Leftfield are a British

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

group formed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1989, a duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of The Rivals and A Man Called Adam). The duo was influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s, with '' Mixmag'' describing them as "the single most influential production team working in British dance music". As with many of their contemporaries, such as The Chemical Brothers and

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known as Fatboy Slim, is an English musician and DJ who helped popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. His music makes extensive use of Sampling (music), samples from eclectic ...

, Leftfield are notable for their use of guest vocalists in their works. Among them are Toni Halliday on " Original", Johnny Rotten on " Open Up", Djum Djum on " Afro-Left", Earl 16 and Cheshire Cat on " Release the Pressure", and Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. on "Full Way Round". The term

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...

was coined to define their style, a fusion of

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...

with dub and

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica during the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its Jamaican diaspora, diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, "Do the Reggay", was the first ...

. There was a hiatus in recording and live performances between 2002 and 2010. When Barnes revived Leftfield, Daley declined to be involved, preferring to focus on his solo career. After touring for a few years, Barnes finished writing new material for a third Leftfield album, '' Alternative Light Source'', which was released in 2015. In 2022, they released their fourth studio album, '' This Is What We Do''.

Formation

Neil Barnes' music career started off as a DJ at The Wag Club while simultaneously playing percussion on a sessional basis. In 1986, he joined the London School of Samba and played the bateria in the 1986

Notting Hill Carnival The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean Carnival event that has taken place in London since 1966

. Around 1989, inspired by Afrika Bambaataa, Barnes decided to try his hand at electronic music production, the results of which were the tracks " Not Forgotten" and " More Than I Know", released on Rhythm King Records offshoot label ''Outer Rhythm''. For the remixes of these tracks, Barnes called upon Paul Daley, percussion player with A Man Called Adam and formerly a session musician for the Brand New Heavies and Primal Scream, appearing on their '' Dixie-Narco EP''. Barnes and Daley had previously worked together as percussionists at The Sandals first club, Violets. Described by Barnes as " e sound of 15 years of frustration coming out in one record", the piece was termed "

Progressive House Progressive house is a subgenre of house music that emerged in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. It is characterized by its evolving, melodic Musical form, structures, subtle Transition (music), transitions, and layered sound design.Gerard, ...

" by '' Mixmag'' and held significant prominence in nightclubs from 1991 onwards. As their mutual interest in electronic music became clear the pair decided that they would work instead upon Leftfield, once Barnes had extricated himself from his now troublesome contract with Rhythm King's Outer Rhythm subsidiary. The name Leftfield was originally used by Barnes for his first single, with editing/arranging and additional production undertaken by Daley. However, after this, Daley was subsequently involved in

remix A remix, also sometimes called reorchestration or rework, is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, poem, or photograph ca ...

ing "Not Forgotten" and thereafter in the creation of all of Leftfield's work until the band split up in 2002. During this period, in which the band could not release their own music owing to the legal dispute with Rhythm King, the pair undertook remix work for React 2 Rhythm, I.C.P. (Ice Cool Productions), Supereal, Inner City, Sunscreem, Ultra Naté and provided two remixes to

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's single " Jump They Say". Finally, once the problems with their former label had been sorted out, Leftfield were able to unveil their single " Release the Pressure".

Albums

''Leftism''

Leftfield's first major career break came with the single " Open Up", a collaboration with John Lydon (of Sex Pistols fame) that was soon followed by their debut album, '' Leftism'' in 1995, blending dub, breakbeat, and

. It was shortlisted for the 1995

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

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 disc of remixes, and again in 2017 as a remastered version with eleven completely new remixes.

''Rhythm and Stealth''

Their second album, '' Rhythm and Stealth'' (1999) maintained a similar style, and featured Roots Manuva, Afrika Bambaataa and MC Cheshire Cat from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

. 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 No. 1 in the UK Albums Chart. The album featured the song " Phat Planet" which featured on Guinness' 1999 advert, '' Surfer'', and "6/8 War" featured on the Volkswagen Lupo Advert 'Demon Baby'. The track "Double Flash" featured in the PlayStation software game '' Music 2000''. Leftfield split in 2002, with both Barnes and Daley planning to work on separate solo projects.

