Liam Howlett solo projects

Liam Howlett has done various solo projects.

Cut 2 Kill

Cut 2 Kill were a rap crew comprising of members from the Chelmsford, Witham and Braintree districts of Essex. The members were: DJ 4Tune, DJ Fame, MC Vision, M.A.One and MC T.

The original line up of the band split up in early 1989 with DJ Fame (Liam Howlett) leaving to concentrate on the rave/breakbeat scene - forming The Prodigy. DJ 4Tune and MC Vision remained and signed a recording deal with Tam Tam Records in 1990; continuing to record under the Cut2Kill moniker. M.A.One joined the Essex Rockerz graffiti crew in 1988.

They released only one Demo LP and some 12" singles. The first demo LP contains 8 tracks recorded in 1988 for under the management of Steve Lane. Chas Stevens produced & engineered the tracks.

Some other official promotional copies like Jus' Coolin' by Cut 2 Kill are easy to find. They sell for approx five Pounds Sterling on the market. This track is not written by Liam Howlett in any way though. There is one 12" single released by Cut 2 Kill on which Liam Howlett worked. This record is Listen To The Basstone. It has been released in two forms: a promotional 12" and the normal 12". The promo copy is easy to recognize since it comes in a Tam Tam promo sleeve and on the 12" itself it says that it is a promotional copy. The complete looks are different then the looks of the retail version. On the promo copy it does not say who wrote which tunes on it, on the retail release it does though. The tracklisting of both the promo copy as the retail one are the same. It features three tracks being Listen To The Basstone twice, once the version with rap (on the A-side of the record) and an instrumental version, plus a tune called Talkin' Facts (these last two tunes are on the B-side). Talkin' Facts is not written by Liam, only Listen To The Basstone is. Listen To The Basstone is the first Cut 2 Kill single ever released. Jus' Coolin' is the second single ever released, but it is not written by Liam at all and he has nothing to do with it either. Normal versions of this record sell for about $4 and the promo copy for maybe $8 or $10. As for the value of a Listen To The Basstone, it varies $15 to $200.

Liam Howlett's very first record he produced

Cut 2 Kill - Listen to the Basstone

(1990, Tam tam TTT032)
01. Listen to the Basstone
02. Listen to the Basstone - Instrumental
03. Talkin Facts

Liam Howlett's very first appearance on vinyl as part of Cut 2 Kill. This was the only record Liam produced with Cut 2 Kill and is credited on the centre label. This includes two mixes of listen to the basstone + the track talkin facts. Pressed back in 1990.

Other projects, remixes and production to other artists

He has done various remixes under the Prodigy name. More about these excellent remixes you can find from the remixes-section.

In 1998, Howlett was offered the chance to do a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs' radio show. He dug out some of his old favourite tracks again and this prompted him to release an edited (due to some copyright issues) version of the mix in February 1999. It was the first material which was recorded in his new home studio "The Dirtchamber", so accordingly the album was to be called Prodigy present The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One.

In 1990, Howlett composed music for the film The Uranus Experiment. Described as an "anal space opera", the film featured the first sex scene shot in microgravity

In the end of January 2006, a compilation album titled Back to Mine: Liam Prodigy was released. It was a collection of Howlett's favourite tunes, including an exclusive Prodigy track called "Wake the Fuck Up", which was often performed as an intro in The Prodigy's live concerts.

Howlett produced two Dirty Candy songs, "Nail Em" and "Advice" (which The Prodigy fans will recognize as being "Dead Ken Beats", an unreleased song played live several times). These were available on Dirty Candy Myspace account.

Howlett was a co-producer on the track "Immunize" from Australian drum and bass act Pendulum's third album Immersion, which was released in 2010.

In 2012, Howlett co-produced the first single "We Hate Everyone" from K.Flay's EP Eyes Shut. He also produced the song Stop, Focus on the same EP.

On March 30 2022, it was announced that Howlett would compose the musical score for the Netflix's movie Choose or Die.

DJ albums and DJ gigs

It all started near the beginning of October 1998, Howlett was offered the chance to do a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs' radio show. It was then that UK radio station Radio 1 reported that a few days later the Prodigy’s Liam Howlett will be on Radio 1 in Mary-Anne Hobbs’ Breezeblock show. It was also implied that he would be playing some stuff, too... On the night of October 12, after a telephone chat, they played Liam's pre-recorded an hour-long mix of some of his favorite records of the past years on Radio 1. This session prompted him to release an edited (due to some copyright issues) version of the mix in February 1999.

Liam Howlett's first official DJ mix album was released in February 1999 on XL Recordings. It was the first material which was recorded in his new home studio "The Dirtchamber", so accordingly the album was to be called Prodigy present The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One. It's nice DJ album that contains various music styles.. punk, rock, hiphop, etc. All tracks in the mix are Liam's personal favourites. This album was based on his DJ mix on Breezeblock but mix wasn't totally the same as the Breezeblock mix. For example, Liam wasn't allowed to use Beatles 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'. One of the most important tracks on the album was 'New York' by the Sex Pistols. At first John Lydon did not allow Liam to use the track on the mix but later he allowed it.

See list of Liam Howlett solo DJ gigs in 1999-2000

No Souvenirs

Liam Howlett has recorded a collaboration track with Massive Attack's 3D. The pair met and hit it off at the Mount Fuji Rock festival in Japan 1997. 3D has said following about the song: "Liam and I had been talking about doing something together for about a year and then we did a track each for a porn film called ‘The Uranus Experiment’. Liam knew Alex Garland who wrote ‘The Beach’ and Liam suggested that he did the music and I wrote some lyrics for a song to go on the film’s soundtrack. The track is called ‘No Souvenirs’ and is slightly Pink Floyd; slightly Beach Boys in places; full-on dark but very musical with some great arrangements. But in the end, we felt it wasn’t appropriate for the soundtrack album. The rest of the album was too dance and pop-orientated so we pulled it. It might end up as a track on the next Prodigy album." The Beach is based on Alex Garland's best selling novel of the same name.

The track is still mystery to all fans and Liam has stated that it won't be released ever.