Tom Tom Club Win The Prodigy's Grand Slam

Liam Howlett continued promotion for his new Prodigy album 'Always
Outnumbered, Never Outgunned' this week with a pantomine style assault on
mainstream dance music.

"I still fucking hate house music, a lot of this new album may be club music
but it ain't nothing to do with house music," The Prodigy producer told DJ
magazine.

"It's inspired by the era before house- people like Tom Tom Club and D-Train, real fucking club sounds," he spat.

His enthusiastic support for Tom Tom Club matched the views of Slam star
Orde Meikle, who told Skrufff this week, he considers them as key
inspirations behind the Scottish duo's music.

"Wordy Rappinghood is one of the seminal all-time songs, it rings all kinds
of bells in our early musical development," said Orde.

"The beats, the hooks, the sounds and the overall feel of the track were
amazing; it was fresh and happy, it had so much in it and it caught both our
ears. It reminds us of a really eclectic era."

Orde was also considerably less dismissive of the house and techno scene
that Slam have made their name in, though agreed that clubland is entering
new era.

"One of the happier aspects of the changes taking place is that some of the
topper echelons of dance music might be pushed aside," he predicted.

"One of the problems was that the dance scene became so fragmented and so
many people would only listen to a certain sound and go to a certain club
and I find that problematic, though our DJ sets have become narrower over
time," he continued.

"But what's happening now is part of a progression. Certain scenes reach a
point where they no longer seem to be progressing, they have a short period
while they tread water, then sure enough something fresh comes through, and
that's where I think we are with a lot of genres of dance music. People are
looking around for other influences."

Both Slam's new album 'Year Zero' and the Prodigy's 'Always Outnumbered, Never
Outgunned' are out on Monday August 23 (in the UK)

Prodigy UK tour dates:
DECEMBER
2nd - Birmingham Academy
3rd - London Carling Brixton Academy
4th - London Carling Brixton Academy
6th - Manchester Carling Apollo
8th - Glasgow Academy
10th - Belfast Ulster Hall
11th - Dublin Olympia Theatre
Tags

• Skrufff