Reformation and ''Alternative Light Source''

Leftfield headlined ''RockNess'' in Dores,

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in June 2010, ''Creamfields'' in Cheshire, England in August 2010, and played the final set on the main stage at Ireland's three-day festival, Electric Picnic in September. Further headline festival shows were announced in the coming weeks. Leftfield is now represented by Neil Barnes on keyboards and drum programming, with a rotating group of vocalists, MC Cheshire Cat, Adam Wren on engineering and programming and Sebastian 'Bid' Beresford on drums. Founding member Paul Daley declined to rejoin, focusing on his solo DJ career. On 25 March 2015, the new single, "Universal Everything", was premiered on Annie Mac's

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

show. Shortly afterwards the new album was announced via the Leftfield website and social networks, along with UK tour dates for June 2015. '' Alternative Light Source'', Leftfield's first album in 16 years, was released on 8 June 2015 on Infectious Records. On 1 June 2015 the album premiere was streamed live on Twitter, coupled with conversation via hashtag #leftfieldstream. "Head and Shoulders" features Sleaford Mods on vocals, and its stop-motion and animation hybrid video debuted on Pitchfork on 6 August 2015.

''This Is What We Do''

A fourth album was declared finished by Barnes via Twitter on 4 February 2022, later revealed to be titled '' This Is What We Do''. It was released on 2 December 2022 on Virgin. It debuted at No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart, before dropping out of the Top 100.

Commercial use of tracks

The song "Phat Planet" was used in the " Surfer" TV advertisement for Guinness, ranked number one in

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

's Top 100 Adverts list in 2000. "Phat Planet" was also used in the animated television series '' Beast Machines: Transformers'', the simulation racing games ''F1 2000'' by EA Sports and ''Racedriver GRID'' by Codemasters. The song "Open Up" was used for the intro and main menu in the game ''All Star Baseball 2000'' by Acclaim Sports. "Swords" was used in an advertisement for the Irish mobile phone service Eircell. In addition, their song "Release the Pressure" was used on advertisements for the O₂ mobile phone network at its launch, and the Kerry Group's Cheestrings snack in 2006. "A Final Hit" was featured on the '' Trainspotting''

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

; the b-side "Afro Ride" was also featured on the soundtracks to both '' wipE'out"'' and '' wipE'out" 2097'' although it did not appear on the album of the first game. A white label release called "Snakeblood" was featured on the soundtrack of '' The Beach'' (2000). The song was found to have sampled OMD's "Almost" without permission. The song "Storm 3000" has been used as the theme tune for the BBC television programme '' Dragons' Den''.

Live performances

In June 1996, while the group was playing at Brixton Academy, the sound system caused dust and plaster to fall from the ceiling; subsequently, the group was banned from ever returning to the venue. The ban however was taken by the band as a ban on the sound system and not themselves, which was confirmed when Leftfield returned to Brixton again on Saturday 20 May 2000. In November and December 2010, Leftfield did a series of dates around the UK and Ireland. Friday 3 December's gig saw more plaster fall from Brixton Academy's ceiling.

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Live albums

Singles

Remixes

Soundtracks and various compilations

* From the '' Shallow Grave'' soundtrack :"Shallow Grave" (Featuring Christopher Eccleston) :"Release the Dubs" * From the '' Hackers'' soundtrack: :"Inspection (Check One)" :"Open Up" (featuring John Lydon) * From the '' wipE'out"'' soundtrack :"Afro Ride" (from the EP Afro-Left) * From ''104.9 (An XFM Compilation)'' :"Praise" * From the '' Trainspotting'' soundtrack :"A Final Hit" * From the '' Trainspotting#2'' soundtrack :"A Final Hit" (full-length version) * From the '' wipE'out" 2097'' soundtrack :"Afro Ride" (from the EP Afro-Left) * From the '' Go'' soundtrack :"Swords" (featuring Nicole Willis) (Original Version) * From '' The Beach'' soundtrack :"Snakeblood" * From the '' Vanilla Sky'' soundtrack :"Afrika Shox" * From '' Beast Machines'', and '' EA Sports'' '' F1 2000'' :" Phat Planet" * From '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' :"Song of Life"