Leftfield - Career

Career

Neil Barnes' entry into the music world was as a DJ at The Wag Club while simultaeneously playing percussion instruments on a session basis. Around 1989, inspired by Afrika Bambaata, Barnes decided to try his hand at electronic music production, the result of which was the track Not Forgotten, released on the Rhythm King label, and More Than I Know. For the remixes of these tracks, Barnes called upon Paul Daley, percussion player with A Man Called Adam and a formerly a session musician for the Brand New Heavies and Primal Scream, appearing on their Dixie-Narco EP. Barnes and Daley had previously worked together as percussionists at The Sandals' first club, Violets. Described by Barnes as "he sound of 15 years of frustration coming out in one record", the piece was termed "Progressive House" by Mixmag and held significant prominence in nightclubs from 1991 onwards. As their mutual interest in electronic music became clear the pair decided that they would work instead upon Leftfield, once Barnes had extricated himself from his now troublesome contract with Rhythm King subsidiary, Outer Rhythm. The name Leftfield was originally used simply by Barnes for its first single with editing/arranging and additional production added by Daley "Not Forgotten", but after this, Daley was involved in remixing "Not Forgotten" and then in the creation of all Leftfield's music.

During this period, in which the band could not release their own music owing to the legal dispute with Rhythm King, the pair undertook remix work for React 2 Rhythm, ICP, Supereal, Inner City, Sunscreem, Ultra Nate and provided two remixes to David Bowie's single Jump They Say. Finally, once the problems with their former label had been sorted out, Leftfield were able to unveil their single Release the Pressure.

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