Leftfield
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genre(s)	Alternative dance House Techno Ambient techno Dub
Years active	1990 – 2002
Label(s)	Outer Rhythm / Rhythm King (1990-1992) Hard Hands / Chrysalis Music (1992-2002)
Website	Official Site
Former members
Paul Daley Neil Barnes

Leftfield were a duo of electronica artists and record producers, Paul Daley (formerly of The Rivals, A Man Called Adam and the Brand New Heavies) and Neil Barnes, formed in 1989 in London, England. The name Leftfield was originally used simply by Neil Barnes for the first single Not Forgotten but after this Paul Daley was involved firstly in remixing songs and then in the creation of following music. The pair were pioneers in the fields of intelligent dance music and progressive house, being among the first to fuse house music with dub and reggae [Release the Pressure (1995)]. They furthermore were among the first electronic musicians to incorporate live guest vocalists, along with The Chemical Brothers and Underworld. Ultimately the duo have been influential on the electronic genre as a whole, with The Crystal Method's Scott Kirkland referring to them in 2005 as "The best Electronic band period."

Releases

Still from Guinness Surfer advert projected onto Paul and Neil

Leftfield are well-known to the mainstream UK audience for their track "Phat Planet", which soundtracked the "Surfers" TV advertisement for Guinness, ranked number one in Channel 4's Top 100 Adverts list in 2000. "Phat Planet" was a song used in the TV series Beast Machines and the video game f1 2000. In addition their song "Release the Pressure" was used on adverts for the O2 mobile phone network at its launch and "A Final Hit" was featured on the Trainspotting soundtrack. They also released a series of singles and two acclaimed albums before breaking up in 2002 to focus on solo projects.

Leftism

Their first major hit was "Open Up", a collaboration with John Lydon; soon followed by their debut album, Leftism in 1995, blending dub, breakbeat, and techno especially called "UK-dub". It was shortlisted for the 1995 Mercury Music Prize but lost-out to Portishead's "Dummy". In a 1998 Q magazine poll, readers voted it the eightieth greatest album of all time, while in 2000 Q placed it at number 34 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever. The album was re-released in 2000 with a bonus disk of re-mixes.

Rhythm and Stealth

Their second and final album, Rhythm and Stealth (1999) maintained a similar style but with a harder, bleaker techno edge, and featured such artists as Roots Manuva, Afrika Bambaataa, and MC Cheshire Cat from Birmingham. The album was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize in 2000 but lost-out to Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast. It reached #1 in the UK album chart. The album featured the song "Phat Planet" which featured on Guinness' 1999 advert Surfer [1], but the song was never released as a single.

Live performances

At the very first Leftfield gig, in Amsterdam, the Dutch police were close to arresting the sound-man due to the sound system reaching illegal volumes. At the next concert, in Belgium, thirty people were given refunds after complaining that the sound level was too high, leading to a newspaper headline reading "Leftfield Too Loud". In June 1996, while the group was playing at Brixton Academy, the sound system caused dust and plaster to fall from the roof; subsequently, the group was banned from ever returning to the venue.

Discography

Albums