. The entire album is great, but I love that particular song to death. And their follow-up in 2015 was also up my alley, cementing them as an electronic band I had high regard for. I was on the verge of going to see The Prodigy perform live this year on their tour and now I’m sad that I won’t ever get to see them live in concert.

Music Theory #7: Assemblage 23

This is not a podcast! I know this is probably obvious to most of you upon reading this, but I’ve had to rearrange a few things in my schedule this week. Due to a busy weekend and also having a slightly larger than normal podcast for this week, I’m not quite done with the editing process yet. I’m aiming to have the podcast uploaded and available for listening on Thursday of this week instead of Tuesday. Sorry for the delay, but it’ll be worth the wait I promise!

That being said, I’ve gone ahead and moved my Music Theory recommendation for this week into the podcast slot so there’s something for you all to listen to in its place. Apologies again, but there’s only so much one TMan can do at a time. Hope you enjoy this week’s music!

Band: Assemblage 23

Latest Album: Endure (2016)

Genre: Electronic/Synthpop

Favorite Track: Infinite (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Disappoint, I Am The Rain, Ground, Regret, 30KFT, Greed, Crosstalk, Automaton

Why I Enjoy Them: Assemblage 23 is one of the first electronic bands that I really got into. Storm is probably one of my top electronic albums ever and up there in my list of all-time favorites since I can pretty much listen to it from start to finish without skipping anything. They feel like a gateway band to electronic music because while they have a lot of synth and typical electronic stylings, they also usually stick to the typical format of verse-chorus-verse-chorus that most pop songs use and shy away from the repetitive vocals/samples of other electronic bands. I really enjoy their style and they remain a staple in my rotation of favorite musicians.

Music Theory #2: Dance With The Dead

We’re back with another Music Theory! This week’s band is Dance With The Dead!

Band: Dance With The Dead

Latest Album: Loved to Death

Genre: Synthwave

Favorite Track: From Hell (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Graveyard Shift, Poison, Riot, Diabolic, The Man who Made a Monster, Snap, Into the Shadows

Why I Enjoy Them: I don’t remember how I ended up listening to them – I think their album The Shape popped up as a recommended YouTube video at some point and I just fell into a hole of listening to all of their discography. Dance With The Dead just excels at that retro 80s techno sound with awesome beats and great synth. They’re a good pair to Infected Mushroom for me in terms of the spectrum of techno that I enjoy. Their tracks are also some of my favorite to Audiosurf to as the constant drums and their usual fast beats per second make a great challenge. They’re one of my top “listen to while driving” bands.

Music Theory #1: Infected Mushroom

We’re on a resolution roll here at TMan Writes, and so today’s post is about another change in habit that I’m enacting in 2019. As you’ve probably picked up by now, music is important to me. But what shocked me as 2018 ended was that I’d barely listened to any new music. I’d picked up a few new bands, but a lot of albums released this year from bands that I like and I hadn’t given most of them even a cursory listen.

I was a bit surprised at myself, but I also realized that I’d strayed away from music in general in 2018 while I focused on other things. My podcast intake increased while my music intake decreased. So in order to get myself back into the habit of keeping myself up to date with new music, I’m introducing Music Theory as a weekly endeavor.

These posts aren’t going to be long-form; instead they’ll likely be focused around a specific artist or album and have very limited actual writing involved. But I love music and want to spread music I enjoy, and hopefully having a weekly motivation will help keep me in the loop music-wise this year.

Anyway, for the first Music Theory I present to you Infected Mushroom.

Band: Infected Mushroom

Latest Album: Head of NASA and the 2 Amish Boys (2018)

Genre: Psytrance/Electronica

Favorite Track: Spitfire (see above)

Other Recommended Tracks: Guitarmass, Head of NASA, Vicious Delicious, Suliman, Herbert The Pervert

Why I Enjoy Them: I follow Monstercat on YouTube and through them I first heard Spitfire, which then led me to listening to the rest of Infected Mushroom’s discography. They were a slow burn, but once I warmed up to their music I really dug it. They are the exact type of electronic music that I like: good beats, enough variation to keep me engaged, but also repetitive enough for me to be able to listen to their tracks while I’m doing other things. I prefer their instrumental tracks to the ones that use vocals, but they have standout tracks of both. Techno/trance is a genre that’s always been one of my favorite and Infected Mushroom just nails the sound that I want from the style.