Leftism

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Et par interessante og fengende ting, men stort sett ufattelig kjedelig og/eller irriterende. Klassisk "på tide å gå et annet sted"-musikk de fyrer opp på VT altfor ofte.

music my microwave would like

Dance album

Long but pretty fun. Makes you wanna dance.

Not a great cover art for this one but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected to. Feels primitive to the electronic sounds we have today but not in a bad way.

Аутизм

I like this album well enough, it's very danceable. The problem with rating it is, I think I have two different ratings. This would clearly be a 6/5, maybe even 7/5 if I was drunk at the club dancing to this. But I'm far too sober, so it's really more like a 3. So I'm splitting the difference.

Langweilig Elektronische Musik

Little slow to start off, the songs take a while to get into But what good edm doesn’t

Que remil poronga de música. 0/10.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to listen more than once the whole way through (for it being two hours long!!!!), but I loved this. The progressions, mix of rhythms languages moods. Disc 1 was stronger than disc 2 in my opinion

This wasn't my thing at all. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

I enjoyed this debut album from Leftfield. I thought it was a decent electronic album, but felt repetitive and lack luster at times. Overall, I liked this album but there are other electronic artists I would listen to over this.

The raving 90's! Leftfield, Underworld, Orbital - that was an epic time to be alive About half the tracks here I still listen to on a regular basis, easily withstanding the test of time Gotta be reminded these guys were OG pioneers - Cut For Life for instance has been copied so many times since by other artists A Classic

Not bad. Bit trendy and in love with itself. But there are much worse on this list.

958 leftism. Leftfield An immediate enthusiastic and emphatic 5 from me boys! And I think “Open Up” is THE track of the album. (Yes ‘burnnhollywoodburn’ !). A landmark techno album. For those who were there for it anyway. Ever realise “ oh I have heard this on a dancefloor before and never knew what it was. Finally! “ So glad I've heard this again after all these years! Like a cosmic musical friend I must have met on a dancefloor, while blissing out to the intellibeams and sweating to my shoes on the dancefloor of Berlin or the Church in Northbridge in the 90s. Finally I found you. Reunited at last. Launch mode engaged once more! I feel like I just stepped out into the fire escape all sweaty and am enjoying the cold respite from the hot dancefloor, smiling at you before heading back in. No words. But a look in the eye and we know the DJ got it right tonight. My main jam in TECHNO or ELECTRONICA is “ Progressive TRANCE “ specifically the German and Berlin style. This is thumpier, more assertive and is called Progressive HOUSE. I now know I like this too. Despite it being British. This is very much a collection of tracks I am sure I have heard. so tight. Like JM Jarre + Kraftwerk + Faithless were sampled and swallowed by an assertive whale on caffeinated acid and he dove down, down to extreme depths and pressures and metamorphosed it into this wild sampled stuff. Rising to the beat of ‘21st century poem”. Stunningly / out there / pumping tight / exciting surprising and original side quests and pleasantly powerful, trippy and progressive. A joy of techno. (Disclaimer - I just RE-Discovered this album at 2 am and just need to be ebullient and completely enthusiastic and unhinged in my commentary so this is going to sound barely coherent but I want to capture how elevated and energised a state this album brings .... Consider this a form of poetry and formless unedited writing) A huge techno memory and joy reawakened, like a perfect dancefloor evening had been snapped from the air and captured at full volume. Oh. Yes. This is “that album” you hear that 'just the right's sweetspot” on the wildest night of your life and leave elated and spent but spend what are literal decades with an intangible ache; like a need to hear it again. To relaunch. To feel the push of the trampoline contracting again under you. In you. To you. The Field. And this is that album. It propels like a musical start motor to a whole fever dream and exercise routine stored in a tiny throbbing microdot in my reptilian brain t's like Jean Michelle Jarre got swallowed by a high assertive Whale on psychedelics who wanted to march to endlessly varied samples. ShhtOOOM.

Black Flute opens with a beat. Gee, what an innovation. Every other stinking miserable track of so called music starts with a long slow fad in...until....here it comes...it suddenly drops into the same dance beat with a slightly different mix of warbling over the top. Is the slow fade in a time out so that you can go and grab another E, or to go and do a wee cause you've been drinking so much water while gyrating off the first E you took? Fuck off!

It's schmick and professional and sounds good, but I don't find house music has a lot of personality. I suspect that this would be the greatest thing ever heard if it was being played super loud at a dance party with lots of flashing lights and you were loaded to the eyeballs on party drugs. I can listen to this, but I find my eyes and ears start to glaze over. My interest levels lift whenever a guest vocalist appears (special call out to Toni Halliday and John Lydon, both of whom bring a lot of flavour). 2.5 stars, rounding up because there is nothing actually wrong with it and the guest tracks bring some pizzazz.

This is like background music from a dancing compilation on YouTube in 2011

Heb genoten, kan niet anders zeggen

...surely they could have included Weezer's debut over this. 1.5/5

I prefer rhythm and stealth

Thought this came out in 2017 for a sec. Ok so this is not at all what I expected. It's something. Very interesting. Very trippy. I don't know what's happening but I'd like to find out. What the fuck. I actually really like this to be honest. It's very interesting. I actually do really like this it's quite dynamic. Big fan of this. Favourite: Melt Least favourite: Release the Pressure

Oh look, annoying noises. Occasionally with a few words, sometimes in English, sometimes in some foreign gibberish. More crap that didn’t need to be heard before expiring.

Background music to a weird space game from 20 years ago thats not very good. Sounds like it would go hard if I drank Mountain Dew. 2/10

loved this when it first came out and still do

A political philosophy that opposes Capitalism, and puts an emphasis on human rights.

House se daft punk nunca tivesse se tornado famoso. Me lembra muito aquela vibe de Discoteca de filme, bem atual mas com sintomas de Flashback. Blueprint de música eletrônica/DJ, fazem você mexer a cabeça espontaneamente, pioneiros de fato. HIGHLIGHTS: MELT, Song of Life, Original, Space Shanty, Storm 3000 8/10

I'm trying to figure out how this album is woke...

Man, it’s really gonna be a tough cell for me to get into EDM. I mean I’m not gonna give it a one. This is a 2.5 album as it gets. I just like having words with songs and not just beats man, but it was a solid output if you are into EDM or a history, I would definitely recommend this album but for me in my rankings, gonna have to give it a two nothing really drove me to be like it needs to be a three or higher

EDM?? Not what I was expecting I was very pleasantly surprised!! Some BANGERS on here.

