Prodigy, The Vinyl Records
The Prodigy navigated the high wire, balancing artistic merit and mainstream visibility with more flair than any electronica act of the 1990s. Ably defeating the image-unconscious attitude of most electronic artists in favour of a focus on frontmen Keith Flint and Maxim Reality, the group crossed over to the mainstream of pop music with an incendiary live experience that approximated the original atmosphere of the British rave scene, even while leaning close to arena rock showmanship and punk theatrics. Yet it was always producer Liam Howlett's studio wizardry that launched the Prodigy to the top of the charts during the late-'90s electronica boom, spinning a web of hard-hitting breakbeat techno with king-sized hooks and unmissable samples.