Early next month, The Prodigy will re-release their demure, modestly successful period piece The Fat Of The Land.
XL’s reissue will feature a glut of extra remixes: Baauer, The Glitch Mob, Alvin Risk and Zeds Dead are among those taking the record to task. As The Fader report, BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe dropped Major Lazer’s remix of controversy magnet ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ on his show earlier this week. It makes sense that one of contemporary dance music’s gaudiest propositions would take on one of The Prodigy’s most shameless cuts, and the results are as you might expect – big, brash, and about as nuanced as a Fox News roundtable discussion.
Bar some toasting and air horn gubbins, Diplo and co leave the track almost entirely unmolested for the first minutes. After a (very silly) drop, however, things snap into Flosstradamus mode: the tempo drops, and Diplo fires strafing high hats and wiggly synth tones at the listener. NB: Dutch bass crew Noisa have also remixed the track.
The revamped Fat of the Land will be released on double-vinyl, double-CD and digital download on December 4.
Update: Baauer’s remix of the Eastern-tinged ‘Mindfields’ has also surfaced. While more reverent of the original than Major Lazer’s remix, its “dubstep wobble plus stalking percussion loop” formulation is none too novel, either.