Not sure why but I was expecting more of a sparse Orbital-style electronica, so the vocals on this were quite a surprise. Pretty good but just not something I’d listen to that often.

Como toda la música electrónica de este tipo, carece de sentido sin estar intoxicado por alguna droga sintética.

Burning down the Hollywood

Leftism is easily among my top 5 electronic albums of all time. I'm always someone who enjoys electronic music, especially the kind that's incredibly layered and complex while still being high energy and easy to dance to. This album is able to do that extremely well. Also, while it is 69 minutes long, it doesn't feel like it is that long since the songs have enough energy to them to make them feel like they are absolutely flying by. And the songs themselves are just so good. The beats have weight to them, the ambiance in these songs are really good and the vocals and all the other sounds are very good too. I don't think i can say anything bad about this album so it's getting full marks from me. Best Song: Open Up Worst Song: 21st Century Poem

Fav: Open up

Fine, I guess. Background music that doesn't bother me.

This album is absolute *essential* early Trip-Hop and is quite literally one of the BEST albums on this list. It's a shame to see everyone lump it in with all other British Electronica. It's the pinnacle of Cyberpunk, paving the way and influencing so many others. Whole genres were created based on this style. It's what made computer nerds start to have that Geek Chic. Leftfield truly stands apart from other similar acts of the time. Please give it a chance instead of just rating it 1 because you think too many other UK Electronic bands are on this list. Why are you even here if you can't listen to everything subjectively?

Fantastic early 90s electronica, a breath of fresh wind after I've been forced to listen to 60s Beatles clones for the past week or so. I've heard Original before, but never listened to the full album before, definitely was worth it :)

Nah.

O.5

1.5

This album is a slog and a half. The songs are too long, the album is too long, the only thing that wasn't too long was my patience for this album. I never knew that dance albums can be measured in WLPM ⌚👀 (3.2) ★½

Long and mostly boring. 2 stars

I didn't enjoy this. Even the songs that have some good bones end up being way too long and repetitive. The song with John Lydon was alright. Generous 2 stars.

2.5

Cool progressive housey ethno techno beats to study/relax to. Some nice Macarena vibes towards the end of Drop The Pressure. Bit of dancehall on Inspection (Check One) that paved the way for acts like Major Lazer. Some cool vocal cuts with the Portisheady Original (so not that original I guess) and John Lydon bleats it up good like a devil goat on evil flamey temple raver Open Up. A solid 4 stars from your humble friend o’ electronica.

Not my favorite

It's techno so it's kinda boring, but they did create a lot of trippy and spacey type of beats that I actually thought were pretty unique

I'm not much of a techno/electronica guy, but I appreciate that all these songs were distinct. Sometimes techno albums bore the hell out of me as they're repetitive by nature and all the songs end up blending together. This one at least has some variety (even if it's not my cup of tea). I was ready for it to be over, but it worked fine as background music. 3.2

Brilliant. A lot of bangers . Sometimes dips but comes back and your head can't stop loving it. Easy 5

На удивление приятный альбом. Первый трек мне вообще не понравился, но потом, когда оказалось что это больше инструментальный альбом-он раскрылся. Поскольку хороший инструментал всегда радует уши-я остался доволен, прям моё. При этом какой-то хоть глубины альбом не несёт, хочется поставить ему 4 балла

Good

eh

vaI love albums like this. I wish there was more albums like this in the list: experimental, unapologetic, sonically interesting, risky. Leftfield obviously draws a lot from its electronic contemporaries - one part dub, two parts EDM, three parts house, five parts Aphex - and it feels very spacious. These sorts of albums, all self-indulgent acid loops in the CD era, struggle to fit in in a context where you're not munted and sweaty, but it's pretty sweet. I dunno. There's just something so charming about the 808 closed hi-hat that I can't hate. Perhaps the biggest compliment I can give this album is that I expect to listen to it again, which in a world of an-album-a-day is quite the celebration. How ironic that the whole genre, this big beat-y acid-wash TB-303 sound, that was so forward-pointing before the turn of the millennium now comes across as quaint. An echo of the last vestiges of life before the internet and electronic production became de-facto corners of everyday life. You can picture this playing off some PSX demo disc somewhere, watching looping gameplay videos of Wipeout and Gran Turismo. Whatever happened to that optimistic futurism? Now our speculations of what is to come is more Black Mirror. fav tracks: Melt, Original, Song of Life, Storm 3000

One of the finest albums ever made

UK electronic music.. nu kan ik heel voorbarig een onvoldoende gaan uitdelen omdat het extreem verveelt. Dit was echter best oké, en sommige nummers kenden echt wel een interessante twist. Het bleef niet werken binnen de benauwende gietvorm van 90s dance music, maar deed ook z'n uitstapjes naar sfeervolle trip hop. En vergeleken met andere soortgelijke projecten die we tegenkwamen was het zelden écht cringy. Kan niet beloven dat ik het ooit nog een keer ga opzetten, maar het beviel relatief best goed. 6,5/10 Highlights: Afro Left (banger wel)

Deze generator draagt niet bij aan meer waarderen van de dancemuziek en triphop uit de 90's. Net als de recensies die ik erover schrijf: saai en repetitief. 5/10

Fun regae and techno vibes

Absolutely banger

Kind of good, but also doesn’t quite work as an album - a lot of this is really just a space journey soundtrack. Also, like many electronic albums on this list, it’s So. Fucking. Long.

Weird, disturbing and mesmerising ! The three feelings I got while playing this. Felt like psytrance got it's inspiration from them. Might have been something to hear that for the first time back in the days 3.5

Will need to come back to it from time to time to build some familiarity. Did enjoy it while working

I'm not sure I really needed to hwar this before I die.

I usually hate this stuff, but this wasn't bad.

Spacey, dense, trippy electronic with a nicely varied sonic palette. Some chilled out stuff, some high intensity stuff, some dancey stuff, some bangers, lots of cool sounds, classic diva vocal samples, dank dub atmospheres, house beats, and a dark moody ambience to it all. It's so funny how this genre is great for both drug fueled rave partying and plowing through boring office work.

This album grew on me. It's kind of edgy electronic music, which is not my favourite, but I found my head subconsciously bobbing up and down to the beat a few times, so I guess I liked it! Liked Songs Added: Song Of Life Inspection (Check One)

Enjoyable.

