Category: Leftfield

Bought on CD in 1995 and upgraded in October 2023 when 3000 copies were pressed onto white and black marbled vinyl as part of something called National Album Day.

I don’t have a huge amount of dance records across the collection, and what I do have tends to veer towards the commercial/popular aspect of the genre.  My first exposure to Leftfield was hearing Open Up, the collaboration with John Lydon released as a single in late 1993.   I was blown away bit it, thinking it was easily the best thing Lydon had done in the best part of a decade, certainly since the PiL album Happy? back in 1986 – it wasn’t that I had disliked any of the subsequent late 80s/early 90s material, but they kind of were Johnny’s take on what was contemporary sounding and for the first time he didn’t appear to be fussed about being cutting edge.

Open Up was one that made me sit up and pay attention. I think it is Lydon’s best delivery of a vocal across his entire career and back in 1995, I’d have been willing to say that the song was one of the greatest dance songs ever made.  In 2008, as part of the 45 45s@45 series, I had this one at #19 in the rundown.  If this year I were to do 62 45s@62 (which I won’t!!!!), it would still be in and around the Top 25.

My love for Open Up led me to buy the debut album Leftism the week it was released and discovering, to my great delight, that Toni Halliday of Curve was a guest vocalist.  Her track, Original, very quickly became the highlight of the album – the only reason it wasn’t eligible for the 45s@45 series was I didn’t buy the actual single a few weeks later.  Other than that, I found the album a bit difficult to get my teeth into, sort of confirming that I find it hard to take entire albums of dance music.

But that was 1995.  As time has moved on, and I’ve been able, thanks to listening to things posted across other blogs (with a particular shout-out to Swiss Adam, Ctel and Khayem for their efforts at Bagging Area, Acid Ted and Dubhed), to better appreciate the genre. The CD purchase had been ideal in that the skip function could be utilised, but as the years passed, I was using it less and less.  Now that vinyl is the preferred choice for listening purposes, I, will, without fail, listen to it in order across its four sides.

One of the interesting things for me is reading that Paul Daley and Neil Barnes were scathing about the album’s first take back in 1995.  Daley said “It sounded shit […] It seemed to have no cohesion, the tracks just didn’t seem to hang well together” with Barnes adding “We did all the tracks, listened to them and decided it sounded a fucking mess […] we went back, messed around with the running order and chopped a lot of things out. Hopefully now it sounds complete, something that can be listened to in one go”

Whatever they did worked wonders, as fans and those paid to be critics responded positively.  Leftism came in at #3 on the week of its release, spending 40 weeks in the Top 100 through to late November, and then returning for a further 38 weeks between January and September 1996, partly due to the success of later singles. It was nominated for the 1995 Mercury Music Prize and featured prominently in most end-of-year lists in music papers and magazines.

mp3: Leftfield – Afro-Left
mp3: Leftfield – Open Up (album version)

The former was the follow-up single to Original, and reached #22 in the charts in August 1995.  It’s an example of a song that I just didn’t get 30 years ago, but I regard it as one of the highlights of the album.

The latter is some three minutes longer than the Vocal Edit single version, with its closing section offering a trippy, slowed-down take on things which, again, I’ve really only appreciated fully many years later.

JC

My only prior knowledge of Leftfield at the time of the release of the album Leftism in January 1996 was the single Open Up, the collaboration with John Lydon at the tail end of 1993. It wasn’t so much a lack of enthusiasm that prevented further learning and exploration, more a matter of time as I was in a demanding and high-pressure job that meant any spare time was spent keeping up with the indie guitar stuff that has always been my go to music in times of stress.

The album was purchased on its release in early 1995, and before I knew it, I had fallen head over heels for Original, the track to which Toni Halliday of Curve contributed a stunning vocal. It took a while for me to really get into the remainder of the songs but in due course found myself increasingly playing the CD at home of an evening, glass of vodka in hand as I tried to wind down after another tough day working alongside and for the politicians who were governing my home city.

I was however, bemused to read that the band were intending to lift the opening track of Leftism as yet another single in January 1997, a full year after the album had hit the shops, especially given that so much of its near eight minutes, while being a tremendous blend of dance and reggae, seemed just too trippy and languid to be tailor-made for radio:-

mp3 : Leftfield – Release The Pressure

A couple of weeks later I caught the video for the new single on the Chart Show on the telly one Saturday morning and found myself staring at the screen as it sounded very different from the album version. Even through the rubbish speaker on the television I could tell something a bit special had been done to it, and so I went out and spent £1.99 on the single (I only know this as the sticker is still on the case – I bought it from the Virgin Megastore).

mp3 : Leftfield – Release The Pressure (single version)

Edited down to just under four minutes and with the hip-hop beat being maintained constantly throughout amidst additional vocal ad-libbing, it had been transformed into a bona-fide classic of appeal to fans of many genres and went on to hit #13 in the charts, matching the placing of Open Up.

What I didn’t know for many more years was that Release The Pressure had in fact been previously released by Leftfield on vinyl back in 1992 and so in fact was one of their oldest songs being given a makeover for the LP and again for the single. I’ve never heard the original version or the mixes found on its b-side, but I’m guessing that much of it would have sounded in places much like the other four versions made available on the 1996 CD single:-

mp3 : Leftfield – Release One
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Two
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Three
mp3 : Leftfield – Release Four

I particularly enjoy playing these bits of music loud through the headphones while sunning myself on a faraway beach. But that’s not to say they can’t be fully appreciated in the depths of winter.

Enjoy.