The Prodigy: "The Fat Of The Land" (XL Recordings) Dial-a-track code: 1201

The Chemical Brothers have already prepared the way for techno's long-awaited crossover into the main-stream, and all that remains now is for The Prodigy to swagger in and sweep the pop kids off their flying feet. Fat Of The Land ups the ante on The Chemicals' Dig Your Own Hole, adding some seriously deranged sounds to even bigger big beats, lacing it with velvety, Eastern chants, then smashing it apart with snotty punk guitars and vocals.

The album is direct and in-your-face dollop, with little time wasted on noodling - Liam Howlett has turned his bank of keyboards into a giant, industrial turbine, cranking out the big, metallic sounds with oiled-up efficiency. There's little here which hasn't already been explored elsewhere to greater effect, but The Prodigy have condensed it all into a mass of dense breakbeats and sent it plummeting to earth like a - meteor.

The album opens with the sample from gangsta rap, Smack My Bitch Up; the attempt to poke fun at the genre backfires all over the band, - on the album's US cover, asterisks have been liberally added to the song's title - but it is a great tune. Keith Flint's sneering, Johnny Rotten-style vocals spit their way through Serial Thrilla and Firestarter, while Republica's Saffron joins Flint for a psychotic duet of L7's Fuel My Fire. Maxim's darker, more demonic style breaks through on Breathe and Mindfields. The album peaks with Climbatize, Liam pulling out all the stops on his synth-bank for a full-on classical-style climax.