The world has changed in the 16 years since the release of Leftfield’s last studio album, 1999’s Rhythm and Stealth. The former duo is now a one-man band in the shape of Neil Barnes, the music industry the band succeeded in charming is moribund, and dance music, subsumed into the mainstream partly through the band’s own success (remember the Guinness advert?) has been a busted flush for a good decade.
The group were always among the real innovators of the scene with their absorption of dub and other genres and their combination of the cerebral with in-your-face bass. The new record doesn’t really break any moulds but it is a masterpiece of texture. Opener Bad Radio ends up sounding almost like fellow innovators Future Sound of London and the crunchy synth line in the break of the seven-minute Universal Everything is spine-tingling. Dark Matters builds over a submarine kick drum and marimba without you really noticing. As for standouts, the rising and filtering-up synth lines, repeated builds and impressionistic vocals from Channy Leaneagh of Poliça on Little Fish should make it a live favourite; Shaker Obsession has an irresistible drive; and the lassitude, scurf and attitude of Sleaford Mods’s Jason Williamson are the making of the unsettling Head and Shoulders.
Continue reading...by Molloy Woodcraft via Electronic music | The Guardian
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