I've long thought that electronic music is the real progression from classical music hundreds of years ago. It's where dynamic new ideas are formed and albums like this will be revered in history as pioneering sound that enabled these ideas to take hold in such a grand way. We're lucky to have experienced this within our lifetime. So I agree about old school, that term does a disservice to the music laid down within this sphere.
My grandfather passed away 30-some years ago, but I think it would have been real fun to see how he would have digested the way music has progressed since then. He loved going to the symphony and basically only listened to classical music from what I recall (certainly didn't appreciate the Elvis era rock that my dad grew up on), and I'd have loved to have seen how he would have reacted to modern electronic music that actually incorporates and evolves on some of those traditional ideas. Leftfield I think would have been way too radical for him, but something like Koan Sound or The Flashbulb might have actually been able to crack the shell a bit, I think.
This album still resides in my playlist at least once a week. It never gets old. The beats still hit as hard now as they did the first time I listened to them back when I was a junior in high school. It's funny, EDM wasn't a genre back then. It was still techno or electronic music, and where I grew up, there was very few of us who listened to this genre.
lol a few buddies of mine have fought over this vinyl for years. after a decade DJ Nile shows up at my door and asks for it back.... damn that record never getting played out.
I was too young and dumb for that scene, otherwise I suspect my life would have ended up somewhat differently! I can definitely understand why you love the album. And [Open Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq3IAHVDCGM) is iconic across all of electronic music.
But for me, Leftfield were still spooling up with Leftism.
Give me Rhythm & Stealth. With [Afrika Shox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ViourbxrE), I'm surprised there's not a melted set of rings on my old R&S CD where I had that on repeat. And I think everyone from our generation(s?) in the UK subconsciously knows [Phat Planet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkmaNfBOtU) from [the best advert of the millennium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfer_(advertisement\)), Guiness's spectacular ["Surfer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ogzVyTtcw).
And fuckin' [Swords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S37BvISrFuE) is beautiful.
I was still a child in the late 90's tho, so maybe it was because R&S's release was in my peak formative years for music taste.
Tickets are painfully priced for me right now, but you've reminded me they're touring the UK in September. Fucking tempted as they're playing Cardiff.
My formative years for musical taste were around 1995 to 2002, 14-21 years old. And I grew up in the states so electronic music didn’t get much mainstream attention.
The raves were an underground, had to show up to a music shop to get the location a few hours before. Venues were down dirt roads on public land or Indian reservations.
I need to listen to R&S now. Can’t say how much of that will be familiar TBH.
>And fuckin' [Swords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S37BvISrFuE) is beautiful.
There's also a good version of "Swords" from the soundtrack to the movie "Go" (1999).
I like it even more than the album version.
> Nothing takes me back to late 90’s rave scene like Leftfield Leftism.
Eh, hold up a second.
I was there in the 90s and we definitely weren't dropping this album at the raves I was going to.
Back then it definitely had a "corporate mainstream electronica outsider" vibe and reputation, but granted we were listening to some really ear-bleeding rave ear candy stuff like Acen and Bassbin Twins, Planet Dog, Sorted Records, Nervous Records, etc.
Kind of like how Moby wasn't actually played at raves, either, and was seen as a corporate music industry outsider and culture thief because back then we were just surly like that about these kinds of things.
But unlike Moby this album definitely does *not* suck and it has aged way better than early rave tunes and stuff like happy hardcore, etc.
It took years for this album to grow on me because it was just too polished and too musical compared to the noisy ear-bleeding stuff we were actually thizzing our faces off to at underground raves.
You’re correct. I shouldn’t have said it takes me back to the scene. More like it takes me back to the days when I was raving. Leftfield wasn’t getting at the raves I was at either.
Besides being mainstream, Check One tempo is 100 BPM, good for chilling, not for raving.
Yeah, this was not close to rave music. It came well after the rave scene, and would have been classed as 'hard house' if anything.
I personally think it's dated poorly, and much prefer their earlier EPs like Release the Pressure. I have it on vinyl but it never gets played these days. It's good, just sounds very much of its era to me.
[Moby's Go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Qwo8sT9U0) was played at raves and in clubs a fair bit - the only decent track he ever made imo.
I'm with you. I think the only Moby track I've ever heard played at a legit rave was Thousands and that's just because the DJ was being irritating and fucking with people because it goes real, real fast.
The music that we listened to at "real" underground raves never charted like Leftfield or Moby did because it wasn't part of the RIAA/ASCAP membership labels and sales weren't tracked like that.
