Leftfield are a British electronic music group formed 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". [1] As with many of their contemporaries, such as The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, 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 was coined to define their style, a fusion of house with dub and reggae. [2] There were lots of reasons why they banned it," he sighs in resignation. "One of the main ones was because there's been a lot of violence in America with all these shootings, and they just get really, really uptight about any kind of negative violent images. I find it very hypocritical... actually, I'll give you an example. You've got this really cheesy Euro house record called 9pm Til I Come, and you've got eight­-year-olds dancing to this going, 'Yeah, 9pm 'til I come!' That's like selling porn to children. And then there's that record about having sex on the beach, and you've got little toddlers running around singing it. I find that very offensive. Ashcroft and Coldplay nominated for Mercury Music Prize". The Guardian. 25 July 2000 . Retrieved 10 September 2018. Mercury winners: where are they now?". Channel 4. 18 July 2007. Archived from the original on 8 October 2009 . Retrieved 10 June 2009.

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. [6] It was shortlisted for the 1995 Mercury Music Prize but lost out to Portishead's Dummy. [7] 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. a b c Aston, Martin (February 1995). "London duo Leftfield's fearsome underground reputation with a brace of eclectic dancefloor shakers went overground with Open Up, their 1992 collaboration with John Lydon". Q. No.101. That video we made was like a dark comedy. It's not meant to be taken seriously. They sent us a list of reasons why they banned it: drug abuse, fear, loss of limbs, death, promotion of drugs, y'know.”Revisit Joe Robert's interview with Barnes about cancer, therapy and releasing an album in 2022 from earlier this year. a b c "Leftfield – Rhythm and Stealth review". Gareth Grundy. Select magazine. Archived from the original on 9 November 2007 . Retrieved 7 November 2007. TONIGHT: Leftfield to live-stream new album". No.Never Enough Notes. Never Enough Notes. 1 June 2015 . Retrieved 1 June 2015. Colin Larkin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Conciseed.). Virgin Books. p.743. ISBN 1-85227-745-9.

There were times when I thought like that. There's this self-doubt in what you're doing and because we were pushing so hard in trying to make it sound different from the last album without disappearing up our own arses, it put the pressure on us. We were wondering whether or not it was valid."

Reviews

Were you surprised when it was banned? "No, we were expecting it, to be honest. The first time I saw it I thought, ‘a lot of people aren't going to like this’."