1.
Leftfield – Leftism
I actually honestly can’t remember how [I came across this]. It may have been something as simple as buying a music magazine, reading a review and thinking ‘That sounds interesting’. But Leftism, that was probably one of my favourite non-specific dance albums [laughs], it had a little taste of everything in there, house, techno, jungle, that ‘Storm 3000’ one is always a favourite of mine. I just think it’s one of those albums that’s greater than the sum of its parts. For me, for probably a good five or six years after it came out, it was still absolutely relevant and fresh-sounding.
Actually, when I was fifteen I went to see them live, back in 95, and still to this day it’s the greatest ever gig set I’ve ever seen in my life, they were so good. Everything was versions of the album, extended, all sorts of instruments I’d never even seen before in my life – I was absolutely gobsmacked. I remember being at the front the whole time, having [previously] been used to going to more gigs where it was a bit more grunge or indie or something, where you’ve got this hellish moshpit at the front, with dribbling idiots basically knocking the shit out of each other in a very unrefined way, just crushing up to the front, you know. But this obviously was a dance music concert, it went on later and people were probably pilled up, and you could just walk around the whole area, right up to the front of the stage. It was packed, but people were dancing and respectful of the space. This was one of my first times of going to see something and taking all this in. It was just fucking mindblowing. The sound, the bass, everything. I think that concert was probably the first time I felt and heard really, really ridiculous, good, clean low-end. It made a huge impression on me. It was a very formative experience, that Leftfield concert.
