HYPERBREED®
"Leftism" CD cover
"Leftism" by Leftfield:
So it had been a while since we heard from Leftfield. No remixes, no singles, no news. A year since the incendiary team up with John Lydon on the unforgettable "Open Up" Several lifetimes worth in clubland, all spent burrowed away working on this, their debut album. Just Neil Barnes and Paul Daley and a host of collaborators. Focusing their vision. Formulating their chemistry. And what you wanted to know was - are Leftfield still so crucial, do we need Leftfield?
So you approach "Leftfield" warily, because this far-gone pair of pure groove alchemists have never let you down so far. Those classic singles continually redefining soild club genius: "Not Forgotten". "Song of Life", "Release the Pressure" and "Open Up". And those remixes, the ones you'd part money for even before you'd heard them, 'cos you just knew instinctively that the sheer inimitable Leftfield magic would have mined new seams of gold-flecked brilliance in the art of remixing. So "Leftism" needs to more than just good, it had to be exceptional. Unique, unquestionably, unfalteringly unique.
From the far off, all doubts are erased, as soon as you're swept up into the 95 remix of "Release the Pressure", all cinematic grandeur that soon busts out of your speakers in a smoking cannon of electro-skank-mania. Check the vocals of reggae maestro Earl Sixteen - singing like there are butterflies in his throat. Barley time to wonder how you could ever doubt the remarkable dub-alchemy of the pair, before Djum Djum's natural scat chatta, and the urgent percussion of the Brazilian berimbou land the storming "Afro-Left" bang in the middle of and African house party gone full moon crazy, like its' 1999. This is Leftfield at their finest - fusing their love of natural riddims to their innate technical wizardry, making the unexpected such a goddamn groovy treat. Now you can relax, and soak up "Melt", as it taps into the radiant warmth you can only experience at sunset over the Victoria Falls. It's a brief lull before the sky-kissing "Song of Life" ('95 Version) wells up and breaks out as the very epitome of everything that's great about British house music. And then, before you know it, Curve's Toni Halliday is coming atcha with a bread knife, telling you how special you all are, turning "Original" into a twisted piece of deranged deep blue breakbeat psychosis. Another shock, another great moment.Then "Black Flute", hard as nails, a thunderous order to dance that sprung, like so much of this album, from some well frenzied live jamming and instant mixing. Some start!
Straight into "Space Shanty", a cosmic Hindu wedding ceremony where the dhal's been spiked and Captain Kirk is leading the dancing. "Inspection", with Danny Red on guest vocals, drops lyrical chemicrazy scats over devilishly cool ragga-funk, while the neo junglist "Storm 3000" is Leftfield soundtracking inna city pressure, the bass so low your inners are rumbling, dub so hard your mind wobbles like an infinitely reverberating echo-chamber. Yup. Leftfield's planet if drums just keep spinning even further out of control. The "Open Up", the original version and still as inflammatory as ever, before the snarling elegy7 for anyone who's been dejected and rejected that is "21st Century Poem". That's Manchester's poet extraordinaire, Lemn Sissay that you can hear simmering bitter, twisted, buring with hope for better days. A stunning ending, and proof were needed, that Leftfield have never been about easy options or hollow fly-by glories. No "Leftism" is a collection destined to live with you as long as your heart beats.
So, an hour later, maybe, and after you've hollered, sweated, frugued, skanked, swooned, gasped, after all you've looked in, tripped out. darn gone dub-me crazy, after you've remembered just why Leftfield are always worth howling at the moon for , after you've knocked on stranger's doors in the middle of the night to force this album onto their stereo's you muse on this wonder called "Leftism". And you chastise yourself for ever doubting that Leftfield's debut would be anything less than a classic. What a relief - some things in life can always be relied upon.
It was the perfect end really, for the perfect year for the Leftfield boys. Anyone who ever questioned their work rate got all the answers they needed in 1995. After all, this was the year that their debut album "Leftism" was released, without fanfare or hype, and went straight into the charts at number 3. Within 12 weeks, it had gone gold, selling well over 100,000 copies. Feted not just in the deepest trenches of the underground, but by people who'd lost faith in the dance music's ability to be innovative,eclectic and constantly fresh no matter how many times you listened.
It was hardly a surprise, then that "Leftism" got nominated for the Mercury Prize. It may not have won, but it placed the sound of freestyle British clubland at it's finest, firmly on the musical map.
