The Day Is My Enemy single turns 10!

Exactly 10 years ago, on 26th January 2015, the track The Day Is My Enemy was released through Cooking Vinyl. To mark this milestone, our team has delved into some fascinating facts about the tune. We’ve uncovered some rare insider details and are excited to share them with you. Plus, we’ve reconstructed one of the demo versions of The Day and did the brand new re-chamber of Night Is My Friend for you to enjoy. Without further ado, let’s dive in!

Mixmag Review: Militaristic, teeth-baring and ball-grabbing, ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ is more industrial than a couple of Transformers having it out in a Soviet weapons factory. If there was any lingering suspicions that the Liam Howlett and co might have mellowed over the years, this track spectacularly pulverizes that notion. This is tune is as violent as any you’ve heard from them in the past.

Premiere

The single’s release was announced on 22nd January 2015 via the band’s social media accounts and Zane Lowe’s Instagram, where he was then a host on BBC Radio 1. The worldwide premiere took place a few days later.

On 26th January Lowe premiered the track on BBC Radio 1 at 7 PM (London time). After the premiere, the band uploaded the official audio to their YouTube channel, accompanied by visuals styled similarly to the album cover featuring the fox. While this video isn’t available in all countries, reuploads are easy to find. On the same day, the track appeared on major music platforms like iTunes, although Discogs lists the release date as 28th January.

Shortly after the premiere, fans discovered two co-writers on the track besides Liam Howlett: Neil McLellan, Liam’s long-time co-producer and collaborator since the ‘Jilted Generation’ days, and Olly Burden, founder of the band Hounds. Recognized by Liam, Hounds were invited to perform at the legendary Milton Keynes Bowl, after which Burden became a “shadow member” of The Prodigy, much like McLellan.

The male vocals in the track, surprising to many fans, were provided by Paul “DirtCandy” Jackson, a fan favorite from the ‘Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned’ era. Meanwhile, the main female vocals were performed by Martina Topley-Bird, who re-sang lines from Ella Fitzgerald’s iconic rendition of ‘All Through the Night’.

The original song, however, was written by the American composer and songwriter Cole Porter in 1934 and shares the same title.

Early demo

Many of you might not know that the very first demo featuring the lyrics “the day is my enemy, the night is my friend” with the amazing Martina Topley-Bird on vocals, was recorded back in 2008—well before the release of the Invaders Must Die LP. Shortly after the album came out, Liam mentioned this unreleased track in an interview with Andrea ‘Neko’ Schnepf, referencing Martina’s involvement as well as another, unnamed vocalist.

Liam Howlett: It was going to be a collaboration with another vocalist, and I got Martina in who used to be with Tricky to do this kind of Ella Fitzgerald vocal that I sampled. She was fucking amazing. She just sung these couple of lines but that wasn’t the collaboration, it was another vocalist that was with her on that tune but it works with just her vocal.
Neko: What’s it called?
Liam: The working title is ‘The Day Is My Enemy’

Some time later, another unreleased track from the ‘Invaders Must Die’ sessions, ‘Destroy the Melody’, surfaced online. It featured vocals by Richard Cowie Jr., aka Wiley, often referred to as the ‘Godfather of Grime’. Wiley’s involvement, along with Martina’s, was mentioned in a 2011 Sabotage Times interview:

Liam Howlett: True, I miss the smoked-out, spacey sounds of Narcotic Suite and Weather Experience, or the pure hip-hop of Poison and Diesel Power, but it’s a satisfyingly chunky set with Maxim and Keith at its heart. Wiley and Martina Topley-Bird were tried out, but the band made the right decision to concentrate on themselves – although Dave Grohl does drum on Run With The Wolves.

After a while, information surfaced suggesting that a collaboration with Wiley was originally intended to be the 13th track on the Invaders Must Die LP. For some time, we assumed that this track was ‘Destroy’, but it later became clear this wasn’t the case. In various licensing catalogues, which can be accessed through specialized music-related databases, there is evidence of a track titled Day Is My Enemy Night Is My Friend, with Wiley listed as one of the co-authors.

BMI Repertoire

It turns out that it was actually ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ with Richard (Wiley) that was meant to be the 13th track on the ‘Invaders Must Die’ LP, not ‘Destroy the Melody’!