There are some minor exceptions that broke through and charted in the 90s like, say, The KLF, 808 State, The Orb, Orbital or maybe Sunscreem. Or maybe even Primal Scream. But even back then these were crossover hits and still relatively "commercial" compared to a lot of the stuff that was actually being played.
And bands like 808 State, Orbital and The Orb were legit playing hardware sets at raves pretty early on in the early 90s or even late 80s in the UK.
Sometimes I go listen to some of the super early mix tapes of the early to mid/late 90s era DJs I was seeing at raves and I can *barely* even listen to it these days because of how abrasive it really was and how rough the mixing was.
An easy example of this is DJ Dan's "Wicked Burning Frenzy" mix tape (which is pretty easy to find online) and I wore that tape right the fuck out. Today it sounds like a nightmare schizophrenic bad trip because it's just so over the top and totally fucking relentlessly abrasive.
And that mix tape back then isn't even considered to be "hardcore techno" or anything, it was relatively mellow compared to like Rotterdam Terror or Ron D. Core or something.
And heck, of course Wicked Burning Frenzy is online on YT, so I'll just link it here so everyone can hear what I'm talking about, because it's totally madhouse fucking go nuts compared to EDM today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6SL8z876Dg
Shit, I'm barely 5 minutes in and it's already gone through like 2-3 mixes and huge melody and synth line changes and went from spastic breakbeat to raging 4/4 on the floor with totally manic synth stabs and samples. It seriously makes even modern dark/hard techno sound super safe and chill.
I can't believe I used to try to make my cool rocker/surfer dad listen to that tape. He described it as "It's like I'm driving down the freeway at 100 miles an hour leaning out the door and pounding my head on the ground at 150 beats per minute." and he's not wrong about that.
It's like trying to introduce someone to jazz music through experimental acid free jazz or John Zorn or something instead of Miles Davis or some mellow Blue Note artists. It legit doesn't even sound like music at all unless you have the right head (and maybe the right drugs) for it.
Another easy and well known example is John Kelley's "Funky Desert Breaks" which was totally state of the art at the time, and one of the very first full length mixed "albums" to break through to the mainstream and be pressed to CDs and stuff, instead of just self published, DIY or bootleg DJ mixtapes.
The music on that one has aged a lot better but the mixing is still pretty rough by todays standards. Granted, as far as I know that was actually recorded live at a Moontribe desert party on vinyl, outdoors, likely in windy conditions because that's just how it is in the high deserts of the Mojave at night, and they used to have to deal with shit like turntable tone arms blowing across the records or the wind whipping the records and slip mats right off the tables and blowing them away.
And here's Funky Desert Breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxAguAQfL-g
It was probably the meth lol. At least according to Simon Reynolds who said as the drugs changed, so did the music. And when meth made it to the scene it got faster, darker and more schizo. House was typically around 115-120BPM at the time (think Orbital’s Chime) but thru around 91-92 the change started happening. DJ Dan, Doc Martin, and Ron D Core were playing some abrasive stuff (Doc has never really been a good technical DJ on vinyl) and it is a bit rough to listen to.
I would say it was after. Leftism came out in 1995. Rave scene was going through the 90’s and after, although I stopped going after 2004 so no idea what went down after that.
Are you referring to Alternative Light Source or This is What We Do? I own the former and have been thinking about buying the latter based on the reviews.
I just discovered this album today and I’m in love! Don’t really listen to much electronic music, but this takes me back to early 2000’s and a good friend who loved this kinda stuff. Man, I wish I’d paid more attention to it back then. This is amazing!
This album has aged like a fine wine, and considering it's pushing 30 years old, it doesn't sound dated at all. *Old School* is purely a technicality.
Will forever stand the test of time
Agreed. It’s a classic.
mmm eh mmm aaaah gosaymaha!
I've long thought that electronic music is the real progression from classical music hundreds of years ago. It's where dynamic new ideas are formed and albums like this will be revered in history as pioneering sound that enabled these ideas to take hold in such a grand way. We're lucky to have experienced this within our lifetime. So I agree about old school, that term does a disservice to the music laid down within this sphere.
My grandfather passed away 30-some years ago, but I think it would have been real fun to see how he would have digested the way music has progressed since then. He loved going to the symphony and basically only listened to classical music from what I recall (certainly didn't appreciate the Elvis era rock that my dad grew up on), and I'd have loved to have seen how he would have reacted to modern electronic music that actually incorporates and evolves on some of those traditional ideas. Leftfield I think would have been way too radical for him, but something like Koan Sound or The Flashbulb might have actually been able to crack the shell a bit, I think.