"Leftism" CD cover
"Leftism" by Leftfield:
So it had been a while since we heard from Leftfield. No remixes, no singles, no news. A year since the incendiary team up with John Lydon on the unforgettable "Open Up" Several lifetimes worth in clubland, all spent burrowed away working on this, their debut album. Just Neil Barnes and Paul Daley and a host of collaborators. Focusing their vision. Formulating their chemistry. And what you wanted to know was - are Leftfield still so crucial, do we need Leftfield?
So you approach "Leftfield" warily, because this far-gone pair of pure groove alchemists have never let you down so far. Those classic singles continually redefining soild club genius: "Not Forgotten". "Song of Life", "Release the Pressure" and "Open Up". And those remixes, the ones you'd part money for even before you'd heard them, 'cos you just knew instinctively that the sheer inimitable Leftfield magic would have mined new seams of gold-flecked brilliance in the art of remixing. So "Leftism" needs to more than just good, it had to be exceptional. Unique, unquestionably, unfalteringly unique.
From the far off, all doubts are erased, as soon as you're swept up into the 95 remix of "Release the Pressure", all cinematic grandeur that soon busts out of your speakers in a smoking cannon of electro-skank-mania. Check the vocals of reggae maestro Earl Sixteen - singing like there are butterflies in his throat. Barley time to wonder how you could ever doubt the remarkable dub-alchemy of the pair, before Djum Djum's natural scat chatta, and the urgent percussion of the Brazilian berimbou land the storming "Afro-Left" bang in the middle of and African house party gone full moon crazy, like its' 1999. This is Leftfield at their finest - fusing their love of natural riddims to their innate technical wizardry, making the unexpected such a goddamn groovy treat. Now you can relax, and soak up "Melt", as it taps into the radiant warmth you can only experience at sunset over the Victoria Falls. It's a brief lull before the sky-kissing "Song of Life" ('95 Version) wells up and breaks out as the very epitome of everything that's great about British house music. And then, before you know it, Curve's Toni Halliday is coming atcha with a bread knife, telling you how special you all are, turning "Original" into a twisted piece of deranged deep blue breakbeat psychosis. Another shock, another great moment.Then "Black Flute", hard as nails, a thunderous order to dance that sprung, like so much of this album, from some well frenzied live jamming and instant mixing. Some start!
Straight into "Space Shanty", a cosmic Hindu wedding ceremony where the dhal's been spiked and Captain Kirk is leading the dancing. "Inspection", with Danny Red on guest vocals, drops lyrical chemicrazy scats over devilishly cool ragga-funk, while the neo junglist "Storm 3000" is Leftfield soundtracking inna city pressure, the bass so low your inners are rumbling, dub so hard your mind wobbles like an infinitely reverberating echo-chamber. Yup. Leftfield's planet if drums just keep spinning even further out of control. The "Open Up", the original version and still as inflammatory as ever, before the snarling elegy7 for anyone who's been dejected and rejected that is "21st Century Poem". That's Manchester's poet extraordinaire, Lemn Sissay that you can hear simmering bitter, twisted, buring with hope for better days. A stunning ending, and proof were needed, that Leftfield have never been about easy options or hollow fly-by glories. No "Leftism" is a collection destined to live with you as long as your heart beats.
So, an hour later, maybe, and after you've hollered, sweated, frugued, skanked, swooned, gasped, after all you've looked in, tripped out. darn gone dub-me crazy, after you've remembered just why Leftfield are always worth howling at the moon for , after you've knocked on stranger's doors in the middle of the night to force this album onto their stereo's you muse on this wonder called "Leftism". And you chastise yourself for ever doubting that Leftfield's debut would be anything less than a classic. What a relief - some things in life can always be relied upon.
It was the perfect end really, for the perfect year for the Leftfield boys. Anyone who ever questioned their work rate got all the answers they needed in 1995. After all, this was the year that their debut album "Leftism" was released, without fanfare or hype, and went straight into the charts at number 3. Within 12 weeks, it had gone gold, selling well over 100,000 copies. Feted not just in the deepest trenches of the underground, but by people who'd lost faith in the dance music's ability to be innovative,eclectic and constantly fresh no matter how many times you listened.
It was hardly a surprise, then that "Leftism" got nominated for the Mercury Prize. It may not have won, but it placed the sound of freestyle British clubland at it's finest, firmly on the musical map.