30th Anniversary of ‘MINÐFIELDS’

Our new article is on its way and now we are ready to “walk through mindfields” with you all! Exactly 30 years ago, in June ’96, Mindfields single was due to be released – second single by The Prodigy after Firestarter, preceding the release of the legendary album THE FAT OF THE LAND! But in the end, the single was cancelled! Today we’ll cover the topic of the cancelled single release and all of the track versions for it. We’ll also share the story about all promo releases and lots of other details

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For the first time a new track with Maxim’s vocals was mentioned in early 1996: Liam told about it in an interview for an Icelandic magazine before a gig in Reykjavik (16th March 1996) where the track debuted. We haven’t come across any audio recordings from that gig, but you can find a third performance of the track from the Oslo gig (30th April 1996).

It’s unknown when exactly the track was produced – in late 1995 or early 1996? Nonetheless, as with ‘Firestarter’, the track debuted in its almost final version which it kept up until the release of the LP. The only differences from the album version worth noting are the absence of the chorus in the intro, and a slightly different-sounding synth after the “long bridge” in the “headrock” ending.

We’ve also managed to obtain a studio rough mix which has no intro at all, and the synth after the “long bridge” sounds similar. It seems that this is an earlier, unfinished version of the track, predating the live premiere, for which the intro was eventually finalised, though without Maxim’s vocals.

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Having become a recurring banger at gigs in early 1996, the track has been chosen for a single following ‘Firestarter’. The forthcoming release spawned lots of rumors. One of them was that Liam had to hurry with the next single because he was pressurized by XL Recordings. Anyway, the whole thing didn’t go further than a limited edition of advance promo release, so the single was cancelled.

Later, Liam would kill all the rumors related to its cancellation. He dismissed the negative comments as baseless. The reason behind holding back the single was his decision to ensure that the follow-up to ‘Firestarter’ was even more powerful. He acknowledged that ‘Mindfields’ was a good, but a slow-building track, and lacked the direct impact he desired. For the next single, Liam wanted a track that had the same kick and energy as ‘Firestarter’ while still being distinct and avoiding the label of being a ‘Firestarter’ part two.

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As for the promo run of the single, the story goes as follows. The test single was released as a limited edition with 10 vinyl whitelabels and around 50-100 advance cassettes – the exact quantity is unknown since various sources provide different info on that matter. For a long time, neither of these two variants were available, so there was not much info apart from a short article in the Record Collector magazine, where the ‘advance cassette’ format was mentioned.

WHITELABEL VINYL

Only 16 years later, in 2012, the first detailed info about the vinyl test pressing started to emerge, along with some proper rips. It turned out that the tracklists for vinyl and cassette issues were a bit different. The vinyl whitelabel contained the following tracks: Original Mix, Monkey Mafia Mix, Headrock Beats and Skylined. Many questions popped up straight away: “Why is ‘Skylined’ on that single? It’s an album track from ‘MFTJG’!” At first we assumed that the studio version of ‘Skylined’ was just a placeholder, so the final rendition of the release would’ve had its live-version as in same case with live recordings of ‘Their Law’ and ‘Poison’ on the single ‘Breathe’. But a bit later we’ve managed to find out the answer. A few years later, a tape reel backup of a DAT cassette appeared on eBay. Here’s its tracklist:

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No prizes for guessing that the vinyl test pressing was based on the contents of said DAT cassette, minus ‘Breathe’. Still, the presence of ‘Skylined’ on the reel unclear. But having scoured through some releases of XL Recordings from the mid-90s, we’ve found a promo compilation released by XL in summer of 1996 – Summer Mixtape 1996.

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This compilation, among other artist’s tracks, contained ‘Skylined’. Apparently, said DAT was recorded around summer of 1996 for XL Recordings and featured the following things: material for the forthcoming single, a track for a promo compilation and a finished track off then-forthcoming album as an alternative for the single. With that being said, it looks like four tracks ended up on the vinyl test pressing as it were on source media and ‘Skylined’ was a kind of imitated the B-side just because it was recorded on the same DAT.

