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Leftfield Information
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'Leftfield' are 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.
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 Chill out.
Releases
Leftfield is well-known to a mainstream UK audience for their track "Phat Planet", which soundtracked the "Surfers" TV advertisement for Guinness, ranked #1 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 have 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 was close to arresting the soundman due to the sound system reaching illegal volumes. At the next concert, in Belgium, 30 people were given refunds after complaining that the sound was too loud. This led to a headline reading "Leftfield Too Loud". In June 1996, while the group was playing at Brixton Academy, the sound system brought 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
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