Polski opis

Gatunek :	Electronica
Rok Wydania :	2005
Jakość :	APE
Okładki :	Tak
Ripper :	aNTy$peculaNT

Opis:
W latach dziewięćdziesiątych było kilka płyt, które prawdziwie "wstrząsnęły" nową muzyczną sceną. Jedną z nich na pewno jest "Leftism" - wydana w 1995 roku, uznana została za prawdziwy przełom w nowej muzyce tanecznej. Sprawcą tego wydarzenia był duet Leftfield - Neil Barnes i Paul Daley. Obaj swą muzyczną drogę rozpoczęli bardzo wcześnie, już w latach osiemdziesiątych. Fascynacje new wave, potem soulem skończyły się wraz z zakupem pierwszego samplera. "Ta maszyna dała zupełnie nowe możliwości wyrażania siebie" - mówili muzycy - "to była miłość od pierwszego spojrzenia". Muzycy postanowili więc wykorzystać przedmiot swojej fascynacji do wspólnych eksperymentów. Swoje pierwsze single - "Not forgotten" (1990), "More than I know" (1991) wydali w wytwórni Outer Rhythm, jednak aby zapewnić sobie niezależność postanowili otworzyć własny label, nazwany Hard Hand. Samą współpracę zapoczątkowali zaś w jednym z jazzowych klubów, gdzieś w Londynie, w 1991 roku. Pierwszymi pracami były remiksy innych wykonawców, z czasem jednak panowie postanowili skupić się na własnym, pierwszym albumem. Prace trwały do 1995 roku, kiedy to w sklepach pojawił się wspomniany wyżej, legendarny już dzisiaj "Leftism". "To jeden z tych albumów, które nie mają słabych punktów. Prawdziwy rarytas" (Melody Maker). Połączenie muzyki tanecznej, rodzącego się techno i ambientowych przestrzeni dało świetne efekty.

Chcąc iść za ciosem duet "zmontował" prawdziwy sound system, z którym wyruszył w trasę koncertową, nazwaną "liveism". "Lubimy grać głośną muzykę" - deklarowali muzycy, i tak też się działo - koncerty wywoływały kontrowersje, Leftfield Sound System miewał kłopoty z policją (przekraczająca dopuszczalne granice, zbyt głośna muzyka), czasem sami słuchacze, niezadowoleni z tak mocnego nagłośnienia, domagali się zwrotu pieniędzy. Po wszystkich tych wydarzeniach zespół postanowił odpocząć, skupiając się tylko na pracy w studio. W tym czasie (1996 rok) kawałki Leftfielda pojawiały się na ścieżkach dźwiękowych do filmów "Trainspotting", "Rogue Trader" czy "Go". Trwały jednocześnie prace nad drugim albumem duetu. "Niewątpliwie staliśmy się ofiarami własnego sukcesu" - mówili podczas prac nad albumem - "mamy takie poczucie, że czegokolwiek teraz nie zrobimy - uznane to będzie za coś gorszego od "Leftism" . My nie jesteśmy pewni siebie. Właściwie wciąż mamy wrażenie, że nie jesteśmy na tyle dobrzy, na ile nas stać, i chyba właśnie to przeświadczenie pcha nas do przodu". Prace nad nowym albumem trwały bardzo długo. W sklepach ukazał się on dopiero w roku 1999.

Zatytułowany "Rhythm and Stealth" potwierdził nieprzeciętny talent spółki Barnes/Daly. Wspaniała, perfekcyjna produkcja i świeże, porywające brzmienie - to atuty tego krążka. "Zawsze chcemy mieć pewność, że muzyka jaką robimy, w danej chwili jest czymś najbardziej świeżym i nowoczesnym. To dlatego tak długo trwały prace nad tym albumem, w studio wciąż wyrzucaliśmy jakiś kawałek, wciąż coś ulepszaliśmy". Na "Rhythm and Stealth" można usłyszeć gości - Afrika Bambata, Roots Manuva czy wokalistkę Nicole Willis. "Czy jesteśmy z tego albumu zadowoleni? Ciężko powiedzieć, prawdę mówiąc teraz nie możemy tych dźwięków znieść - tak długo nad nimi pracowaliśmy. Jednak tak samo czuliśmy się w przypadku "Leftismu", więc jesteśmy spokojni". W 2000 roku ukazał się krążek z remiksami "Leftismu", potem z nowymi wersjami kawałków z "Rhythm..", i nic nie wskazywało na to, aby duet miał zawiesić współpracę.

