Leftfield are a British

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

duo formed in 1989 as the duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (the latter formerly of

the Rivals ''The Rivals'' is a comedy of manners by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in five acts which was first performed at Covent Garden Theatre on 17 January 1775. The story has been updated frequently, including a 1935 musical and a 1958 episode of th ...

and A Man Called Adam). The duo was very influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s, with ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and Nightclub, clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''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 The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat gen ...

and

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

, Leftfield are notable for their use of guest vocalists in their works. Among those involved were

Toni Halliday Antoinette "Toni" Halliday (born 5 July 1964) is an English musician best known as the lead vocalist, lyricist, and occasional guitarist of the alternative rock band Curve, along with Dean Garcia. She was also a member of the bands Photofitz, ...

on "

Original Originality is the aspect of created or invented works that distinguish them from reproductions, clones, forgeries, or substantially derivative works. The modern idea of originality is according to some scholars tied to Romanticism, by a notion th ...

Johnny Rotten John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and aga ...

on " Open Up", Djum Djum on " Afro-Left", and Earl 16 and Cheshire Cat on " Release the Pressure". The term

progressive house Progressive house is a subgenre of house music. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

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 ...

with dub and

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

. There was a hiatus in recording and live performances between 2002 and 2010. When Barnes revived Leftfield, Daley declined to be involved, in order 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''.

Formation

Neil Barnes' music career started off as a DJ at The Wag Club while simultaneously playing percussion on a session basis. In 1986, he joined the London School of Samba and played the bateria in the 1986 Notting Hill Carnival. Around 1989, inspired by

Afrika Bambaataa Lance Taylor (born on April 17, 1957), also known as Afrika Bambaataa (), is an American DJ, rapper, and producer from the South Bronx, New York. He is notable for releasing a series of genre-defining electro tracks in the 1980s that influence ...

, 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 the Rhythm King label. 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 The Brand New Heavies is an acid jazz and funk group formed in 1985 in Ealing in west London. Centered around songwriters/multi-instrumentalists Simon Bartholomew and Andrew Levy, the core members of the group since its founding, Brand New He ...

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. The progressive house style emerged in the early 1990s. It initially developed in the United Kingdom as a natural progression of American and European house music of the late 1980s.Gerard, Morgan; ...

" by ''

'' 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 subsidiary, Outer Rhythm. 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 (or reorchestration) 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, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

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 The term ''inner city'' has been used, especially in the United States, as a euphemism for majority-minority lower-income residential districts that often refer to rundown neighborhoods, in a downtown or city centre area. Sociologists somet ...

, Sunscreem, Ultra Naté and provided two remixes to

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

'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 John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and aga ...

(of

Sex Pistols The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band formed in London in 1975. Although their initial career lasted just two and a half years, they were one of the most groundbreaking acts in the history of popular music. They were responsible for ...

fame) that was soon followed by their debut album, ''

Leftism Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political%20ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically in ...

'' in 1995, blending dub,

breakbeat Breakbeat is a broad type of electronic music that tends to use drum breaks sampled from early recordings of funk, jazz, and R&B. Breakbeats have been used in styles such as hip hop, jungle, drum and bass, big beat, breakbeat hardcore, and ...

, and

. It was shortlisted for the 1995

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album released in the United Kingdom by a British or Irish act. It was created by Jon Webster and Robert Chandler in association with the B ...

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 ''Rhythm and Stealth'' is the second studio album by Leftfield, released on 20 September 1999. It reached number 1 on the UK Albums Chart. It was nominated for the 2000 Mercury Music Prize. Critical reception Matt Hendrickson of ''Rolling Stone ...

'' (1999) maintained a similar style, and featured Roots Manuva,

, and MC Cheshire Cat from

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

. The album was shortlisted for the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

but lost out to

Badly Drawn Boy Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show ''Sam and his Magic Ball'', which he sa ...

's '' The Hour of Bewilderbeast''. It reached No. 1 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. The album featured the song "

Phat Planet "Phat Planet" is a song by the English electronic group Leftfield, taken from their album ''Rhythm and Stealth'', released in 1999. It is built on an insistent, two-note bassline, and the heavily distorted vocal of "Phat Planet", spoken by Neil B ...

" which featured on

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ...

' 1999 advert, '' Surfer'', and "6/8 War" featured on the Volkswagen Lupo Advert 'Demon Baby'. The track "Double Flash" featured in the

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a di ...

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 ''Creamfields'' in Cheshire, England in August 2010, ''RockNess'' in Dores,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

in June 2010, and played the final set on the main stage at Ireland's three-day festival,

Electric Picnic Electric Picnic is an annual arts-and-music festival which has been staged since 2004 at Stradbally Hall in Stradbally, County Laois, Ireland. It is organised by Pod Concerts and Festival Republic, who purchased the majority shareholding i ...

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 Annie Mac (born 18 July 1978), is an Irish DJ, broadcaster and writer. She hosted a variety of shows on BBC Radio 1, including BBC Switch and ''Future Sounds''. She also DJed in various locations, including hosting her AMP (Annie Mac Presents ...

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 current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

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 new album was declared finished by Barnes via Twitter on 4 February 2022, and has since been titled: "This Is What We Do". It was released on 2 December 2022.

Commercial use of tracks

The song "Phat Planet" was used in the "Surfers" TV advertisement for

, ranked number one in

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

'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 EA Sports is a division of Electronic Arts that develops and publishes sports video games. Formerly a marketing gimmick of Electronic Arts, in which they tried to imitate real-life sports networks by calling themselves the "EA Sports Network ...

and ''Racedriver GRID'' by Codemasters. 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 recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

; the

b-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record company ...

"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 Leftfield's

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

show, the Dutch police were close to arresting the venue sound engineers due to the sound system reaching illegal volumes. At the next concert, in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

, 30 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 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

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

) *From the '' wipE'out"'' soundtrack :"Afro Ride" (from the EP Afro-Left) *From ''104.9 (An

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

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 ''

'' '' F1 2000'' :"

" *From '' Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' :"Song of Life"