#AONO20: Dead Ken Beats · Frequencies
The year 2024 has been a landmark for The Prodigy, marked by major musical anniversaries: the cult album ‘Jilted Generation’ turned 30, and ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’ celebrated its 20th anniversary. These milestones, along with other significant but lesser-known events, have been the focus of many of our publications — though not all have yet seen the light of day. Rest assured, we’ll continue sharing these materials in 2025, completing what we’ve started.
Today, celebrating the New Year, we turn our attention to some iconic outtakes from the AONO era. These tunes were first heard during that period but never received an official release, living on only in memories. We will talk about the unreleased gems: the track Dead Ken Beats and its lesser-known counterpart, Frequencies — both of which have long deserved their moment in the spotlight.
DEAD KEN BEATS • LIVE
Dead Ken Beats was first performed on 20 November 2004 at the gig in Amsterdam, during a tour in support of the ‘AONO’ album. Its performance was unexpected and apparently spontaneous — the tune was not listed in the setlist, and the title of the track remained unknown for some time.
But attentive listeners quickly recognized its basis – the legendary song California Über Alles by Dead Kennedys.
The second performance of ‘Dead Ken Beats’ could have taken place in Osaka (Japan), but for unknown reasons, the track was interrupted at the very beginning and was not played in full. Only on 2nd December, as part of the traditional December tour in Britain, the track was officially placed in the setlist during the concert in Birmingham, becoming a permanent part of the show.
- ‘DKB’ FUCK UP @ OSAKA (2004)
According to Neko, who was close to the band during that time, Liam Howlett wrote the track a year or two before its premiere, finalizing it for live performances just ahead of the Amsterdam gig.
Neko’s review from ‘AONO’ tour: “Next on is this new track debuted in Amsterdam less than 2 weeks ago. Apparently Liam only just wrote it in the afternoon before the Amsterdam show”
Neko’s review from ‘AONO’ tour: “I later find out that the ‘new track’ from Amsterdam is called Dead Ken Beats indeed, and it samples a Dead Kennedys track. Apparently Liam wrote part of it already 1 or 2 years ago, but decided to bring it back and make it work live now!”
I.e., the basis of the track was created while still working on the ‘AONO’ album but didn’t make it into the release, making it the perfect basis for a live “filler”.
Neko: “Do you feel that going away from festivals gives you more space to experiment?”
LH: “Yeah, absolutely. Its so much more room to be much more experimental at these gigs. Whether thats a good thing or a bad thing for the fans, I dont know. Its good for us. I personally think that if people come to a show and see a live jam of Dead Ken made up on the spot, then that aint gonna happen a lot, that is never gonna happen on the tour. By the time were on that tour it will be a proper arrangement, you know. And people should value that they can say I was there.”
‘Dead Ken Beats’ was performed completely live from the beginning and sounded a little different each time. During the early performances in 2004, the track had a measured tempo of about 100 BPM, without aggressive synths.
In 2005, the track was sped up and introduced new elements, including a second bridge with an aggressive synth. You may notice that during Coachella’s gig, Liam speeds up the track in real time! In 2006, it was occasionally played with this synth riff in the intro.
The track was performed live in such forms until 2008, when it appeared two more times before finally disappearing from the setlist.
However, over the years, from 2004 to 2008, rumours of a possible release of the track persisted.
Liam Howlett in his blog (17/12/04): “i have new traks like wake up full vocal version ,warning and ded ken but they r all potential singles after spitfire so they wont be on b-side”
Liam Howlett in his blog (28/07/05): “the next prodigy album is what im interested in now this is finished .tunes like ded ken beats r too good just to appear on a bonus disc and they will develop into future rockers for the next album”
The track was initially planned as a potential single, later considered a “strong” B-side, and eventually envisioned as a full album track for a record expected to release in 2007-2008. However, as we know, no release occurred in either 2007 or 2008.
Neko: “How are Warning and Dead ken beats going to fall into that category?”
LH: “Dead ken beats will definitely be on that record, we were talking about it tonight. Dead ken is a track we really like, we like the groove and the beat and its really fucking tough.its stil developing. Its a different groove; its really kind of fresh sounding. Its a track im really going to have to go and find the right vocal for, which is one of the things I am doing right now”
LH: “None of the tracks you’ve heard so far are going to be on the album!”
Neko: “Does that include the Hurricane Heatwave?”
LH: “Yes, everything! Dead Ken beat maybe, don’t know… Maybe”
Neko: “How come ‘Dead Ken Beats’, for example, can’t make it on the album, is it just not working in the studio?”
LH: “No, I wouldn’t say that. Maybe that is one of the few tracks that we’re all…. It might elevate into something else but so far we haven’t been able to put any vocals on that that made it the good track that it deserves. So I haven’t decided what I am going to do with that track yet.”
Neko: “I love it!”
LH: “Yeah I know, I love it, it’s brilliant!”
But we are happy to announce that we recreated the classic live arrangement of Dead Ken Beats! In honour of the New Year, we hasten to share our result! You can find it on our patreon page!
ADVICE • DIRTCANDY
But the unexpected joy for fans came from a place where it wasn’t expected at all. In 2008, Paul Jackson, better known by his alias DirtCandy, posted a demo track called Advice on his MySpace page. To the surprise of many, it turned out to be the same ‘Dead Ken Beats’, only with Paul’s verses. He had previously performed vocals on the track ‘Action Radar’ from The Prodigy’s then-latest album.
After that, it was revealed that this was not new material, but old sketches by Liam and Paul from the ‘AONO’ days. It was probably the same demo that Liam mentioned in his conversation with Neko.