W 2002 roku jednak panowie postanowili skupić się na solowej działalności, rozwiązując projekt Leftfield. Wciąż trwają prace nad pierwszymi własnymi albumami obu panów, tak więc lansowane przez nich hasło "the end is just the begining" można chyba traktować całkiem poważnie.

www.nowamuzyka.pl

 English description

Genre :	Electronica
Year :	2005
Quality :	APE
Covers :	Yes
Ripper :	aNTy$peculaNT

Description:
How many acts are there who genuinely changed music and left their mark on history with only two albums? The list can't be very long: The Stone Roses, The KLF... I'm struggling here. However, one name you can add to that list without any hesitation is Leftfield. 1995's Leftism brought progressive house (the style they had pioneered with classic 1990 single, Not Forgotten) and mature electronic music into the mainstream, and was rewarded with impressive sales and glowing critical reception. When they returned for their swan-song second effort- 1999's Rhythm & Stealth, they topped their native chart, and in total have sold over a million records in the UK alone.The key ingredients of Leftfield's success were a quiet confidence that radiated from every track they made. They strode between genres, picking out what they wanted and fusing the result together with precision dancefloor dynamic. Dub reggae appeared alongside punk, hip-hop met techno, trance blended gracefully into the mix- whatever Leftfield did, they broke ground and hit the spot with the end product. Their dissolve in 2000 was one of music's great losses, and people are still hanging on in the hope that Paul Dailey and Neil Barnes will settle their differences and get back in the studio.Although far from the first, and certainly not the last Greatest Hits to emerge from dance music this year, A Final Hit is surely the most unexpected- going from announced to hitting the charts in record timing. More than that, it's a full six years since Leftfield last released a record, and their once proud status at the pinnacle of dance music has faded into nostalgia and critical reference; a museum article in EDM, a past master now consigned to the history books. I'm not even sure why this was released- there have been vague references to the tenth anniversary of Leftism, but that seems a tenuous link at best.Ultimately, who cares why this record has come out now? Let's just savour its quality. I suppose the burning issue here is that Leftfield only released two albums and eight singles in the first place, so is this album redundant by default? Well no. If you are new to Leftfield, then buying this will not ruin the albums (certainly not Leftism, which was consistently excellent throughout, and even the more patchy Rhythm & Stealth has enough to recommend it). Even if you already own the albums, then the five extra tracks and alternative version of Release the Pressure are good enough to make this worth your money. Clearly if you've already hunted the extra tracks down, then buying this is a waste of time, but I shouldn't have to tell you that.Anyway. A quick glance at the track-list tells us the obvious stuff is here- all five singles from Leftism, and the three from R&S (the lead single was double-A, in case you're wondering) and all their soundtrack work. The only baffling inclusion is Storm 3000- either I missed it on a single, or somebody liked it so much they put it on for the hell of it. The track order is also pretty straightforward- everything in the same order it was on the albums, and the soundtrack material at the end. Better get on with it then, eh? We open, as ever, with Release the Pressure, the thumping reggae flavoured call to arms, with vocals provided by Earl Sixteen. This four minute version is a long way from the silky, trancey version that opened Leftism. Here it's in crunchy house mode, with less pads and a lot more toasting by Sixteen. It has nowhere near the same beauty or drama of its album cousin, but this version has more muscle and more Jamaican swagger, and is just as good in a different way, which is to say: very good. Elsewhere, the Leftism tracks sound more familiar. Afro Left still throbs, rattles and simmers for all of its seven minutes, the bassline rumbles and the synth riffs chug along at speed, while Djum Djum waxes African chants somewhere above them. It was never my favourite Leftfield track, but like many of their less stand-out works, it sounds a lot better when you actually play it to the impression it leaves in your head. A definite shining light in the dark sea of general excellence, Song of Life sounds as epic and life-affirming now as it must have done in 1992. Beginning with the barest pulses of synth and echoed shouts, the track initially appears to be going nowhere. Steadily elements build up- a ramshackle drum beat, more synth licks, then some huge, warm strings, and what appears to be a pleasant downbeat number suddenly blossoms. A proper beat stretches its legs below the melody, and the track expands into a monstrous piece of glorious dance-floor perfection. It really does not get much better than this.