3.1 Hmm, on paper I should like this, but it's fairly mid. More radio friendly version of early Autechre, more upbeat, but a bit like early Autechre the songs go on too long, are too repetitive, but unlike Autechre dont contain any great hooks or breakdowns. However, I do enjoy the genre, and I do find it pleasant to work to. Not rating it too badly, but don't think I'll be listening again.

Escuchando esto para desayunar e irse al trabajo es el peor contexto para ponérselo y aún así lo he disfrutado bastante. Buen descubrimiento

Pretty mid-tier 90's techno. It’s not bad, but there’s nothing here that really stands out or makes it memorable.

😐 nah

Música electrónica que no volveré a escuchar.

Normally when the word “electronic” comes up on this list I groan and prepare for two hours of weird sci-fi movie soundtracks. At least this had SOME melody!

I would rather listen to daft punk but it was ok

Original

It LEFT me cold 😒

More dance music, though this was more spacy dub stuff. This was even less my thing really, feels like this is meant to be background music for a party I wouldn't want to be at. Not unlistenable, not good. 1.5.

On more than one of these tracks, I thought my smoke alarm was beeping. Funny thing is, I didn't remember cooking. 1 star.

I reckon this is a very good example of an electronica album, but it just isn't my thing really. Don't hate it, but never going to listen to it. It sounds clean and well produced, just not for me 2.5

Pretty cool album. I thought the first song was going to turn into the macarena for a minute.

This is awesome. More stuff like this pls

One of the better electronic albums in this list - enjoyed it quite a bit.

holy boring batman

ehhh not into, couldn’t finish it, better music to listen to at this time

I found this album monotonous and dull, made worse by the fact it's two hours long. It's possible it's a good record from a genre I just don't like

3.5/5 White men? Huh. If you say so. I guess the British can be okay sometimes! I would've described this as ambient afro-inspired dance music, but those are two pasty British men soooooooo. To be so honest I'm not sure why it's on this list, it doesn't feel particularly inspired, but maybe I'm missing some context. Some of these songs are SO long, by the time I thought I might be over half done with the album I'd only gotten 4 songs in. Phew. Probably not going on the playlists.

I haven’t listened to this album since I was a baby raver and considering how long ago that was, this album absolutely holds up. Lots of genres going on here, but I can’t resist the acid house and dub vibes. It’s a great mix of bangers and more ambient, trip-hop tracks. I was not expecting to rave my face off in the kitchen while making coffee and breakfast but it put me in a great mood and was a lovely surprise for this geriatric raver.

Fun dance music, and with a lil more pizzazz than the other recent 90s electronic albums I've gotten. How many more can there be on this list?

I had never heard of Leftfield, great electronic album! I can't believe it is from the 90's tbh.

Faded into the background.

It was not bad, but it was overlong, and the songs sounded very similar to my untrained ears.

Oh, hey look, it's another electronic album that no one outside of England has ever heard! This one is slightly better than the last because it has some life. A decent listen for a dance record

Favorite track: Open Up Pretty decent record, though it's nothing I haven't heard before. The John Lydon feature on Open Up worked really well, however.

Really good actually!

Familiars sounds from the noughties. Would work better in a smoky club with strobes, but there are enough hooks to keep my feet tapping while working.

This album just went by.... I didn't noticed that it ended.

There are a couple of build-ups if you squint hard enough, but maybe this only truly works at 3 a.m. in Ibiza when the lasers are doing most of the heavy lifting.

I remember back in the day, a coworker who was hugely into chicago house, got so overwhelmed by this album that he wouldn't shut up about it. I was much more interested in Portishead and the likes of Gravediggaz, Biohazard and the first Korn album. House music in general has never been of much interest to me, this album still feels all over the place to me and quite a bit boring to be honest.

What in the Johnny Rotten electronica

Highlights: Release the Pressure, Afro-Left I read on Wikipedia that the artists themselves thought this record was a mess and I have to agree with them. It's a collection of passable dance music, but not a good record on its own. I feel like it's an overall trend with 90s experimental music that it never really works too well as a record even though the material might not be bad on its own, so I am putting a bit of the blame on the format itself. However, the approach of this record isn't that good either. I've heard better dance and electronic music from this period so the music itself has to take the blame as well. Interesting to know that the sample they used in Song of Life is very famous and also used by the Beastie Boys and Massive Attack. But apart from the cool sample, that song was ruined by the beat switch. It's really a thing of taste though, and I really don't like this kind of dance music - it's very braindead and loopy. The usual 7 minute runtime of tracks didn't help much either. You really have to be under the influence of some shit to think this is wonderful. There are elements of greatness but they aren't arranged well at all.

Yet another middling example of this 90s British electronic music.

Into this! If anything a little underwhelming

Could say this one came out of leftfield. Just mid.

Wack. 2.5/5

It is perhaps an unfair, backward-looking assessment, but now that these kinds of techno beats have been so established and used over and over and over again, this album feels fairly cliché. A bit like how DaRude's Sandstorm gets rolled out at every hockey game. So credit where credit is due. Leftfield is one of the progenitors of this type of progressive house production. From my current vantage point, however, there is a definite cheese factor that is hard to get over. Contemporaries like The Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim have aged better.

I can’t listen to this I hate technology music

Perfect! Nice dancing rhythm.

2,6/5

Thoughts before listening: Uh techno I think? Probably European techno that used to play all the races and festivals back in the day. Review: So I definitely had the sound right. The songs with vocals remind me of the Prodigy a bit with the hard hitting beats and fast tempos. I am sure there is an official subgenre of techno that this falls into, but I have no idea what that would be. I don't hate this, but its also not something I would ever choose to listen to. To be fair, it also wasn't really for me 30 years ago when I was a teenager being told this was the future of popular music. I liked a few of the songs with vocals, including "Open Up" which includes Johnny Rotten....but then it just got so repetitive. I mean I'm sure this is great when you're in a field at Glastonbury at 2am raging on ecstasy, but its kind of annoying here at my desk this morning. I'm going 2-stars

Liberals 😭😭😭

I haven't listened to this in years. Was expexting it to sound dated but sstabds up surprisibgly well

Not for me

Fanns väl intressanta element men definitivt inte min smak

Solid album. I dig the beats and can see how this would've been big at the rave. I've gotten a lot of British electronic music on the list and this seems to be a notch above the usual fare. It has a Night at the Roxbury head bob thing going on that I like. They probably could've ended it after Inspection and made the length a little more manageable. Space Shanty is the jam.

