The Prodigy - No Tourists (2018)

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The Prodigy - No Tourists (2018)

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No Tourists is the seventh studio album by English electronic music band The Prodigy, set for release on 2 November 2018 on Take Me to the Hospital, their independent label managed by BMG. The group will support the album with world tour from November 2018.

Led by the belters “Need Some1,” “Light Up The Sky” and “We Live Forever,” No Tourists promises to be another pedal-to-the-floor ride.

The new LP came together in quick-time and has a “definite urgency and aggression about it,” and a “certain old school feel,” The Prodigy’s producer and mastermind Liam Howlett tells Billboard. “People will hear the early Prodigy sounds coming back a bit. But also without being retro, it feels fresh.”

More than 26 years have passed since the classic Experience introduced The Prodigy, and their burly beats, to the world. Their sophomore set, Music For The Jilted Generation, was their first U.K. album bestseller, in 1994, after which they followed up with The Fat Of The Land in 1997 (also a No. 1 on the Billboard 200), Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned in 2004, Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005 in 2005 and 2009’s Invaders Must Die. When The Day Is My Enemy hit the summit of the Official U.K. Albums Chart in 2015, it gave the group a sixth No. 1.

Billboard: Your seventh album is out in a matter of days. Do you still get jitters?

Liam Howlett: Yeah, it’s not many though, really. Seven albums in 26 years… there should be loads. I should be on album 20 by now. Of course, we’re excited about it. I never let anything out the studio unless were really delighted about it, unless we know we can play it live and it really represents the band. The fact this one came together really quickly I don’t know how, I don’t have the answers for that. All I know is, it was the most intense studio time I’ve ever had, the ride through it, the writing process. Everyone really pulled together. We worked on the road a lot, we recorded Keith’s vocals for the track “Champions Of London” in a hotel room in Belgium. This was much freer. Not being based in one place, we could set up the studio anywhere and got it rolling. For the last album, we had a really small studio space. This album is more lighter and freer. And I mixed it myself as I was going along. So it made a long process much quicker. But it was really intense, you know what I mean.

With the album coming together as quickly as it did, might that be a result of The Prodigy being as independent as a band can get? You’re now releasing music through your own label, Take Me To The Hospital.

Well, I think I’ve always tried to stay that way. I don’t think any record company would put up with me. The time it takes me to deliver some records, some careers have started and finished in those periods. So, we kind of fiercely protect our creative rights. The most important thing to us is to be in control and making sure the live side stays as pure as possible.