Words by Thomas Christie
In 1995 Leftfield released their debut album ‘Leftism’. It would become one of the albums of the decade and one of the greatest electronic albums of all time. 15 years on, as Neil Barnes gets ready to take Leftfield on tour, he discusses the making of the album.
When Neil Barnes and Paul Daley got together to make music they were both respected artists in their own right. Paul had been in A Man Called Adam and The Brand New Heavies, Neil had already released one single – ‘Not Forgotten’ under the Leftfield name. He asked Paul to remix ‘Not Forgotten’ for the second Leftfield release ‘More Than I Know’ and something clicked between the two producers. They decided they should work together.
Neil says: “I had found someone who was in tune with me musically. We had the same idea of what we wanted. When it came to discussing making an album, we both wanted the same things. It had to be solid. It had to be strong all the way through. No fillers.”
Leftism was released in January 1995 after just one year in the studio (the follow up ‘Rhythm and Stealth’ took two). It was eagerly awaited having had four hugely successful singles as Leftfield; it was safe to say that anticipation had been growing in clubland.
You often wonder about the artists’ creative process, no-one sets out to make a bad record but many have. Alternatively when you are on the cusp of releasing something quite brilliant do you realise it? Were they aware when they were putting the finishing touches to it that they had created something a bit special?
“No! I mean we were happy with it and we are our own toughest critics. The most pleasing thing is that it grew by word of mouth. Our record company would have been happy to sell 60,000 units. So would we.”
Later that year it was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize, alongside Portishead’s ‘Dummy’. (The much vaunted Definitely Maybe was also nominated that year). ‘Leftism’ eventually lost out as runner up to Portishead. Neil remains philosophical about the experience: “It was a good year in music and we were up against some strong competition. Portishead and Tricky both had great albums out that year.”
Mercury Prize or not, Leftfield and Leftism’s momentum was gathering. A couple of years later (in 1998) readers of music magazine Q made it their 8th greatest album of all time; in 2000 it made number 34 in Q’s ‘hundred greatest British albums. And the album which they had hoped would sell 60,000 copies went on to sell half a million.
Leftism was/is a masterpiece of the genre. The album has a carefully considered flow; they spent a month alone debating the track listing, and the result is that, like many great albums, listening to Leftism feels like a journey. The all important opening track
‘Release The Pressure’ eases you in gently - languid electro backed by the spiritual reggae voice searching for ‘peace and unity’, the following tracks transcend through African rhythms, drum and bass and floor-filling techno, building to the penultimate ‘Open Up’ which sees a schizophrenic Mr John Lydon threatening to
‘burn Hollywood to the ground’ before closing with the apocalyptic 21st Century Poem.
What makes an album great? There can be an infinite number of reasons. With Leftism, excepting their undoubted talents, the most significant factor would have to be their influences.
“We were listening to a lot of African music, artists like Manu Dibango, and Neil Cole (the African rapper known as Djum Djum) was a mate of ours. He came in and added some African chanting over a track we had already made. He did it in one take.”
The result is the most ground-breaking song on the album, ‘Afro Left’, where the increasingly frenetic Djum Djum shouts some unintelligible African over an increasingly frenetic techno rhythm. ‘Afro Left’ is conclusive proof that Leftfield could not be more appropriately named.
The most notable contributor on the album is undoubtedly Mr John Lydon. Neil had known John for a number of years and had always had the desire to work with him. He was just waiting for the right track. When they were working on ‘Open Up’ it seemed perfect for him.
Yet the beauty of Leftism is that sandwiched in and around these tracks are instrumental beauties like Melt or Song of Life – songs which dispels the myth that there is no emotion in electronic music, alongside the techno stomp of Space Shanty or the drum and bass elegance of Storm 3000. There were many great British electronic albums in the nineties but none oozed such class.
It was four years before they released the follow up Rhythm & Stealth. It was quite different to Leftism; where the first one was joyous, the follow up was dark. There was always going to be a danger that it might alienate some of their fans.
‘We did think about that. I’m sure our record company would have loved another Leftism but it’s not what we wanted. We wanted to do something different. We may have lost some fans but we would also have gained some.’
The band split in 2001 after just two trail-blazing albums, leaving every fan of the band feeling that there should have been more. Whatever happens in the future is uncertain but at least we now get another opportunity to celebrate the past. Neil has promised that fans will get both albums on this fourthcoming tour.
The tour starts on 18th November. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness an iconic act from electronica’s golden age.
Leftfield’s UK tour will see the band perform in Leeds, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Plymouth, Bristol and Birmingham before culminating in a homecoming show at London’s O2 Academy Brixton on 3rd and 4th December 2010.
Tickets on sale now www.leftfieldtour.co.uk / www.aeglive.co.uk / www.ticketline.co.uk / Tel: 0870 444 5556. Info: www.leftfieldtour.co.uk
Posted In Features, Nov 14 2010.