This is an EDM album, but not aggressive. There are some vocals, including John Lydon the singer from PIL & Sex Pistols. It's an interesting album. Pitchfork: n/a Rolling Stone: n/a Best Songs Original Open Up

I loved this! I cannot believe this is from the 90s. I'm going to Bonnaroo this year and this album would fit so well with thev rest of the lineup. What a surprise for me as I was totally unfamiliar with this before yesterday.

Not my thing. Well produced but just not my type of music for the most part

Mesmerizing EDM. Two beats in particular stand out “Song of Life” and “Inspection”

Release The Pressure and listen to this Space Shanty.

Pretty cool, actually. Did not like everything though. Stand-outs - Original - Black Flute - Space Shanty

Well engineered. Otherwise a little light.

The soundtrack to a dystopian movie that ever got made.

Decent, somewhat spacey EDM. Never quite crosses the threshold into annoying (though the last track, 21st Century Poem, comes close). There’s a time when I would’ve been into this.

I can see the attraction for people who like this music, just not for me

(35/100)

Thoroughly enjoyed this album. Despite a couple songs feeling a bit long, there were some really interesting beats and rhythms that I couldn't help engaging with. 7/10

Not usually a fan of house or electronic but I didn't mind this at all!

Album #61 Leftfield: Leftism With a name like Leftism by the Leftfield, I was expecting some sort of socialist punk; however, knowing the nature of this list, I really shouldn’t be surprised that it was another pointless, long, obscure, British electronic album from the nineties. Entirely forgettable, nothing really to say; however, this one didn’t annoy me as much as the previous five, so I guess it’s a two-star; maybe I’m just getting used to this scene, and after 100 more albums of this type, I’ll finally give in and give one a 5. Best Songs: Release the Pressure, Original, Open Up Worst Song: Afro Left Score out of 10: 4.5

Not really very interesting to me, but I get why people would like it

Niet af.

Album de merde comme dab, je deteste la techno j'en ai marre de tous me les bouffer, y a aucune originalité c'est inaudible

these reviews about this album are beginning to worry me. here goes nothing Release the Pressure - 2/5 Afro-Left - 2/5 Melt - 3/5 Song of Life - 2/5 Original - 4/5 Black Flute - 3/5 Space Shanty - 2/5 Inspection (Check One) - 5/5 Storm 3000 - 2/5 Open Up - 1/5 21st Century Poem - 2/5 Average score: 2.5/5 ⭐️⭐️ i'll be honest. the author could've just had us listen to portishead, massive attack, prodigy and maybe fatboy slim to showcase *good* British electronic music. i know the purpose of his list is to show off some albums we might not have been exposed to otherwise, but the artists i mentioned have been the only ones in this genre (or close to it) that have been worth listening to in my experience that being said, while this isn't nearly remarkable enough to consider a must-listen album in my opinion, it wasn't bad enough to warrant 1 star. after the first few questionable tracks, the middle section was noticeably easier to listen to (and even enjoy!)

++: Afro-Left, Song of Life, Black Flute, Space Shanty, Open Up +: Melt, Inspection (Check One), Storm 3000 +-: Release the Pressure, Original, 21st Century Poem 7,9/10

Eh, it was alright.

I don't know if this was revolutionary in the 90's, but it certainly hasn't aged well. A boring two hour slog of generica electronica sounding of an amateur's 24 hour FL Studio session.

04/02/2026 I didn't hate it, but it wasn't for me. Spotify listeners: 396.5k

Liked some but would have been better to be in a club dancing to the beat

I had very low expectations going in. Varied electronic music tracks that are all over the place. Some of it comes off as background music, other times it's very vocal forward. Feels like an homage to different styles and artists. The Lydon track obvious comes off very PiL. There's a Kraftwerk type track (Melt) which was pretty enjoyable. A Massive Attack type track (Massive Attrack?) A dancehall influenced track. Even something I would classify as JOCK JAMS to be played in an arena. It's not bad, per se, but doesn't do any of these things better than their influences. Surprisingly did not drag despite album length. Would not revisit. 2.5⭐️

Well, it certainly was out of left field. The opening tracks were interesting, and had a unique feel to me. But as time wore on, it started to tire me out in the same way that other 90s electronica usually does. Maybe because that incessant beat is meant to be felt while getting bottle service at a club, while I’m more prone to my early nights and tranquil mornings. I enjoyed it most at the end, with the atmospheric afterglow of “20th Century Poem” that I would’ve much rather listened to the whole time.

I enjoyed the first two minutes of just about every track. Being more of an ambient enjoyer, the vocal tracks took away from my experience. I also think I heard a pig squeal sampled in track two which was a bit unsettling. Ultimately a “par for the course” 90s electronica album that was about 20 minutes too long.

Cool progressive house, a rare find on this list

I liked bits of this, particularly when things got a bit dubby or there were these more breakbeat-y sections. A lot of it washed over me and was background noise. Fave Tracks; Melt, Inspection (Check One) 3.1/5

I was not previously familiar with the artist or album. When it first started I was pretty excited. I thought it was going to be an ambient album, but then the vocals started. As the album went on, I realized the beginning of that first track was a bit of an outlier. This is really more of a dance album than ambient. It is not really exciting me in any kind of way - the instrumentation is a bit basic and repetitive, and the vocals don't do anything for me. I would not come back to this one.

2 out of 5. I'll admit I got a little lost in its trance for a moment.

Not Much to write home about and not a fan.

I really liked this, but then again, I have always liked electronic music, and eventually, techno and other EDM styles. I thought the appearance of John Lydon was pretty amusing.

wasn't sure how I'd feel going in but really grooved with this!

Trope filled and highly repetitive. Feels uninspired to me. It would have been a crime if it had beat Portishead Dummy.

Incredible

I danced the whole time... I loved this one. Such fun, creative beats. You can't help but move!

Good low key trance edm

Old school smooth techno vibe

It was fine? Kinda Afro beats house futuristic

This felt like a dance album from the early 00s. I'm just sure I'd come back to it often

Not my style but some good music.

Loved this, every single track a banger but with unique ideas throughout, space shanty a real banger

Not something I’ll revisit in full again, but I did enjoy having this on at the office while I banged out an hour or so of work. Kept me awake which is all I can ask.

