Leftism

I'm not a house music fan, but this has a lot more variety and directionality in the music making it next level. Great accompaniment to cleaning the house, folding laundry, cooking, omg what has happened to my life

Electronic albums like this are always a little harder for me to critique because I’m not sitting there judging riffs or lyrics the same way I would with rock or rap. A lot of it comes down to whether the sound keeps me interested, and this one definitely did. “Song of Life,” “Original,” and “Space Shanty” were all really good. What I liked is that the album doesn’t just stay in one lane. There’s house and techno in there, but also dub, ambient stuff, breakbeats, and enough changes in texture that it never felt like I was listening to the same beat for an hour. For a dance album from the mid-90s, it also hasn’t aged nearly as much as I expected. Some of it still sounds surprisingly modern. I probably wouldn’t reach for this as often as a rock or metal album, but this is exactly the kind of electronic music I can get into when it has enough variety and atmosphere to keep my attention. Favorite song: “Space Shanty”

A couple of tracks were decent but overall I just don't think it's really my kind of thing. I liked some of the heavier sounds but it was a bit too ambient for me. I was falling asleep listening to this at work after eating my lunch.

very cool early house. Genre-defining

Pretty decent but sounds a little dated nowadays

Dark electronic music, cool beats, 90’s british raver

Kind of cool in places but suffers from the 90s super sequenced plasticy dance music sounds that I can't stand, I can see where Massive Attack comparisons come from in the heavier dub type tracks, but where Massive Attack sound grimy and prganic, this is just a bit too cheesy for me

Okay, this is a very recent album, but I am not a huge fan. It sounds like beach music, which doesn't have a lot of substance and there's a lot of drummy beats, but I am not a huge fan of listening to this for long periods of time. I would say that it's fine as a background listen, but really nothing too exciting and quite meh in fact.

No thanks. I try to keep an open mind but this type of techno/house irritates me.

Good background music for getting work done

Night at the Roxbury music

Surprisingly «unbad» for the genre. The tracks had a direction and enough dynamics to make it interesting. Still not a favourite genre of mine, though.

This was so spacey but in a really boring way.

Kept waiting for more. Never came

Good this

No es para mi

Listened on the way to the station with Audrey so I can't give it less than a 2

we calling for wealth redistribution and dismantling of class structures with this one 💪💪🔥

nice on a train ride. some parts i liked less but otherwise easy listening. like a 3.75

This honestly made me feel sleepy. Which I might consider a good thing, other than the fact that it's supposed to be dance music. Genuinely do people want to dance to this? A lot of it is fairly mellow, and overall quite boring.

I'm just now finishing up this album... and I'm not sure exactly where it fits I am glad I listened to it as I would never ever ever even give an album like this the time of day However, it's somewhere between music you'd hear in a bougie hair salon, a swanky martini bar, or a retail clothing store that I can't afford. It's definitely music. There's definitely some talent there. I safely can say it's not in my top five favorite genres.

Next.

This was a wakeup call, as someone who's been dabbling in electronic music. Sometimes, the sounds that are so cool in your own room with your own equipment just don't translate into excellent songs. It was all fine, and when I listened from a synth-enthusiast's perspective, I enjoyed it. The track with John Lydon stood out. But nothing particularly blew me away.

right into the trash can. 0.00

Great time capsule of a highly influential group

We’ve heard plenty about which indie albums 14-year-old me would have given five stars to, but I’ve no idea what he’d make of me giving this four now.

Eeh…cup o crap

Drum and base with hints or reggae. Was kinda fun

This was not my vibe unfortunately!

