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Leftfield was a duo of electronica artists and record producers, Paul Daley (formerly of A Man Called Adam and the Brand New Heavies) and Neil Barnes, formed in 1989 in London, England. The pair were pioneers in the fields of intelligent dance music and progressive house, being the first to fuse house music with dub and reggae 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."
Their downtempo music style has inspired a genre which has been recognised as simply leftfield, with several charts appearing in magazines such as DJ magazine and Mixmag. The genre is also known as "Chillout".
Releases
Leftfield is well-known to a 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. In addition their song "Release the Pressure" was used on adverts for the O2 mobile phone network at its launch. 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".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 2000 Mercury Music Prize.Live performances
At the very first Leftfield gig, in Amsterdam, the Dutch police were close to arresting the soundman 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
- Leftism (1995) #3 UK
- Rhythm and Stealth (1999) #1 UK
- A Final Hit - The Greatest Hits (2005) #32 UK
External links
Electronic music groups | IDM musicians | Techno music groups | House music groups | Ambient music groups | English musical groups | Music from London
"Leftfield"