Leftism - Leftfield > Reviews > Hard Beats not Hard Hands I Think

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	A couple of weak links
How does it rate alongside the competition	Average
Value for Money

Advantages:	Wonderfully created beats in an area
Disadvantages:	Not exactly well known .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Leftfield appear on Steve Lamacq's Evening Session on Radio 1 more times than I think about food, and this is for a good reason, they make what is fantastic music. It is dance music, but it isn't for the dancefloor, No SIR. Don't even think about it, it's not for that it's for the household, for that party. It doesn't stand out much, but has that depth that is justified in every way.

Leftfield have made an album which draws a lot on Hip-hop influences and the Caribbean flavour which is very much apparent once you start from the top with the track 'Release The Pressure'. From there it picks up in pace, but the best tracks are 'Original' and 'Black Flute' and they appear in that order. 'Original' doesn't have the pace, but it doesn't need that, it is well known due to its use in TV adverts, and it's a fantastic chill-out record in its own right.

"The film starts, the film ends, nothing is said in between. Just someone's moments from someone else's story. Will it ever be the same again?..."

'Black Flute' is a full out banging track that is heavy in beats and got everything else going on at the same time. No vocals for once and it never needed it in the first place.

All the tracks stand out in their own special way; they are independent of each other, and that is a special thing to find in an album. This is a special album I think.

This is all from an dance act that now have the reputation of having a live act that has the biggest bass that can cause severe damage to its surroundings. I'm not talking about the people that shove their own heads inside the bass bins, but recording trucks have their gear damaged from trying to record Leftfield, and that's a reputation that Leftfield have found hard to drop.

Just in case if you are wondering, that Guinness advertisement with the Surfers, and the big wave, that is a Leftfield production. That track is called Phat Planet and is on their second album, 'Rhythm and Stealth'. Go get that along with Leftism, if you have a brain.