This album represents perfectly what I always critique of atmospheric music: it may have some interesting layers (I will not deny), but it is far from being dense and immersive, purely superficial, insipid and uninteresting. It is a very dispersed album in which the songs relate in little, constituting separate soundscapes, but none of them is actually appealing. The songs in this album are just very reiterating and pretty plain at many times, not evolving, not transmitting anything and, what is worse, becoming annoyingly long for what they actually do. And, again, there are some nice layers and ideas, but the songs are just not good. The atmospheres do not grab any attention, do not feel stimulating. They just go on and on over the same thing just to try to persuade in some way that I have not loved. Neither liked. This album is very plain, that is all I can say.

skipped

meio tanto faz

not memorable 2

This was a great progressive house album for 90s dance music. It has breakbeats mixed in, but what really sets it apart from a lot of other records in the genre is the dub influenced soundscape, which gives it an ambient, atmospheric feel while still keeping a tempo that works perfectly on the dance floor. What’s crazy is that I always expected Leftfield to be a drum and bass group. I’ve known about them since the late 90s, and every time I saw their name, I just mentally lumped them in with that scene. Turns out they’re progressive house, and honestly, that’s even better.

Not my thing

não costumo ouvir música eletrônica e achei as faixas muito longas! provavelmente não irei ouvir outras vezes

Holy shit. I was genuinely swept up with nostalgia to this one. Not because the musics good, but because it reminded me of this game called Winback Covert Operations on PS2. This would totally be some shit I’d bump mowing down bots to. Idk, even for electronic shit, this seems very very barebones and mid? I need to dive deeper into these genres so I can have more takes, this just doesn’t feel like anything special at all. Background music to video games at most.

What do you want from Me here. I can’t really do techno I don’t appreciate it I don’t know why this is a fine intro to the scene but much more meh

Why in the fuck did I need to listen to this? bad 90s porn music.

Very diverse and surprising. At times it was enjoyable, at times it was boring. At times it was innovative, at times it sounded like it was made by a newbie to electronic music. Some highs: - Release the Pressure - very Massive Attack-like, would listen to again - Black Flute - great track, would spin it on parties if I were a DJ - Song Of Life - also great trip-hop

I feared the worst but it wasn't so bad in the end. I like that there are sometimes vocals.

For focus work, this is an excellent album. But the vocals get a bit too wishywashy for me that it distracts me out of that focus. So overall, meh.

As a rave album it kinda works. The ideas are still stretched but every song has its gimmick and the album builds in a logical way from song to song. Worth using as a working aid when trying to concentrate.

This was fine. I think my feelings towards Brit DJ music are well documented.

Release the Pressure - 3/5 Afro-Left - 3.5/5 Melt - 3/5 Song of Life - 3.5/5 Original - 3.5/5 Black Flute - 3/5 Space Shanty - 3.5/5 Inspection (Check One) - 3/5 Storm 3000 - 3.5/5 Open Up - 3.5/5 21st Century Poem - 3/5 This was great in small doses, but its length really made some of the songs dragged on. I get most of these songs were meant to be played in clubs, but it could benefit from trimming down extensions on some of the songs. Not many standouts here but it certainly was a developed concept. Overall: 3/5 Favorites: Afro-Left, Space Shanty

Ok but this period of eleecctronic/dance music ffeeels really amateurish

one star except that song of life was pretty good

Snoozism

Seth - 3.5/5 Logan - 3.5/5

Given when this was released, I can see how this was considered fairly groundbreaking for a full-length house/dance album. I like it that there are so many echoes here of contemporaries like Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Orbital, even Enigma and others, even if there's not a huge amount of variety or range across this too-long album. (I can see both why it got a Mercury Prize nomination and also lost to Portishead's "Dummy".) Highlights for me were apparently all the tracks that started with vowels: "Afro beat", "Original", "Inspection (check one)" (which might have influenced Chemical Brothers' fantastic "Push the button") and the classic "Open up" (still hard to believe that's Johnny Rotten on vocals). A bit too ambient-dance for my tastes at times, but still a solid "album" of previously released singles, and even more impressive that "leftfield" appears to now be an entire genre of music.

Normally I dread these older electronic albums but this one won me over. I would have to listen again to say exactly why.

Who’s that guy making noise

While super important for the time, the genre has left this album behind. Still nostalgic and enjoyable but not as groundbreaking and somewhat dated sounding.

I do love earlier electronic music. This is fun and gets the body moving.

