I think the first thing I heard by Leftfield was their Vocalfield Mix of Open Up Your Head by If? in 1991 and I was hooked from there on, trying to get hold of anything I could. Due to a legal dispute with record label Rhythm King, Leftfield could not release their own music for several years, focusing instead on remixing and producing other artists: Stereo MCs, Sandals, Ultra Naté, React 2 Rhythm, Adamski, Inner City... all classics. Open Up, 1993's collaboration with John Lydon, was a game changer and when debut album Leftism appeared in 1995, it more than lived up to the weight of expectation.
Side One (46:19)
1) I Am Free (Leftfield Escape From Da Da Mix): Morgan King (1994)
2) Space Shanty (Tribal Mix): Leftfield (1995)
3) Body Medusa (The Leftfield Remix): Supereal (1991)
4) Afro-Left (Album Version): Leftfield ft. Djum Djum (1995)
5) Not Forgotten (Hard Hands Mix): Leftfield (1991)
6) Open Up (Full Vocal Mix): Leftfield / Lydon (1993)
Space Shanty (Tribal Mix) originally appeared on the excellent 1997 compilation Foundations: Coming Up From The Streets but suffered from a mastering fault/skip a couple of minutes in. I was able to find a version online without the skip but which cuts out abruptly at the end. The version included here is a (hopefully) sympathetic edit of the two recordings.
Tracks 3 & 5 are edits from the 1996 compilation [Progressive House Classics]. Whilst I now have the full length versions of both, I've kept with the edits to maintain the original mixtape running time.
This is Open Up's third appearance on this blog, albeit in different versions which you can find here and here.
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