I don’t mind Downtempo electronic sounds, but this just hit me kind of boring

Listened while snowplowing in a nor’easter, not bad

Original

1.55

It took me a couple false starts to actually listen to this album, and then was kinda into it through the first three or four tracks. After that though, it kind of wore on me and by then end I couldn't wait for it to be over. 90s deep house is a genre I actually like, but this felt lacking substance.

I really dont get electronic/dance music....these guys are supposed to be influential geniuses and the first song sounds like the Macarena mixed with something that would play under a nature video. I dont hate it, but I feel almost nothing. Can they make their beats without appropriating weird African and/or cliche lyrics about "letting go" or whatever? It always sounds dated and uninteresting to my ear. The monologues and voices all sound self-important. I try not to be a hater because there are cool moments where you can get into it, but overall I just dont enjoy the vibe.

its some grungy dance stuff. I like it, but I don't know if I would be able to spot it in a crowd.

de una mal pq dura mas de una hora pero bueno, al menos empezó a cantar en la primera ent no es musical pq ya no quiero mas así nvm es bastante musical pero highkey está durísimo nah si está como medio extraño, si tiene skips, y veo q todos los albums de esto son cm todos experimentales todos raros que pereza. bueno ya terminé, chimba de álbum, se lo mandé a kyan pero like si es todo extraño, me recordó mucho al lyan

Nothing memorable but it’s an album that you can get into a flow with.

I like it.

Leftfield’s debut is almost a compilation, considering the number of tracks featured that had been previously released as singles. Still, plenty of combos have released multiple singles from albums, so no crime doing it the other way round. So, Leftism. It’s a bit of a monster - confident and completely lacking in manners. There’s no knocking first, it kicks the door off the hinges, takes a massive shit in the shower and then raids the fridge. Leftfield makes electronic music like it’s looking for a punch-up. This record just sounds big and nasty, and excretes bad attitude. The beats are insistent and unapologetic as dub collides with paranoia and rancorous thoughts. Vocalists – including John Lydon and Toni Halliday – bear witness or rant and rave like chippie arrestees on the way to the van. It’s probably illegal somewhere. 8/10

Pretty interesting techno album but not my favourite genre so didn’t finish the album.

musique de fond des fois c'est un peu cool mais je réécouterai pas

weird

This was poolside listening, and I think it was aided by that. It's very cool, albeit highly repetitive (as the genre should be I guess). Also, obviously, far too long. A fun listen while I drown in Saigon lager, but not something I'll reach for in the future.

iskreno, za elektroniku dosta dobro, bilo je fora. glas džona lajdona ugodno me iznenadio, pa evo jedna lijepa trojka

Fine EDM. Maybe good for background music.

"Leftism" by Leftfield was completely new to me, as I had never heard of the artist or the album before listening to it. Overall, it felt like a fairly typical electronic album for its time. Some of it worked for me, some of it did not. I especially did not enjoy the tracks with vocals, which often pulled me out of the flow. On the other hand, I did like the more progressive house-oriented tracks, where the album felt more focused and immersive. There is not much more for me to say about this one. It was fine in parts, but nothing that really stuck with me or made me want to dig deeper.

Really enjoyed this one

It's house. "Progressive" house in fact. I like a lot of the tunes individually, but as a whole they become a bit monotonous.

90s Techno. Auch mit goa-artigem und Afro-style-vocals

au ravi ra shemeshvit

So many fucking awesome albums lately. Couldn’t find a chat, so I’m just throwing this out there. Replies welcome, silence equally fine. My old rating system was: 5 – great 4 – good 3 – OK 2 – no good 1 – shit But that didn’t really make sense, since this is meant to be the top 1001 albums — so a 3 shouldn’t just be “OK”. So here’s my new rating system: 5 – heaven 4 – great 3 – good 2 – OK 1 – no good / shit I’ve re-rated all the albums accordingly. How do you rate them?

I enjoy electronica but found this one lacking. The whole thing felt sterile. That vibe was a bit of a thing in the 90's. This album also felt punishing at two hours. The tracks meandered and felt needlessly long. I don't need radio edits but put out your extended mixes as a separate release FFS. Coming in hot on the heels of Dummy and with Aphex Twin and Chemical Brothers both releasing quality records in 95, this one does not make the cut.

I went in completely blink and didn't know what genre, decade or type of album I was getting. Very nicely surprised! Leftism is an electronic music album from 1995 that has huge influence. Sounded like a direct line to many of the electronic acts I've seen like Polo & Pan, Deadmau5, Swedish House Mafia, Knife Party and more. Sasha & Digweed featured Leftfield in one of their famous Renaissance albums (first 2 tracks too). This was very enjoyable and you can see the influence up and down electronic music.

Solid ambient and dance, needs more listens

This is a great album of electronic or progressive house with dub influence but it's more than that. It's not as monotonous as you would expect since some songs have various singers (i.e John Lydon).

Really solid electronic album. I went through their stuff when I did a Trainspotting deep dive. Their song on that and Shallow Grave is from this same period and definitely worth a listen, probably my favorites of theirs. I can hear what they mean that the first few tracks don’t flow the best but the back half of the album flows great. The hits being on the front end do ease the choppiness of it. I enjoyed Lydon’s vocals as well. Just a very underrated band, even if I still might prefer Prodigy or Underworld more. Rating: 4.8

I’m honestly not really feeling any of these electronic genre albums. And the songs that are just straight up music kinda pisses me off. I’m all for no lyrics, but for half of the album to be that is a bit annoying. Anyway, it was probably a new thing to hear when it came out so good for that.

4/10 I think you had to be there

Not listened to much of their stuff but ready for it. Can already see what the reviewer who said it’s like a 2000 PlayStation racing soundtrack meant 👏🏻 but kind never gets past third gear. And being 25% through this list, feels SO heavily UK weighted and 80-00’s. Okay, getting a little bit of fourth gear. And again, these albums are odd to listen to in the day and would probably have a totally different view in a club with it for an hour. Was very much background music and didn’t even realise it had finished and restarted. Better than “meh” but nothing that’ll make me go back (3.5)

In the early 2000s, a dear friend whom I hadn't seen for years introduced me to this band. I was thrilled and bought this album, among others. I listened to it so often that I eventually got tired of it. My enthusiasm isn't quite as great now, but it's nice to listen to the album again. 4/5

While I love most electronica, I found this sort of meh. Most of the instrumentals work better ("Melt") than the tracks with vocals. The exceptions for me were only the hits "Inspection (Check One)" and "Open Up". There were much better and more interesting releases that year that are not on this list: David Bowie's OUTSIDE (my favorite Bowie album of all time), Sister Machine Gun's BURN and Tears for Fears RAOUL AND THE KINGS OF SPAIN, just to name a few.

