Leftfield

Formation

Neil Barnes' music career started off as a DJ at The Wag Club while simultaneously playing percussion instruments on a session basis. In 1986, he joined the London School of Samba and played in the bateria in the 1986 Notting Hill Carnival. Around 1989, inspired by Afrika Bambaata, 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 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 "[t]he sound of 15 years of frustration coming out in one record", the piece was termed "Progressive House" 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 subsidiary, Outer Rhythm. The name Leftfield was originally used simply by Barnes for his first single with editing/arranging and additional production added by Daley, but after this, Daley was involved in remixing "Not Forgotten" and then in the creation of all Leftfield's music.

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, ICP, Supereal, Inner City, Sunscreem, Ultra Nate and provided two remixes to David Bowie'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".

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 house. It was shortlisted for the 1995 Mercury Music Prize 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.

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. 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.

Alternative Light Source

On March 25, 2015, the new single, "Universal Everything", was premiered on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 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 June 8, 2015 on Infectious Records. On June 1, 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.

Commercial use of tracks

Leftfield's track "Phat Planet" was used in the "Surfers" TV advertisement for Guinness, ranked number one in Channel 4's Top 100 Adverts list in 2000. "Phat Planet" was also used in the animated television series Beast Machines, the simulation racing games F1 2000 by EA Sports 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; 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.

They also released a series of singles and two albums before breaking up in 2002 to focus on solo projects.

Live performances

In Leftfield's Amsterdam 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, 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 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.

Reformation

Leftfield headlined Creamfields in Cheshire, England in August 2010, RockNess in Highland, Scotland in June 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. However, Leftfield is now represented by Neil Barnes with a group of vocalists (may vary on some songs), MC Cheshire Cat, Adam Wren on engineering & programming & Nick Rice on drums, as Paul Daley is concentrating on his DJ work, as well as releasing a solo album.

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"

"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

"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

"Phat Planet"

From Lara Croft: Tomb Raider

"Song of Life" (Fanfare of Life)