Forgotten Anniversary • АОNО ♻ 2003

Many people know that Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned has been updated several times, but much fewer are aware that it has actually been re-recorded at least three times! The first version is the legendary unreleased one with tracks like Trigger, Nuclear, Baby’s Got a Temper and others. The third one is of course the final ‘2004’ version. And in between, at the end of 2003, there was another revision: the quite raw demo album, mostly recorded in Reason. This version partly made it to the release as a couple of album “fillers”, some of the tunes partly went as the B-sides and the rest went into the trash. So today, at the end of the year, we have a traditional article about the forgotten 20th anniversary! Previous articles in this series can be found here and here.

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Despite the fact that Liam didn’t give any interviews or release any tracks during 2003, he did drop a few words towards the end of the year.

If you pay close attention, only half of these tracks will end up on the album. Their finalization, as well as additional recording for the rest of the album, will be done by Liam’s closest associate, long time friend and musical colleague – Neil McLellan.

So we decided to make a detailed breakdown of the above mentioned tunes recorded by Liam towards the end of 2003!

SANDSTORM

Fun fact: the final version of ‘Medusa’s Path’ actually still features a micro-sample from the cover of ‘Nightboat To Cairo’

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The Way It Is

Lovebuzz

Girls & Wake Up

Girls and Wake Up are the first two complete collaborative tracks recorded in 2002. The demo of ‘Girls’ with Ping Pong Bitches was supposed to have Kool Keith‘s verse at the very end and the ‘Wake Up’ mix was supposed to be fully vocal! We wrote about this in the article about AONO#1.

Who You’re Fooling

The sound of Who U Fooling didn’t even make it onto the album’s filler, becoming the B-side of the ‘Hotride’ single.

Action

Slang Technology

No Souvenirs

Gun

Gun Reprise

For example, it could sound something like this:

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Other 4 tracks:

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In addition to all of the above, there were a few more tracks: “There are still 3 or 4 tracks that I haven’t got titles for at the minute.” From the same interview with Neko in December 2003, it’s not hard to guess that it was the collaboration with Peaches, the Memphis Bells demo (which was also included on the AONO Demo Mix), the track Smoke, which later became the demo for Under My Wheels, and a certain second demo that came out of Nuclear.

Second Demo from ‘Nuclear’

Smoke

In the music license databases you can find the registration of Smoke, before Neil turned it into a full-fledged You’ll Be Under My Wheels. From the sound it’s obvious that it’s like a “Reason” demo, nothing more, nothing less.

Demo w/ Peaches

Memphis Bells

Memphis Bells was raw and untitled at the time and also appeared on AONO (Demo Mix).

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Design

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And in the near future, in 2004, the band’s most underrated album finally began to take shape, bringing The Prodigy back to the stage and giving Liam Howlett true inspiration, but disappointing some of the loyal fans who had been waiting for The Fat Of The Land ‘Part 2’…

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Headmaster: SIXSHOT, SPLIT
Additional thanks to: Jimmy Turrell

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