‘Out Of Space’ 30th Anniversary!
The Prodigy’s debut album ‘Experience’ turned 30 in 2022 — and so did its legendary single ‘Out of Space’. Released on 9 November 1992, the track has some pretty fascinating stories behind it. In this article, we’ll dive into everything we know: the origins of the tune, how it was produced, the music video, and the single’s striking design. We’ll also trace how the track evolved over the years in the band’s live sets — and share a few behind-the-scenes details from the 2005 remix single. Let’s get into it!
While reflecting on the 30th anniversary of ‘Experience’, Liam Howlett told BBC Radio 6 that ‘Out of Space’ is “just a straight-up anthem, simple as that”. The track became a gateway for thousands of young ravers and opened many doors for The Prodigy themselves. It reimagined Max Romeo’s reggae classic ‘Chase the Devil’ for the early ’90s hardcore breakbeat scene — mixing sped-up drum breaks, ’80s rap (Kool Keith on ‘Critical Beatdown’), turntable scratches (Jam Master Jay on ‘Peter Piper’), rave synths, bleeps, and a cheeky cartoon ‘boing’ for good measure.
DJ Paula Frost: Were you happy when The Prodigy remixed ‘Chase the Devil’?
Max Romeo: Of course! That’s money in my pocket! It got people’s attention, that’s wonderful, and that helped enhance my name.
via Way Out Radio Podcast #1 (2020)
Like many other tracks on ‘Experience’, Liam’s growing interest in ragga and dub found its way into ‘Out of Space’ too. It’s quite amusing that Max Romeo’s original ‘Chase the Devil’ — co-produced with the legendary Lee “Scratch” Perry back in 1976 — became far less known than Howlett’s rave-era reinterpretation. The original track is still often misattributed to Bob Marley.
Liam Howlett in Future Music magazine: There’s a big chunk off that Max Romeo reggae record I’ve been listening to, but I think I’ve used that to sample quite musically. I’ve enhanced the sound by putting a lot more stuff on top of it and building it into the song. If you take the sample away, you’re still left with quite a good piece of music. With ‘Out of Space’ I kinda let myself down a bit ‘cause there’s such a big hook. I came across the Max Romeo track and I really liked it. I’d already written a version of Out of Space, but that sample fitted really well with it. I was getting to the end of the album and I felt I wanted a reggae-type track, so that was it.
As Liam Howlett told the BBC, ‘Chase the Devil’ came from a friend who had left a stack of reggae records at his house. The track became a pretty big milestone for Howlett — he even included it in his 2006 Back to Mine compilation.
Liam Howlett via Back To Mine: What a tune. I had to put this on. It’s only fair to give credit where credit is due. This tune could be on this album just on the production strength alone. Lee Perry is the man.
Another crucial sample that helped make ‘Out of Space’ so iconic came from one of Liam Howlett’s old hip-hop favourites: Ultramagnetic MCs and their classic album ‘Critical Beatdown’. Years later, The Prodigy mastermind would suggest that Ultramagnetic’s Kool Keith agreed to feature on ‘Diesel Power’ partly because of the royalties he received from the ‘Out of Space’ sample. Their production relationship became so close that Liam even referred to Kool Keith as “the fifth member of The Prodigy”.
Don’t miss our previous article about Kool Keith’s collaboration with Liam.
Liam to VOX magazine: I told Kool Keith what I wanted to do and he was bang into it. I think he probably respects the fact that i sampled ‘Take your brain to another dimension’ in ‘Out Of Space’ all those years ago. And he was well paid. He got 20 or 30 grand out of it…
When it comes to the production of ‘Out Of Space’, Liam’s use of the Roland U-220 is also well documented. “I’ve had that years. That’s one of my all-time favourites for strings; the strings on there are The Prodigy trademark! If anyone puts a bit of chorus on those strings, you get the sound from ‘Out Of Space’ straight away”, Liam admitted in his interview with Sound On Sound back in 1996.
Complete ‘Out Of Space’ samples list
Liam Howlett for Independent: People always seem to love this track. All I did though was add some beats to a sample of this wicked tune by Max Romeo and the Upsetters. It was the last rave tune that I wrote which was any good.
Our man Canyon Hill reconstructed ‘Out Of Space’ from scratch in Ableton Live, so you might be exited to go even deeper into the production process!
Stay tuned: youtube.com/c/CanyonHill
If you occasionally would like to make a remix and need any stems, feel free to contact him via email.
DESIGN
The idea for the release visuals actually came to Liam after a sleepless night at a rave, during an early morning drive home from a wild party — that’s when he saw the ostrich. This bizarre and memorable moment was later described in detail by Martin Roach in his book ‘Electronic Punks’.