DirtCandy on MySpace: “This site was not intended as a fully working site as is not the “Dirt Candy site”. All the tracks that were posted onto these sites are at least 4 years old, are very very rough studio demos and bear no relevance to what Paul Jackson is currently involved in.”
Fan opinions on the vocal version were divided: some loved the demo featuring Paul’s voice, particularly those who appreciated ‘Action Radar,’ while others preferred the instrumental version performed live. Despite repeated promises to finish and release the track, this never happened — possibly due to issues with the rights to a sample from a Dead Kennedys track. As a result, the vocal demo with Paul Jackson remained the only studio recording of ‘Dead Ken Beats’ for many years. After the release of ‘Invaders Must Die’, rumors of its potential release as a B-side began circulating once again.
Liam: “People probably still want to hear ‘Dead Ken’. None of these tracks are going be saved for a new record. They need to come out before we start on the new album because you have to start fresh, you know. Whatever the singles three and four are, that is going to be a good opportunity to stick on some of those tracks.”
Neko: “What about ‘Dead Ken’? [as a potential B-Side]”
Liam: “Yeah, that’s way off yet but I’m thinking the next single is going to feature definitely one of these tunes I have sitting around”
There were even rumors that ‘Dead Ken Beats’ was to be the B-side to the single Thunder, which was eventually canceled. And even 4 years later, when talking about the preparation of the 6th album ‘How To Steal A Jet Fighter’, when mentioning ‘Dead Ken’, Liam still confidently replied as follows: “d k beat will defo be a b-side on new material”. But since then, silence!
SHOW ME • BOBBY NIO
What if we told you that work on ‘Dead Ken Beats’ was indeed in progress during the lead-up to Invaders Must Die, and the track was even officially registered in music licensing catalogues!
More recently, we managed to get in touch with Bobby, who we mentioned in one of our previous articles. In that article, we talked about two unreleased tracks Liam co-wrote with Robert Medcalf – Show Me and Hot. As it turned out, he is a vocalist and singer, better known under the alias Bobby Nio, and at that time, he worked with Liam on several tracks. And what was our surprise when it turned out that the ‘Show Me’ we were looking for was none other than the final version of ‘Dead Ken Beats’ with Bobby’s vocals.
BMI Repertoire
The track was worked on around 2006 with plans for an upcoming release. (We’ll tell you more about the collaboration between Bobby and Liam in our next article!) In addition to Bobby, Liam’s long-time friend Karl ‘K-Gee’ Gordon contributed to the finalization of the track. The final mix sounds completely different from the live rendition familiar to fans, offering more insight into how it evolved from a live improvisation into a full studio version.
‘Show Me’ sounds quite good, although it is very untypical for The Prodigy. Hardly anyone could have expected that this would be the final version of this iconic tune. However, we can safely say that we definitely like it! We’ve also created an instrumental version of the track using AI algorithms so that listeners can hear the changes in the arrangement itself in more detail.
FREQUENCIES • PEACHES
A month before the premiere of ‘Dead Ken Beats’, another ‘AONO’ era unreleased demo – the track Frequencies, was performed at the gig in Sweden and Norway.
Like ‘Dead Ken Beats’, it was also a demo created by Liam around the same period and finalized just before the performance, and it was also not listed in the setlists both times. For the first time in Copenhagen, the track was played without any vocals at all, and the next day in Stockholm, Liam added the signature female vocals that characterize most of the tracks from ‘AONO’. Its exact title is still unknown. But, based on the only line of lyrics heard, it’s highly likely to assume that the track should have been named ‘Frequencies’.
Neko on her website (24/10/04): “I did a bit of secret investigation in this and apparently Liam only wrote it on Friday afternoon in his hotelroom, then tested it at the soundcheck and decided to play it at the gig! The version on Friday was then very basic with Maxim improvising some vocals – “it’s a new religion”. By the next day, in Stockholm, Liam had already changed the arrangements and added a vocal sample on (“I cant frequent these frequencies” – something like that)”
Whose voice exactly is featured in the track is still to be confirmed, but it’s unlikely that it was also recorded the day before at the hotel. There is speculation that it is the same unfinished vocal sketch recorded by Merrill Nisker (better known as Peaches) for Liam in 2003.
Liam in interview for Neko (17/12/03): “Peaches didn’t work. We tried to do something. The vibe started good, and then it just didn’t work. I mean, I love her, she rocks it, she’s the real fuckin’ deal. There’s no fake ‘I wanna be a punk’; that’s why I wanted to work with her. But as well, when we did it, we did the track about 8 months ago and when it came back to do more work on it, she was all stressed with her own record and she had just done the track with Iggy Pop and stuff like that. So she couldn’t find the time to come over and do some more work on the track, so then what we had from the session just didn’t fit in well with where I wanted to go”
Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but it seems that Liam did indeed have plans to complete the vocals for ‘Frequencies’. On the SoundCloud page of Backstage Sluts – the same band that once did the only remix of ‘Warning’, collaborated with Keef Flint for a while, and warmed up The Prodigy tour in late 2005 – you can find a track called Feel Da Frequencies.
Vocals we wrote for the Prodigy – but we kept them – yours in full 320 – play this f00ker loud!!!!
The description states that the vocals for this track were recorded specifically for The Prodigy, but eventually went unclaimed. Most likely, this was the attempt to complete the missing vocals for the track ‘Frequencies’…
Headmaster: SIXSHOT
Additional thanks to: Split, Faust
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