A band that’s so last decade

IN the mid-1990s, about the time grunge started to slip into redundance, mainstream American audiences got a sample of the new kid on the block -- electronica, a burgeoning strain of supple dance music born out of the techno and house movements in cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York and London. Electronica was made out to be a youthful force that would stomp the last breath of life out of the wheezing geezer known as rock ‘n’ roll.

One of the genre’s biggest touts, along with the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, was the Prodigy, an outfit formed in 1990 from the East London rave scene. Led by producer Liam Howlett, with frontman Keith Flint, dancer Leeroy Thornhill (who left in 2002) and later joined by hip-hop MC Maxim Reality, the Prodigy favored giant snapping hooks, drum-and-bass beats and the kind of snipped, repetitious vocal samplings that became the calling card of early electronica.

At the height of its powers, the Essex-bred Prodigy was nominated for a Mercury Music Prize, topped the British and American charts and turned down collaborative offers from Madonna and David Bowie.

Five albums and a retrospective (“Their Law: The Singles 1990-2005”) later, the Prodigy has a healthy, albeit lower-profile career playing shows in Europe’s thriving festival circuit, not to mention Saturday’s headlining show at the Rokout Festival in San Bernardino.

The outfit is also at work on a new album, the first since 2004’s nearly forgotten “Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned.”

The Prodigy’s story ramps up quickly. “Charly,” a primitive track centered around a sample from a children’s public-service announcement, jump-started their celebrity in the English rave scene. Mainstream success wasn’t far behind: “Music for the Jilted Generation,” their 1995 chart-topping second album, was nominated for a Mercury Prize.

It’s not surprising to Howlett, speaking from Essex, that the Prodigy found such success. “British dance music is an important part of British culture,” he says. “It’s always been there. It’s there now, it’s just morphed into different things.”

Although the Prodigy’s success at home was “a natural build,” its ascent in the U.S. was a much more commercial effort.

“In America, it was much more cynical,” Howlett says. “It was a big record label-MTV push. It was like ‘Now here’s the Next Big Thing. And here are the bands.’ ”

MTV’s Buzz Bin gave lots of play to the video for “Firestarter,” a flashy, muscular anthem that would wind up on the band’s third album, “The Fat of the Land.” The effort was not in vain: “Firestarter,” featuring Flint’s piercings, horned hairdo and punk-weirdo antics, caught the attention of Americans searching for something to replace grunge. “The Fat of the Land” entered the charts at No. 1.

With its L7 cover (“Fuel My Fire”) and the Kool Keith raps on tracks like “Diesel Power,” “The Fat of the Land” made it clear that the Prodigy set its sights on transcending the genre boundaries, fashioning a record that could be embraced by ravers and rockers alike.

Howlett detoured to make a mix album in 1999, and the next proper Prodigy album, largely Howlett’s handiwork, sought to replicate the “Fat” formula. Instead, it revealed the cracks in the band’s armor.

“Always Outnumbered” featured guest vocals from Liam Gallagher and Juliette Lewis, but not a peep from Flint or Maxim. Burned out from constant touring, the band seemed all but finished: “Basically, we weren’t really speaking to each other,” Howlett says. “I was in a position where I had to do a record and it seemed more relevant to do something about me.”

It seemed for the best; the previous joint effort, the 2002 single “Baby’s Got a Temper,” “was a total mess,” Howlett says.

NEWLY reassembled in the studio, the Prodigy has been energized by the last few years of touring, instead of drained. Previously, Howlett had developed the tracks by himself, but for the new album, the trio has been working together.

“We’ve really jelled this time,” Howlett says, describing the new songs as “a proper follow-up to ‘Fat of the Land,’ ” a work that is “not a DJ record. We sound like a band.”

“It’s kind of fast, scary and ravey,” he says. “Just like a good Prodigy record should be.”

margaret.wappler@latimes.com

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Rokout Festival

What: The Prodigy, Mindless Self Indulgence, Mauro Picotto, Q-bert, Grooverider, Freestylers, Souls of Mischief, DJ Z-Trip, Sage Francis, Emanon, Adam F and others

Where: National Orange Show Events Center, 689 S. E St., San Bernardino

When: 3 p.m. Saturday

Price: $40

Info: www.rokout.com; www.groovetickets.com