This unreleased ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ from the ‘Invaders Must Die’ sessions was later reworked in 2010 into ‘Destroy the Melody’, still featuring Wiley but without Martina’s vocal. Martina’s acapella, however, would later find its place in another production…

2012 demo & final release

For the first time since 2008, Liam revisited Martina’s vocals in 2012: the fresh The Day demo was premiered at Brixton gigs in December.

Our team has recreated this 2012 demo version!

However, this version wasn’t final either. By 2014, the instrumental was handed to Liam’s mate Same Old Sean for his solo track Laydown (more on Sean in our future article).

Martina’s acapella was repurposed once again for a completely new production during the very final phase of the 2015 album’s creation.

Interestingly, Howlett, who typically prefers collaborating with British artists, unexpectedly turned his attention to the Swiss drumming group Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel during the last stages of work on the tune. He discovered them while browsing the internet, and their drum loops became the foundation for an entirely new version of the track, serving as a major source of inspiration for Liam. Strangely enough, if you analyze the track’s spectrum, it appears that Liam may have sampled Top Secret Drum Corps’ 2009 live performance directly from YouTube. “This is the way I sometimes write, in a cut and paste, DIY style,” Howlett says. However, the Swiss group is officially credited in ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ album sleeve, so everything is perfectly squared away from a legal standpoint. In a lighthearted comment to Tagblatt, Liam recounted: “If we had used English drummers, it would have seemed too patriotic. With the drummers from Switzerland, there is no such danger. And their style is incredibly exciting—perfect for the first piece on the album.”

If you think about it, it’s absolutely incredible: a song that began its journey during the ‘Invaders Must Die’ production period, was shelved during the scrapped ‘How to Steal a Jetfighter’ album, and eventually found its place on the 2015 album. This track went through a remarkable 7-year evolution! The final version of ‘The Day Is My Enemy,’ produced at the very end of the album-writing process, was given the honor of becoming the title track of the LP. Even more intriguingly, it shared its name with the long-anticipated album itself.

LH Remix w/ Dope D.O.D.

It’s fascinating that even after the album’s release, ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ didn’t become just another track for Liam. Sometime later, Liam produced a powerful remix of the song, turning it into a notable collaboration with Dutch rap crew Dope D.O.D.

However, for reasons unknown, despite Dope D.O.D. sharing the stage with The Prodigy multiple times and supporting them on tour, this remix was never performed live together. Instead, Dope D.O.D. incorporated the remix into their own sets without Liam or The Prodigy’s participation.

Liam, on the other hand, created his own edit of the remix, along with an instrumental version for live performances. This version appeared in setlists as Night’s My Friend, likely in reference to the EP of the same name released a few months earlier.

Years ago, our mate Rapraiz recreated this live edit pretty good, but to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the single, we decided to completely remake it from scratch on our own. Check it out!

By the way, after the occasional mention from Rapraiz, Liam reintroduced this edit into the December 2024 tour setlist. While it seems the British audience didn’t fully embrace the heavy hip-hop vibe, we’re confident fans in the US and Russia are eagerly awaiting this remix on a big sound system! 🙂

Other Versions

In addition to the versions already mentioned, the track had a couple of notable edits. The first is a classic single edit (3:40), a shortened promo version that was never officially released and can only be found on promo sampler. This edit was also used in a promotional video on YouTube. The second edit, known as the LH Edit, was created by Liam specifically for live performances and can be found on the remix album.

Several official remixes by other artists were also released, including one by Chris Avantgarde, another by Caspa, and an exclusive drum & bass remix by Bad Company. The latter was released exclusively on limited single-sided etched vinyl.

Interestingly, Liam reworked Bad Company’s remix slightly for live performances about a year after its original release.

A quick recap:

• The track evolved over seven years, starting with its first demo in 2008 and culminating in its final release in 2015.
• The initial 2008 demo featured Wiley and Martina Topley-Bird and was likely intended for the ‘Invaders Must Die’ album.
• This demo was later reworked into ‘Destroy the Melody’ with Wiley’s vocals.
• In 2012, Liam revisited Martina’s acapella during the Brixton gigs, though the instrumental later went to Same Old Sean in 2014.
• Shortly before the 2015 album’s release, Liam created a completely new tune using Martina’s iconic acapella. This version became the final ‘The Day Is My Enemy.’
• After the album release, Liam produced a special remix featuring Dope D.O.D., which, despite being performed live several times, was never performed together.

A more detailed analysis and additional information can be found in the second part of the article on our Patreon!

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