ADVANCE CASSETTE

The cassette edition of the single is a bit different. First, we have to make it clear that the catalogue number printed on the paper inlay of the cassette reads as XLS 76 CD. This means that the CD rendition of the single was recorded onto a promo cassette for demonstration purposes only. The CD version had no ‘Skylined’, which again proves that this track ended up on the vinyl just as it was on DAT. Instead of it, this CD (just like all the other CD-singles) contained a Radio Edit – a 4-minute short version for radio play and TV broadcast.

It’s worth mentioning that the ‘Radio Edit’ is only available on this advance cassette, whereas the other three tracks were released digitally on various media. ‘Monkey Mafia Mix’ was released on the Fresh Packed Cuts promo compilation in October 1996. ‘Headrock Beats; was eventually released on the Smack My Bitch Up single as Headrock Dub. And ‘original mix’ was released on the album.

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A1 Minefields (Radio Edit) [04:03]
A2 Minefields (Monkey Mafia Mix) [06:19]
A3 Minefields (Headrock Beats) [04:35]
A4 Minefields [05:40]

The tracks on said tape were recorded in dual mono, thus no stereo sources of the radio edit exist. The cassette itself is a BASF Chrome Super II – such cassettes were used at Masterpiece mastering studio in the 90s. The case contains a generic paper inlay with Masterpiece logo on one side and black & white XL Recordings artwork on the other side. It’s unknown whether the artwork was printed by Masterpiece or by XL Recordings. The paper sticker on the cassette has ‘Minifields’ printed on it (most likely a misprint).

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So if the ‘Minefields’ single had been released, ‘Skylined’ would’ve been thrown out the tracklist, and the contents of the single would’ve been similar to those of ‘No Good (Start The Dance)’ single:

CD: 1. No Good (Start The Dance) (Edit) 2. No Good (Start The Dance) (Bad For You Mix) 3. NoGood (Start The Dance) (CJ Bolland’s Mix) 4. No Good (Start The Dance) (Original Mix) 1. Minefields (Radio Edit) 2. Minefields (Monkey Mafia Mix) 3. Minefields (Headrock Beats) 4. Minefields (Original Mix)

Vinyl: A1. No Good (Start The Dance) (Original Mix) A2. No Good (Start The Dance) (Bad For You Mix) AA1. No Good (Start The Dance) (CJ Bolland’s Museum Mix)   A1. Minefields (Original Mix) A2. Minefields (Headrock Beats) AA1. Minefields (Monkey Mafia Mix)

ALBUM RELEASE

Anyways, the single was cancelled and the track was just released on the album and renamed into MINDFIELDS. We asked the author himself – whose idea was to rename the track, and the answer took us a bit by surprise. According to Liam, he wasn’t aware that the track had ever actually been called MINEFIELDS, and suggested it might have been a mistake on the label’s part. And to be honest, it’s rather odd, as on various official XL releases, including the Fresh Packed Cuts promo, and in the official concert setlists from ’96, the track was listed as ‘Minefields’. What’s more, the track was listed in the same way in the 2010 setlist from the legendary gig in Milton Keynes.

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It’s possible that a typo was made at the studio, by someone who was involved in final mixing the track – when the track was sent on manually labelled media. But according to the official credits, Liam is the only author of the track… This fact, by the way, raises yet another interesting question – who actually wrote the lyrics for the track, Liam or Maxim? We also clarified this point, and it turned out that – yes, just as in case with unreleased ‘Cocaine Kitten’ track – Liam is also the writer of the original lyrics in the ‘Mindfields’, which are performed by Maxim.

It is also worth taking a closer look at the track’s instrumental. In the best tradition of that era, Liam demonstrates simply breathtaking and intricate work with a multitude of samples. The track is based on a slightly reworked melody by John Barry from the legendary James Bond film ‘The Man with the Golden Gun’ (1974), as well as a host of microsamples from the equally legendary Ennio Morricone.

