Listening to No Tourist is akin to reuniting with an old friend and remembering why you first loved them.
The Prodigy have bumptiously returned to the music scene with their weighty concoction of breakbeats, dubstep and fusible metallic techno and they don’t arrive empty-handed, they bring with them their glorious timely build ups and beefy base drops.
Listening to No Tourist is akin to reuniting with an old friend and yes this friend had changed a bit in 2015 with The Day is My Enemy, but they have gallantly returned reminding us of the 1992 friend we first loved but with a slightly more polished edge and a lot more attitude - and we welcome that friend back with open arms.
'Need Som1' is the song number 1, it’s a decent energetic techno opener and does the job of letting us know what the rest of the album has in store. A substantial blend of music production and effects placed with precision to give this trance track a narrative, this is an ethos they use throughout.
'Light Up the Sky' is track 2 and bring some light is exactly what it does, it’s the most melodic track on the album without compromising an edge, it’s still very much full bodied. 'We Live Forever' is a trance track and has distinct remnants of 'Outer Space', it’s one of the favourites on this album, partly because of the nostalgia it creates. Title track, 'No Tourists' is placed at 4, an almost soundtrack-like tune, a statement song with a hip-hop, breakbeat feel, you could envisage this being the anthem to a dance-off. Now, halfway through you’re gifted with 'Fight Fire With Fire', featuring Horrorcore group Ho9909, it’s definitely the heaviest track, very industrial, punk and dark, you’ll appreciate it for sure, but it's questionable about whether it will be a favourite.
The album is lifted again by happy hardcore track 'Timebmb Zones', that is until it drops and the sirens kick in, the acoustic loops make this big beat track work. 'Champions of London' is one of the standouts, it’s got attitude, aggression and more importantly, it’s got Keith! You’ll want to be in a room full of people bouncing to this, we guarantee it. 'Boom Boom Tap' - slightly hostile vocals that set up an intense hardcore-driven drop, its ok but not enough to it. Penultimate track, 'Resonate', has a sample sequence midway that will satisfy all rave children of the 90’s and it would have been nice to hear more of that kind of sample throughout the rest of the album.
Final track 'Give Me A Signal feat. Barnes Courtney' (which may surprise you) rounds up the album on a techno high with an intense build-up that leads to a spectacular drop towards the end of the song, a really appropriately placed track, leaving you satisfied.
No Tourists is as impressive as we’d hoped, The Prodigy has remained exclusive with their signature sound, and not an easy task when you’re music is predominantly production with little vocals. They’re sound is distinctive, always has been, always will be and this album reminds us of this, it definitely quenches a Prodigy thirst. The only slight disappointment was that there weren’t more Keith Flint vocals, Keith’s voice reminds us that The Prodigy are a hardcore punk group and slightly anarchistic and this album needed a little bit more of that.