This album still resides in my playlist at least once a week. It never gets old. The beats still hit as hard now as they did the first time I listened to them back when I was a junior in high school. It's funny, EDM wasn't a genre back then. It was still techno or electronic music, and where I grew up, there was very few of us who listened to this genre.
lol a few buddies of mine have fought over this vinyl for years. after a decade DJ Nile shows up at my door and asks for it back.... damn that record never getting played out.
I was too young and dumb for that scene, otherwise I suspect my life would have ended up somewhat differently! I can definitely understand why you love the album. And [Open Up](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq3IAHVDCGM) is iconic across all of electronic music. But for me, Leftfield were still spooling up with Leftism. Give me Rhythm & Stealth. With [Afrika Shox](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ViourbxrE), I'm surprised there's not a melted set of rings on my old R&S CD where I had that on repeat. And I think everyone from our generation(s?) in the UK subconsciously knows [Phat Planet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDkmaNfBOtU) from [the best advert of the millennium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfer_(advertisement\)), Guiness's spectacular ["Surfer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9ogzVyTtcw). And fuckin' [Swords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S37BvISrFuE) is beautiful. I was still a child in the late 90's tho, so maybe it was because R&S's release was in my peak formative years for music taste. Tickets are painfully priced for me right now, but you've reminded me they're touring the UK in September. Fucking tempted as they're playing Cardiff.
My formative years for musical taste were around 1995 to 2002, 14-21 years old. And I grew up in the states so electronic music didn’t get much mainstream attention. The raves were an underground, had to show up to a music shop to get the location a few hours before. Venues were down dirt roads on public land or Indian reservations. I need to listen to R&S now. Can’t say how much of that will be familiar TBH.
>And fuckin' [Swords](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S37BvISrFuE) is beautiful. There's also a good version of "Swords" from the soundtrack to the movie "Go" (1999). I like it even more than the album version.
I personally love the second part of the song where only the Dub part plays is why that might be (IMO) definitively a better version of the song!
'Tick followed tock followed tick followed tock followed tick.'
Afrika Shox is a fire track. It was on the Collateral soundtrack during the big fight scene in the club.
Shox is a masterpiece. Listened to it today….the Tourism version. Wonderful.
Absolute classic.
> Nothing takes me back to late 90’s rave scene like Leftfield Leftism. Eh, hold up a second. I was there in the 90s and we definitely weren't dropping this album at the raves I was going to. Back then it definitely had a "corporate mainstream electronica outsider" vibe and reputation, but granted we were listening to some really ear-bleeding rave ear candy stuff like Acen and Bassbin Twins, Planet Dog, Sorted Records, Nervous Records, etc. Kind of like how Moby wasn't actually played at raves, either, and was seen as a corporate music industry outsider and culture thief because back then we were just surly like that about these kinds of things. But unlike Moby this album definitely does *not* suck and it has aged way better than early rave tunes and stuff like happy hardcore, etc. It took years for this album to grow on me because it was just too polished and too musical compared to the noisy ear-bleeding stuff we were actually thizzing our faces off to at underground raves.
You’re correct. I shouldn’t have said it takes me back to the scene. More like it takes me back to the days when I was raving. Leftfield wasn’t getting at the raves I was at either. Besides being mainstream, Check One tempo is 100 BPM, good for chilling, not for raving.
Spot on.
Yeah, this was not close to rave music. It came well after the rave scene, and would have been classed as 'hard house' if anything. I personally think it's dated poorly, and much prefer their earlier EPs like Release the Pressure. I have it on vinyl but it never gets played these days. It's good, just sounds very much of its era to me. [Moby's Go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_Qwo8sT9U0) was played at raves and in clubs a fair bit - the only decent track he ever made imo.