Pretty damn enjoyable house ahit, this style isn't really for me but definitely some nice production

More electronic junk.

This is FANTASTIC get-shit-done music.

2.5. Would've been higher if it wasn't so long. It had some cool moments and flavors, but it was few and far between with a lot of what I don't like about this era of electronic music.

Klinkt wel geinig, maar ook een beetje saaiig. Lekker als achtergrondmuziek.

This started to get a little old by the end, but I thought it was fun. Solid. 3.8

A lot of the songs sounded the same. Nothing overly interesting but again at this time it’s reflective of the time. Music like would become the norm for movies like Blade and underworld. They may have been innovators but they aren’t necessarily interesting.

Fun and cool

im bored

Liked the beats for deep work

Not my usual vibe but it lucked out and hit me on a day I used my desk treadmill

I guess being an album you have to listen to before you die doesn’t mean it’s an album you listen to because it’s good…

Me when kick snare kick snare for the billionth time: holy shit

It's fairly good electronic techno club music that holds up very well. I think it's a bit too long, but I liked that Check One song.

This is on my shelves. It's not played very much. It's better than I recall. Heard before ✅️ Listened this time ✅️ Revisit ✅️ ★★★☆☆(6/10) Total reviewed : 429 Already owned : 96 Purchased : 21 To buy : 5 Nope : 307

I really rather enjoyed this album, particularly in comparison to the album from yesterday - unlike Haunted Dancehall, this was fully fledged electronic dance music with an excellent cast of guest vocalists. Pretty influential in the genre.

Didn’t really know there was an official “electronics” genre. Hard to understand how somebody thinks this is great. Manufactured music that seems like it belongs on a movie soundtrack or game. Giving it a kind 2 rating.

I thought this would rule for like 60 seconds, but alas, no.

Yep, that sounds like electronic music to me.

Very loud with a strong base, lots of flashing lights and on a dance floor after a couple shots in my 20s I would maybe have enjoyed this but at work on a Wednesday afternoon is a hard no.

bleh

man this is one of those genre crossovers that just doesnt work. Reggae and house/electronica are not compatible at all. At least not here. Some of the tracks that lean more in either direction are the ones that made it listenable, but overall its pretty generic, nothing you havent heard before.

Boring electronic music mixed with mediocre reggae

This was pretty ok. Not mind blowing, not awful.

Not my genre but it didn't upset me. 2.8/5

Banal. Like something you’d ignore while playing a video game. Why is this here? “Open Up,” which has some interesting Cirque du Soleil-type vocals, might be enough to get this all the way up(?) to 2.5.

Why is this average dance album on the list of "must listen to"?

While his list is far from perfect, I really respect Robert Dimery's un-ending love for 90s electronic music. Favorite track: Space Shanty

It was good, more than just techno house music that was repetitive and for people on molly or ecstasy to dance to. It had some interesting lyrics that added to the songs and broke them up enough that I didn't feel bored. It was kind of like a weird trip through space but at least things were changing.

I wasn't familiar with this album or artist, but there was some heavy nostalgia here. Felt like I was back in my early 20s, finding myself and navigating my future. Loved this step back in time.

Great album great discovery

Rubbish

Not the best electronic album ever. But it did motivate me to listen to some Moby

You almost caught me dancing to the Macarena there for a moment. I was enjoying the first track, but this eventually just became tedious.

I never mind electronic albums but they always seem to overstay their welcome a little. Can only give this a 3 even if I enjoyed a fair chunk of the record

3.0/5 - Although I could say this for some albums and be over-exaggerating, this one was truly waaaaaaaaaaay too long. Got through the entirety of disc one, and then skimmed disc two and decided I wasn't going to listen to it in full. Same old song. While the vibes of this album were there somewhat, this qualifies as little more than OK background music at best.

I don't get excited for tecno albums on this list, much less ones that run more than an hour.

That was actually pretty good

Not spectacular, but I'd throw it on again as background music to work to. Open Up is the standout track.