Standouts Melt

if I've said it once on this 1001 Albums journey, I've said it more than a few times: while I can see how this was game-changing for the time, it leaves me a bit cold. (naming your forward-thinking house project Leftfield also strikes me as just a bit on the nose, but I'm not gonna dock points for that.) this is the album that the term "progressive house" was coined to describe, and "progressive" doesn't quite mean the same thing in house as it does in rock or soul or what have you. Leftfield's left-field qualities don't manifest as a proclivity for odd time signatures or non-functional harmony; instead, they come from the group's lengthy, minimalist approach to songwriting, informed largely by dub and reggae music. alongside the use of plenty of guest singers from the reggae world (a common trait for British electronic albums of this era), we've also got Toni Halliday and John Lydon, inclusions which undoubtedly drew the rock audience into the fold. I can appreciate all of this, but at the end of the day, I just find most of these songs overly long, with some particularly dated percussion and synthesizer sounds at times. plus, at 70 minutes, you can tell they really wanted to fill that CD out. maybe I'd warm up to this a bit if I could hear it in a club or a concert hall, where they probably meant for me to hear this.

"Original" and "Open Up" are well known to me. I may have listened to the rest of the album a couple of times but not paying much attention. This listen, I had the house to myself and got the opportunity to use the fancy speakers and rattle the windows. Good stuff.

Sometimes I caught myself dancing a little but overall this album is a bit dull

I mean it’s cool dance music but how do I differentiate it? I guess it’s same as someone not into metal and them saying it all sounds the same. My ear is just not tuned to be able to differentiate it from anything else.

Y'a des p'tits bouttes pas pire. 2.49 étoiles

Got through this but not one I enjoyed or would seek out again.

Niet helemaal mijn ding

Work music supreme

Not the most exciting of '90s electronica on the list, can get stale but still more interesting than a lot of other albums

First listen was a 1 star, but listening more I got more into it than I originally expected. Actually started to enjoy it.

The chances of anything named leftism being good is incredibly slim

C’est loooong, 2-3 morceaux sympa.. sinon ça tire en longueur 2.5-/5

House music isn't a genre I really know anything about, but I enjoyed listening to this. The album blends techno with an interesting mix of genres in a way that sounds intriguing and fresh even now, thirty years after its release. I'm not sure if I'll be listening to this again any time soon as it's just not my usual genre, but I definitely really liked this. Edit: While I still like this album and appreciate it for its impact and artistic credit, I wound up changing my initial 4/5 to a 3/5, simply because to me, it just doesn't hold up in the way many other classic albums from even this era do. If I could give this 3.5 stars, I would. Unfortunately that isn't possible, and rounding this up to a 4 would put it among albums that it simply doesn't compare to in my opinion. 3.5/5 but closer to 3/5 than a 4/5

I signed up for this site hoping to uncover new music and artists, and honestly, I’d been pretty disappointed, until now. I’d never heard of this band or their album before, but I absolutely loved it. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, John Lydon’s unmistakable voice kicked in. This is hands-down my favorite discovery so far.

Good housey dance

Interesting album, fun twists and turns. A great vibe for getting on your feet and doing stuff (e.g. cooking).

First song I listened to was good but need to listen more to give a better opinion ! Will listen more :) my dad thought the singer sounded like massive attack singer

Very eclectic and cool Seems to span dub and reggae, house, techno, drum and bass elements. The instrumental stuff is awesome. Some of the vocal stuff looses me just slightly

Decent.

An interesting album, I liked Original the most.

Made want to play WipEout

Not at all when I was expecting but it was okay. Some forgettable tracks and some really cool ones

Not bad but also nothing to be excited by. Not top 1001 material.

If I wanted to get a headache while listening to incessant beeping, I wouldn't keep replacing the batteries in my carbon monoxide detector

Another house album I found fine to listen to but nothing that grabbed me

4.5

I liked this one a lot more than I expected to. I sometimes find that electronic music like this gets too repetitive and I end up losing interest. This one however has just enough changes and weird sounds comming in and out to keep my interest. And the bass is some of the meanest punchy bass I've experienced in a while Standouts Song of Life 5/5

Not my thing

Vocals generally didn't connect with me as much as the music, but that could change through multiple listens.

One of my favourite albums of all time

A proper electo album. The length at 2 hours and spoken word elements only drawbacks. High 3

Some great tracks such as Song of Life and Open up, but a lot of ordinary material sonic the way.

I find the flow and structures of the song enjoyable, even loving much of the percussive elements but the synths are hit and miss for me and the vocals are just miss. There was this idea in the 80s and 90s that inspirational, motivational, almost spoken word sounding, ethereal vocals would really make a house track pop, and for me it does just the opposite. It makes me feel hungover!

Leftism is getting a low 4 from me, great full length dance album that is progressive in its albumness and covers a lot of ground, some absolute tunes here that would sound great mixed into techno and trance sets to this day and the mix sounds amazing in headphones, very engaging

Yeah, I'm not listening to two hours of this...

Enjoyed it.

Do I like techno now? Or house or whatever this is called?

Interesting to say the least. Reminded me of like a ps1 game soundtrack

No thank you…

I feel like House music as a whole is just too long. I know why it's that long, it's to have a lot of jumping off points if you want to transition into other songs or to have a lot of time to build, but House just generally doesn't work in album form. Despite that, it was still a pretty neat album and I liked a lot of the influences on it. I'd still probably like this way more if I were in a rave or something.

More entertaining and powerful than expected - would accompany Sterner Regnix to a concert night.

Had a good sound to it, not quite my genre but enjoyed it.

very decent and nice listen

Very vibey but wouldn't be a usual listen for me. Kinda neither here nor there.

A classic for me, some bangers on here and Melt happens to be one of my most played tracks of all time (25th) - though that is due to its inclusion on the Deep and Chilled Euphoria compilation album.