MINDFIELDS SAMPLES

Sample: bass & bell

Sample source: Ennio Morricone – Il Colpo [For A Few Dollars More, 1965]

Sample: melody

Interpolation source: John Barry – Hip’s Trip [The Man With The Golden Gun (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), 1974]

Note: A portion of the melody from ‘Hip’s Trip’ was replayed with almost no changes.

Sample: tar

Sample source: E-mu Proteus/3 – Patches – 013 Fragrant Tar

Sample: synth

Sample source: Roland JD-990 Super JD & SR-JV80-04 Vintage Synth – Patches – 208 EML Wobbler

Sample: hat

Sample source: Word Of Mouth – King Kut (Latin Rascals Instrumental) [King Kut, 1985]

Sample: percussion element

Sample source: Word Of Mouth – King Kut (Latin Rascals Instrumental) [King Kut, 1985]

Sample: guitar feedback fx (at 1:09 and throughout)

Sample source: Sony Creative Software – Methods Of Mayhem: Industrial Toolkit – Feedback 01 48-01

Sample: stabs #1

Sample source: Word Of Mouth – King Kut (Latin Rascals Instrumental) [King Kut, 1985]

Sample: break

Sample source: The Winstons – Amen, Brother [Color Him Father, 1969]

Sample: stabs #2

Sample source: Word Of Mouth – King Kut (Latin Rascals Instrumental) [King Kut, 1985]

Also can be found in: 1st Prodject – Right Before (Remix) [Right Before (Remix) / Shady, 1992]

 
In addition to all of the above, it is worth adding that just before the release of the album, ‘Mindfields’ was still considered as a candidate for the third single along with ‘Narayan’.

Liam Howlett to VOX magazine: I think this track could be a single, but it needs to be mixed again. It’s got elements that would make a good single. It’s kind of a follow-on from ‘Poison’ in the way, but obviously different.

‘MATRIX’ OST

The story of the track didn’t end with the release of the album. In 1999, ‘Mindfields’ became a part of the official soundtrack for The Matrix movie. The American label Maverick was in charge of releasing it. One can find an interesting promo CD with four different edits of the track:

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Judging by the date embedded in the CD – March 12, 1999 – the promo was released a couple weeks prior to the release of the movie, and the edits were used on radio and TV for promotional purposes. It’s worth mentioning that said edits were produced by Maverick, so Liam has nothing to do with them.

OTHER VERSIONS & REMIXES

For 10 years following its debut (from 1996 till 2005), the track was a regular banger of the band’s live set list, but later it fell of the live programme and was occasionally played in different versions.

The track first returned to the live setlist in 2008 as a one-off, in the form of a rather odd remix/mash-up:

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We managed to identify all the samples from this remix, and a couple of years ago we recreated it!

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In 2010, for the Milton Keynes gig, ‘Mindfields’ was updated as a proper live remix which is played occasionally to this day.

As part of ‘The Fat Of The Land’ album’s 15th-anniversary celebrations in 2012, a special remix was produced by Baauer – the guy who started a craze with his ‘Harlem Shake’ flash mob. The remix was released as part of ‘Added Fat’ EP, and it seems to be completely forgotten today.

A further 10 years later, to mark the album’s 25th anniversary, another remix was produced, this time by René LaVice.

According to René himself, Maxim’s vocals were partially re-recorded for the remix, as was in the case with the latest official remix of ‘Firestarter’. And just like ‘Firestarter’, the new remix for ‘Mindfields’ was released both as part of a compilation with new remixes and as a standalone release. It’s amusing that the cover art for the standalone release used the old design from the French ’97 promo-CD by the Delabel.

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Headmasters: SIXSHOT
Additional thanks to: Canyon Hill, Split, theprodigy.info and theprodigy.ru crews

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