Liam had just turned off the M11 and begun driving towards home along the deserted A-road, when in front of his car he saw an ostrich, head swaying up and down as the gargantuan bird jumped along the tarmac. He blinked and looked again, and it was still there. He and his mates were on their way back from a big outdoor party and it was nearly 6am in the morning, so Liam was obviously a little surprised to be confronted by an eight-foot bird apparently heading for the motorway junction. His mates had all been heavily indulging in acid, and as Liam looked in the rear view mirror, one particularly badly drugged friend woke up, looked out of the car window and saw an African ostrich stop by the vehicle and lower its head to look in. This was too much, and the shaken man started gibbering about having taken drugs one time too many, and that his hallucinations were getting more and more realistic with each trip. After a few seconds surveying the occupants of the car, the ostrich headed off towards the motorway, probably to get a sandwich from the nearby service station. Liam, still stunned, headed home and the next morning told his dad about his weird night out. His father, used to Liam coming home from all-night raves in various states, listened to his son’s story of the big bird and simply nodded, “Yeah, sure Liam,” then carried on eating his breakfast.
via Martin Roach’s ‘Electronic Punks’
What actually happened was that an ostrich had escaped from a local bird sanctuary and was eventually caught by a group of police officers while running in the fast lane of the M11 motorway, heading toward Cambridge. The incident gave Liam an unexpected source of inspiration — the bird ended up featured in the ‘Out Of Space’ music video, the single’s artwork, and even became part of a recognisable print used on the band’s official merchandise.
Designed by The Unknown Partnership in association with Liam Howlett.
The 1990–1992 period was defined by its classic rave flyer aesthetic, and the ‘Experience’ era was no exception. The visual identity was crafted by The Unknown Partnership, led by Steve ‘Jaffa’ Gribbin, in close collaboration with Liam Howlett — who, it’s worth noting, worked as a graphic designer before fully committing to the band. Alongside the flat 2D satellite dish artwork featured on the single’s cover, several promotional posters were also produced using the same design.
VIDEO
The ‘Out of Space’ video was directed by Russell Curtis, who would later go on to work with major global brands including Honda, John Lewis, Coca-Cola, Audi, Samsung, and many more.
Keith Flint for Martin James’ ‘We Eat Rhythm’: We weren’t really taking the piss out of Altern-8 we were laughing about the rave scene then. It was so far removed from what we were used to, it had become a kind of a joke. I was jumping around for a laugh but Altern-8 got paranoid
In turn, Altern-8 took Keith’s on-stage antics rather personally and responded with clear disdain in their ‘Brutal-8-E’ video. Their supposedly humorous jabs — including ‘Dodgy’ T-shirts, a parody of the band members, and the smashing of a so-called Charlie porcelain cat — ended up coming across as awkward and petty. See for yourself.
REMIXES
In addition to the title track, the ‘Out of Space’ single also featured Howlett’s own Techno Underworld Remix, the Uplifting Vibes Mix of ‘Ruff in the Jungle Bizness’, and a live version of ‘Music Reach’.
However, the US version of the single differed slightly from its European counterpart. For the American release, two remixes were created by Chicago house producers Mark Picchiotti and Teri Bristol. The Millennium Mix and Celestial Bodies Mix were essentially two variations of the same arrangement. According to rumours, Liam wasn’t happy with the results — but nevertheless, these remained the only officially released guest remixes of ‘Out of Space’ for many years. It wasn’t until 13 years later that the track would be remixed again by guest producers.
In 2005, as part of the promotional campaign for ‘Their Law (The Singles 1990–2005)’, XL Recordings released a pair of remix singles featuring classic The Prodigy tracks. The first was ‘Voodoo People’, remixed by Pendulum, and the second was ‘Out of Space’, reimagined by UK electronic duo Audio Bullys. It’s unclear who originally suggested revisiting this Experience-era tune, but the result wasn’t half bad. Across all available formats — CD, promo, and vinyl — the Audio Bullys remix was issued in four slightly different versions.
- Audio Bullys Remix
- Audio Bullys Remix Edit
- Audio Bullys Dub
- Audio Bullys Remix Club Edit
And here it’s worth taking a closer look at the different versions.
LIVE VERSIONS
Also in the same year, the live version of ‘Out of Space’ was noticeably updated. Especially for the ‘Their Law’ tour, Liam created a simple re-edit of the track — a version that had gradually taken shape over several years. Initially, it was just an edit with added breakbeats and drum loops.
A few years later, Liam updated the intro by adding the melody from ‘Your Love’.
A few years after that, the intro was finally reworked with a more synth-based version.
Since then, ‘Out of Space’ has become a staple of The Prodigy’s live shows — and more specifically, their go-to closing track. For over a decade, it consistently marked the end of each gig. Over time, it evolved into a shortened outro version, with a dedicated edit created specifically for this purpose!
If we dig a little deeper, we’ll find that the original ‘Out of Space’ featured two beat loops — sampled from
Don’t miss our in-depth feature on the making of The Prodigy ‘Experience’ — the album that kickstarted it all and now enters its fourth decade. We explored the key milestones from the early days of the band: the story behind the LP’s creation, its visual design, the band’s first stage outfits, and plenty of lesser-known details.
Headmasters: All Souvenirs
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