From reminding us that were alive, the album takes us straight down the opposite lane of emotion- the sombre melancholy waves of Original. Guest vocal Toni Halliday sings mournfully over a lazy dub beat, while tender melody wraps the package up. Slender stuff, and a fine of example of Leftfield stimulating our conscious where previous tracks spoke straight to our instincts.Storm 3000 steps away from four on the floor, employing elaborate, almost jungle, breakbeats instead. It's another slow burner, beginning with only fractured elements of sound, but steadily applying the melodies until its become a thing of beauty. Open Up is far less subtle, especially in this edit, which strips away the intro and the outro from the measured album version, leaving us with pounding techno flavoured house instrumental, with punk icon John Lydon (you may remember him from the Sex Pistols and Public Image) screaming barbs over the top. It's sublime peak time stuff, even twelve years and counting down the line, and the track that woke up the wider world to just how important Leftfield were. With the Leftism material out of the way, the album becomes much more bohemian. Dusted is a sub-woofer testing barrage of rock-solid bass, hip-hop attitude and lots and lots of Roots Manuva doing what he does very well indeed. Great stuff. Phat Planet goes even tougher on your bass bins, with quite possibly the best bass line ever to make your teeth shake in your jaw. There's not much meat to it beyond the snarling rumble of the bassline, but there really doesn't have to be. Afrika Shox is guilty of sounding a little too much like an Afrika Bambaataa record at times, but his dual personality performance is good enough for Barnes and Dailey to just sit on the side lines and add some spine-tingling pads when he runs out of lyrics. All in all, the Rhythm & Stealth stuff is arguably even better than the Leftism singles -the tracks are punchier and more concise, and this compilation harvests most of the stand-outs from that record and restores them here. Anyway, on to the stuff that really deserves a looking into (sorry for being laconic on the album stuff, but you can read all over the Internet just how good they are in detail if you so wish). Not Forgotten is now quite hard to get hold of, and it's an undoubted classic in the history of EDM. It's a pleasure to report it still sounds good today, although understandably a lot more dated than anything else here. If you've heard much instrumental house or techno from the era, you'll know what to expect- satisfying basslines, chunky rhythms and all kinds of musical elements thrown in there to make love. We have exotic instruments, bongo rolls, chanting, strings, synth riffs and a disturbing vocal sample repeating, "People". Like most late 1980s/early 1990s material, it's about five times busier than most modern dance music, and while it lacks structure, there's so much stuff here that you'll not get bored during the playing time. The rest of the album is soundtrack work- including Swords, which you doubtless have been wondering about. Apparently it was written for some Hollywood flick called Go!. Nope, me neither. If you haven't read the R&S review yet, you won't know that Swords is a simply gorgeous piece of chilled vocal stuff, blazing with fiercely checked emotion and dripping with vitality. Nichole Willis gives a superb contribution on vocals, while some deeply resonant strings and splashes of synth a la Orbitals Belfast float through the sonic landscape. It sounds as good on here as it did on R&S. Much closer to home, the duo has worked several times with respected British director Danny Boyle. Most notably, the dubby, down-tempo piece of trippy-hoppy Leftfield jamming A Final Hit appeared in landmark drug movie Trainspotting (watch it, now). If you don't know what to expect, it's a very chilled piece, with clattering percussion and rolling bass. It's pretty minimal but an excellent piece of relaxing come-down stuff nonetheless. Shallow Grave was the title-track to Boyle's breakthrough movie of the same name. We begin with a brilliantly atmospheric opening, featuring a vocal sample of Ewan McGregor's dialogue from the film. After the intro we move into some smart, fast-paced trance. If anything, this track is too short, because as a seven minute piece it would have worked brilliantly. As it is, it's tantalisingly good, but a morsel instead of a gourmet dish. The last track Leftfield did for Danny Boyle is Snakeblood, which may well be the last track they ever finished, featuring as it did on The Beach. It has a big, shimmering refrain and hyper-active, tinny beats that could come straight from Rhythm & Stealth, but it does feel slightly like they tried to recreate the moody tension of A Final Hit three years on, and didn't really come up with the goods. It's certainly not bad, but compared with the heady heights this compilation frequently ascends to, Snakeblood doesn't stand up. The closing track is not actually a soundtrack contribution, but the other early 1990s track that was released on Rhythm King, alongside Not Forgotten- More Than I Know. There's quite a tropical feel to this track, with bird call samples that evoke memories to The Future Sound of London's insertion of ambient sound-bites into their debut album -Accelerator. Overall, this track does sound a lot like early FSOL, but more stimulating. Break-beat driven with a pleasant keyboard melody providing the backbone, More Than I Know is infused with lush strings, calm vocals and a great chilled vibe to close the album on. There really is nothing to fault with this release. It may have arrived late, but with a third of the track list devoted to tracks that are pretty tough to hunt down, it is by no means redundant. More importantly, A Final Hit has a higher concentration of great music than you'll find on any other disc released this year- The Prodigy's upcoming Greatest Hits included. Leftism may be transcendental in terms of a musical journey, but A Final Hit unites most of the peaks in that journey with the cream of Rhythm & Stealth's genre-hopping experiments and seals the deal with the less familiar delicacies of the extra tracks. How can you fault such a collection? I certainly can't. Perfect ten it is.

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