Pretty good. Iffy at times, especially the beginning but it got better as it went along. Liked It more than most reviewers on here but it isn't perfect by any means.

Its just not for me

I don’t get the hype AT ALL. This album was uninteresting and not notable especially for 2 hours. I defiantly didn’t listen to the full 2 hours but once ur like 20 minutes in u get the idea Fav Song: 4.3/10 2.1/5

Great grooves, chilling and pumping somehow at the same time.

Another reviewer called this background music for a PS2 racing game …. I feel like that was too generous. Think theme music for a pandemic shutdown. It’s awful

kinda reminded me of Perfect Dark on the n64

I don’t really know when is a good time for me to listen to this type of music…

This made me turn right

This made me sell my House.

Annoying, but tolerable

Meh? I love electronica and wouldnt be sad to hear some of this in the clerb, but a lot of this was so forgettable. Melt was great. TWO! I’d rather listen to most BOOK clerb radio mixes.

Decent. 2.8.

Personal enjoyment: 3/5 Relevance to this list: 4/5

Isn't this the cave rave music from The Matrix?

Didn't know anything about them. Fun Afropop mixed with EDM. It got a little repetitive with songs dragging on for 7 minutes...but overall a nice listen.

yet another perfectly solid house album. I like the downtempo and tribal things it throw in but it's still just kind of early uk house.

p768. 1995. 2.5 stars. Well produced mid-90s dance album, best listened to in a field whilst off your tits on E. Tends to drag on a bit though. 3 on a good day, 2 on a bad.

Banger track. Its style reminds of the Matrix series. 4.3/5

Good background sound, but not worthy of being on the list.

Zzzzzzz is what I felt. It became boring

Like most electronica, it is incredibly boring. This album was way too long for something this uninteresting. They don't really do anything with the album and it's all over the place. No cohesion.

if you're really, really into house style music....then this might appeal. otherwise it's a bit of a bore after the first 4 or 5 minutes.

- I really like this. Interesting instrumentals/effects. - The vocals are sparse, but I like them when they’re there - especially the Lydon feature. The woman gives Massive Attack vibes — not as good, but a pleasant tone. - Upbeat, engaging beats that I’d like to dance to. Progressive with good forward momentum - the only song that felt kind of stagnant to me was Melt. - I like the blending of different music styles used in here (tribal/world/Afro, dub, house, trance, breaks, ambient, etc…). - Really clean production. - I get a Twin Peaks meets rave vibe on a couple tracks (Song of Life, Storm 3000, & 21st Century Poem). - I’d never heard any of these tracks - I think I’ve only heard a song or two by Leftfield, but I bought the album after listening to this.

Listened to half, not my style

Extra star for the Johnny Rotten cameo. Otherwise meh.

The house music label made me very suspicious of this one, plus it’s way out of my boomer demographic. I was very pleasantly surprised. Yes, it’s very danceable but, to my mind, has many ambient attributes. A great album to play on buds while cleaning house! 4 stars!

Enda en albumklassiker innen "dance/electro" jeg ikke var kjent med, og jeg er overrasket over hvor godt det funker som et album. Som regel er house/techno mer single-mat, men Leftfield har laget et album som er såpass variert i stilartene at det ikke føles langtekkelig. Første låta gir meg syre-flashbacks der den ligger i det repetitive og hypnotiserende psybient-territoriet, med masse artige lydeffekter som skapt for å distrahere et hyper-assosierende sinn. Afro Left, min favoritt fra skiva, er en progressive house club banger som godt kunne lurt seg inn i en DJ-mix selv i dag. Melt skifter tempo igjen til chill out / ambient, og Original er trip hop som kunne glidd rett inn i Mezzanine, sluppet først tre år senere. Storm 3000 er breakbeats med en synth lead som gir massive Aphex Twin vibes.

Dette er ikke helt min kopp med te, men likte det bedre enn jeg trodde. Det var ikke den masete housemusikken jeg trodde det kom til å være og som jeg syns er ganske kjedelig. Men det tenderer mot det i noen låter, slik som "Black Flute". Mens låtene jeg liker best er slik som "Original" som heller mer mot Air, Röyksopp, Lindstrøm et al.

Jeg hadde store forhåpninger til dette albumet. Men desverre låter det altfor dated. Dette er virkelig et album som ikke tåler tidens tann, og nå høres det egentlig bare billig ut. Skuffende!

Its alright

This does nothing for me. 2/5

I’m not a fan of electronic music, as I find much of it pretty repetitive. But this album was decent enough and worth the listen. Not bad, though not amazing either.

I've never heard of Leftfield before, but this will be my last album from 1995 to review. I see that this is yet another British house music album. I really thought I was going to enjoy the majority of these dance and electronic albums on this list, but most of these albums have been just fine. This is certainly a unique album cover though. I'm not sure if this shark jaw and camera lens will have anything to do with this album, but I'm hopeful that this album can join the ranks of Orbital 2 as my second five-star dance/techno/house album. Unfortunately, it's looking more and more likely that Orbital 2 will be my only five-star dance/techno/house album once I'm done with this list. Leftism was fine, but there wasn't a lot on this album that really grabbed me. I was reading about the critical reception of this album on Wikipedia, and a reviewer said that without "Open Up" and "Release the Pressure," this album wouldn't have made much a of a blip, and I think that statement summarizes things nicely. As I went through Leftism, I realized that I mostly didn't care for it when Leftfield used lower register sounds to craft their melodies, and there were quite a few songs that were crafted in those lower registers. Also, I wouldn't describe this album as uneven, but there wasn't really anything that tied the sound together really well. Despite those criticisms, there were some good songs on Leftism: I really liked the atmosphere "Release the Pressure" built. It sounded like being in a jungle, but without using elements that were designed to sound exactly like animal sounds. I liked it when the vocals kicked in, and I thought the beat was great, and I couldn't help but groove along. "Melt" was my favorite track on the whole album. The elements during the intro had this kind of call-and-response pattern that I really loved. This was the only song on the album where I really found myself completely hooked, waiting to see what was coming next. "Melt" was really beautiful, and I enjoyed it from start to finish. "Space Shanty" was an exception to my dislike for the deeper register songs on this album. I really liked those chiming sounds that were looped during the beginning, but I really enjoyed it when the song started utilizing those 'spacey' musical elements. When the beat softened out about halfway during the song, I started liking it even more. I really liked the beat on "Inspection." It was really groove worthy, and the other elements sounded great too. I thought it was a complete song with plenty of awesome elements for my ears to take in. I'm not super into the vocals, but they couldn't take away from that excellent beat. "Open Up" was really good as well. I would have never guessed that's John Lydon singing, even though it's clearly him. The beat was awesome, and the melodies were great as well. Lydon's vocals worked really well on this song, crafting a fun and unique atmosphere. Overall, Leftism was fine. There were some songs on there that I enjoyed, but a little more than half the album felt pretty forgettable to me. I can't see myself going back to Leftfield again, but if some of the songs that I liked from this album popped up on a playlist, I certainly wouldn't skip them.