I'm with you. I think the only Moby track I've ever heard played at a legit rave was Thousands and that's just because the DJ was being irritating and fucking with people because it goes real, real fast. The music that we listened to at "real" underground raves never charted like Leftfield or Moby did because it wasn't part of the RIAA/ASCAP membership labels and sales weren't tracked like that. There are some minor exceptions that broke through and charted in the 90s like, say, The KLF, 808 State, The Orb, Orbital or maybe Sunscreem. Or maybe even Primal Scream. But even back then these were crossover hits and still relatively "commercial" compared to a lot of the stuff that was actually being played. And bands like 808 State, Orbital and The Orb were legit playing hardware sets at raves pretty early on in the early 90s or even late 80s in the UK. Sometimes I go listen to some of the super early mix tapes of the early to mid/late 90s era DJs I was seeing at raves and I can *barely* even listen to it these days because of how abrasive it really was and how rough the mixing was. An easy example of this is DJ Dan's "Wicked Burning Frenzy" mix tape (which is pretty easy to find online) and I wore that tape right the fuck out. Today it sounds like a nightmare schizophrenic bad trip because it's just so over the top and totally fucking relentlessly abrasive. And that mix tape back then isn't even considered to be "hardcore techno" or anything, it was relatively mellow compared to like Rotterdam Terror or Ron D. Core or something. And heck, of course Wicked Burning Frenzy is online on YT, so I'll just link it here so everyone can hear what I'm talking about, because it's totally madhouse fucking go nuts compared to EDM today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6SL8z876Dg Shit, I'm barely 5 minutes in and it's already gone through like 2-3 mixes and huge melody and synth line changes and went from spastic breakbeat to raging 4/4 on the floor with totally manic synth stabs and samples. It seriously makes even modern dark/hard techno sound super safe and chill. I can't believe I used to try to make my cool rocker/surfer dad listen to that tape. He described it as "It's like I'm driving down the freeway at 100 miles an hour leaning out the door and pounding my head on the ground at 150 beats per minute." and he's not wrong about that. It's like trying to introduce someone to jazz music through experimental acid free jazz or John Zorn or something instead of Miles Davis or some mellow Blue Note artists. It legit doesn't even sound like music at all unless you have the right head (and maybe the right drugs) for it. Another easy and well known example is John Kelley's "Funky Desert Breaks" which was totally state of the art at the time, and one of the very first full length mixed "albums" to break through to the mainstream and be pressed to CDs and stuff, instead of just self published, DIY or bootleg DJ mixtapes. The music on that one has aged a lot better but the mixing is still pretty rough by todays standards. Granted, as far as I know that was actually recorded live at a Moontribe desert party on vinyl, outdoors, likely in windy conditions because that's just how it is in the high deserts of the Mojave at night, and they used to have to deal with shit like turntable tone arms blowing across the records or the wind whipping the records and slip mats right off the tables and blowing them away. And here's Funky Desert Breaks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxAguAQfL-g
It was probably the meth lol. At least according to Simon Reynolds who said as the drugs changed, so did the music. And when meth made it to the scene it got faster, darker and more schizo. House was typically around 115-120BPM at the time (think Orbital’s Chime) but thru around 91-92 the change started happening. DJ Dan, Doc Martin, and Ron D Core were playing some abrasive stuff (Doc has never really been a good technical DJ on vinyl) and it is a bit rough to listen to.
I would say it was after. Leftism came out in 1995. Rave scene was going through the 90’s and after, although I stopped going after 2004 so no idea what went down after that.
Nah, rave died in about 94 with the CJB. Then you had happy hardcore, big beat, and house music and clubs took over.
Still play this and Rhythm and Stealth regularly but there latest album didn't impress me and sounds very dated.
Are you referring to Alternative Light Source or This is What We Do? I own the former and have been thinking about buying the latter based on the reviews.
Space Shanty! “I believe it is the finest opera yet written, sire”
So so underrated.
It’s a great album, but Rhythm and Stealth is far superior in my opinion.
This album was my introduction to Leftfield! Loved every track!
Still going hard too. They smashed Glasto last year. https://youtu.be/AF-kV9jtWtI?si=O08DmTo6mEshi58g
*Hack the planet!*
My favourite album of all time. Second is Jilted. I went to one of the Leftism 22 shows and it was wonderful.
This is the album that introduced me to electronic music way way way back in the day. Timeless classic.
And old favourite. I love the entire album, but Open Up stands out for me.
I love this album.
Just picked this up on vinyl. So good!
What electronic genre would people here place Leftfield in?
I think a few places actually list Leftfield as a genre
I could accept that. I always hoped there was a world of music that sounded like them, but alas, only them.
Was Trip-Hop at that time
Lol. The first track might have been trip hop but Letfield were THE blueprint band for progressive house, especially up to and including this album.
I just discovered this album today and I’m in love! Don’t really listen to much electronic music, but this takes me back to early 2000’s and a good friend who loved this kinda stuff. Man, I wish I’d paid more attention to it back then. This is amazing!