From the Vault #37 (June 22, 2026) As a chuddiecel patrician, let's just say that I take great issue with what this album has wrought upon the Western world 🤬😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬😡 fuc🤬 yu fk y😡o fuck 🤬 kf kfc😡yul you 🤬🤬🤬🤬😡😡😡🤬 i hate leberals Anyways, I have no clue as to what this album could be. My mind immediately darts to punk because that genre is the most nominally left-wing, though the market for shitty DIY albums had obviously shrunk by the time the mid-90s rolled around, so I doubt it's punk. "Leftfield" sounds like the name of a preppy, early-2000s indie rock outfit, though I'm listening to this album ahead of schedule for the precise reason that it's an hour and nine minutes in length, which seems a little too long for an alt/indie rock album. Where the year of release, runtime and album cover do line up, however, is in the electronic department. I doubt it's drum and bass since all of the DnB albums on this list are two hours in length, so we're rolling with ambient/electronic instead. Here goes. Progressive house. I'd say I was more or less correct with my prediction. Anyways, yeah. This wasn't bad, though like always I have a difficult time reviewing the electronic albums. This is simultaneously quite dated and quite timeless. The ambient, rave stylings have generally held up well, whereas the techno and electronic textures of this album are both somewhat dated. Speaking as broadly as can about this album, the clear highlight of these songs lie in the percussion. The percussive sounds all move at a slow, steady, methodical pace, laying the groundwork that all of the other instruments revolve around. The result is an electronic album with a surprising level of scope and scale, carried rigorously by its deliberate sound. What unfortunately undermines this album for me is how inconsistent it can be. The drum breaks are leagues better than the other sounds, and the few songs without percussion suffer greatly from their lack of a central focus. There's also the matter of this album being quite fatiguing due to its length, though I generally felt that it did enough to hold my attention. Overall, this was an adept showing and an easy listen. Book time. "The best dance music album ever? Maybe. Certainly the most intelligent." The album cover is apparently a speaker cone surrounded by a jawbone. Nominated for a Mercury Prize. The book entry closes out by saying that "...it restored faith in dance. If anyone saved a genre, it is Leftfield." Wikipedia says this album features reworkings of singles alongside new tracks. John Lydon appears as a guest vocalist on this album. Critics were generally favourable, with it receiving further acclaim in the years following release. The scope of this album has had it marked as a significant outing in dance music. The album peaked at No. 3 on the UK charts, but had more modest placements in the four other countries where it charted. I've certainly been hearing my fair share of 90s electronic albums lately, and I'm thankfully not at the stage where I'm tired of them just yet. This release doesn't appear to be particularly influential, though it is highly regarded and for that reason I'm content with letting this one through. I cosign this inclusion.

An album of the length as befitting the CD era, and music that evokes the 90s as much as Definitely Maybe. It's actually a collection of singles and new tracks that Leftfield themselves were unhappy with, despite its mercury nomination and critical and commercial success, along with Portishead and the Prodigy. It was sees as the birth of a new genre called 'Progressive House' and there are some more subtle atmosphere in some of these tracks - Jean Michel Jarre's influence is there - and the open up single with John Lydon was a significant hit. Not my kind of thing but you can't dismiss this as entirely predictable and repetitive.

Decent

This album got me pumped, very enjoyable.

Not rur mich

Anything techno/electronic generally is not one of my favorites when it comes to this project, and especially when I saw the long runtime on this album, I was anticipating another slog of a listen. To my surprise, this was probably the electronic album I enjoyed the most so far. Every track felt like it had its own identity and feel. Not sure if the vocals were live or sampled or a mix of both, but there was a wide variety of voices and perspectives that meshed with each particular track. A few times, there were some subtle grooves and sounds that reminded me of Peter Gabriel's Up that came a few years later, so there were touch points that kept me wanting to keep listening. It was still way too long, and while I get that dance music probably should run long for optimal use in clubs, it still isn't my preference. All that said, this was an enjoyable listen.

Classic beep-boop. Techno Viking would be pleased with today's offering.