Into it

I have never heard this before today and I'm trying to figure out how that's possible... this is something my friends and I would have listen to a million times back in the day. 5/5 This shit is fantastic thanks 1001 albums generator!! Added to my favorites!

Borinnnggg

Not for me

01) Release the Pressure - 8,5 02) Afro-Left - 8,0 03) Melt - 7,5 04) Song of Life - 8,0 05) Original - 7,5 06) Black Flute - 7,0 07) Space Shanty - 7,5 08) Inspection (Check One) - 7,5 09) Storm 3000 - 7,0 10) Open Up - 8,5 11) 21st Century Poem - 7,0 TOTAL: 7,64 (76/100) Current ranking: 291/737

Hørte kun en sang😬 gang i den!!

Fede produktioner og vokaler meeeeen lige lidt trukket ud

A bit to long. Nice beats. pretty

I listen to electronic music like this very rarely and when I do its to the songs that really catch my attention straight away. None of the songs on this album did that. I really get that 1995 feeling from the music and it feels old and that something is missing. I get the feeling that they probably influenced a lot of later artist with how familiar a lot of it sounds.

Enjoyed this. Somewhere between chill and upbeat, but I used it as background music while doing other things.

This is a mix of sounds that have aged very well, and pretty badly in my opinion. Honestly, I had the toughest time with the first two tracks, but after that some more stuff started to click. In particular, I think the more garage, jungle, break, and trip-hop stuff has aged best. The more conventionally dance-y songs are a bit more of a mixed bag. Some favorites are Melt, Song Of Life, Space Shanty and Storm 3000. And I will also say that the way this uses samples, particularly percussion, is really cool. Also, in the world of UK electronic music, this is undeniably important. This had some collaboration with people outside of the electronic world, and so I have read, laid the groundwork for much of what came after it. Honestly, by the end of this I was pretty into it. Even for electronic, it's an album you have to learn how to fall into a little. But the trance-like grooves and varied textures won in the end.

Pulsating, pugnacious, pounding.

Not left overwhelmed

An album I'd love to love. But no tracks grab me. Perhaps next time.

This album was alright, pretty energetic

I don’t have much of great worth to comment on this. If you sort of let it was over you while doing something else, the tempo and variations, it is possible to not be too unpleasant. It’s well put together and sure it’s a hoot to the right ears in the right place, but I’m not high off my tits and it’s not 4am in a basement club so cannot fully appreciate.

I figured this would be a struggle as I dont find it easy to engage with club / house music. It does appear well crafted and the chosen electronic effects do inspire a level of passion and emotion. The rub for me is its a layer cake of slightly unusuall sounds kept on in loop and built up and tweaked. Its clever but it just leaves me bored out of my brain. Its occassional propgressive drum beats bring back a kind of youth PTSD like that first dodgy blue drink you threw up when 15. Unless I have some mind bending substances in my system not sure I would ever enjoy this. I had to assign this the lowest order of my musical appreciation as it was just so hard to get through it. Odd 2 star song got drowned out in this epic. By the time I got to Black Flute the oppressive drum smashing nearly did me in and that was only half way through.

At first I was intrigued and thought I was on for a surprise banger. A few tracks in and I was blowing hot and cold with the album. I like the murkier electro and the dub and jungle elements, but I don't get on with the repetitive nature of house beats. It was a nice peak into the world of the 90's rave scene and I could see myself getting on with it a lot more in that context. This is more considered than the average dance album. It had elements of more recent music that I like, so it was a good academic listen if not a new favourite.

Interesting take on electronic music from the 90s. But it's still electronica from the 90s.

I had never even seen the cover of this album, no recognition whatsoever. My first thought was, "Is that a white light HAL 9000 eye inside of a shark jaw"? I guessed that this was some kind of progressive metal. No matter how good this record is, if it's prog metal, it might have easily slipped through the cracks during the mid-'90s grunge/alternative obsession. Turns out, I was wrong. I don't know the specific term for it, but I'd call the music hard or deep house. It's fair that some people find that music repetitive or even obnoxious, but have an affinity for it, left over from the club nights and Beyond raves at the Millennium Center. Raves used to be dark, dirty affairs in warehouses with people dancing in the middle of the room and tweaking on the sides. They were a far cry from the colorful festivals of today. This album contains some of the best-executed music in that genre that I've ever heard. It has an exciting, celebratory vibe that had me dancing around the living room like no one was watching. Thankfully, no one was. There is both continuity and variety here, much like a great DJ set.. I still know nothing about the origins of this record. I don't know anything about Leftfield, and I still think the album cover is poorly designed. But this music rocks and is a lot of fun. Four stars.

This one got me confused - started as an acid ethnic electronic jam and ended up in a PIL-infused stream of conscience euphoria… kind of like it, but you need to be in the mood. This is not for sitting and chill

‘Leftfield? These no hopers should have been left IN a field’ - Sir Len Houmous 1999! 1.1 12/18 Afro Ride

Really enjoyed it when it did the dancey electronic stuff, and cooled on it a bit more with the other tracks. Highlights: Afro Left, Black Flute, Space Shanty

Good droning

Better than most of this genre.

Yeah so what I'm giving an EDM album five stars, everybody f'ing relax, it's not a big deal and it probably won't happen again.

is it some kind of a game soundtrack or wtf??

Bien. Électro à souhait

Absolutely top notch beats and soundscapes, with some tastefully incorporated influences from world and African music to enhance the experience. One of my favourite electronic albums from the 90s, of which there are many excellent ones. The top review for Leftism on the site describes it as "background music from a PS2 racing game" - I perhaps wouldn't necessarily disagree, but for me that's a huge part of the appeal and charm of this album. I listen to this and feel like I've been transported to another era where life was a lot simpler and people were generally a lot happier.