New Leftfield Album

@ penfield - 4.06.15 - 03:42pm
Thanks Garion. The player wouldn't appear when I tried that Guardian link.
However, having listened to the whole album, I am disappointed to say the least. Some of it I thought was awful, particularly the Head and Shoulders track - which to me was an inferior copy of what Underworld were doing 20-25 years ago. Thankfully, I successfully cancelled my Amazon pre-order.

If anyone else wanted to try that from the link, wait until the page has stopped loading and you've got the greyed-out Spotify box, then reload the page and the red 'loading' bar will appear above the grey Spotify box and it'll be replaced by the album art with a 'play' icon, its a glitch. I only mention it because having already witnessed an extreme cancellation reaction

you may wanna try before you buy with this one.. * +

penfield 4.06.15 - 10:06pm

@ garion - 4.06.15 - 08:50pm
Yeah, Leftism's a one of a kind classic, it's a bit like hearing Dark Side of the Moon and then being a bit hacked off by Animals, but everyone should see the Chris Cunningham video for Afrika Shox from Rhythm and Stealth.

Good video

I like the analogy and the funny thing for me is that I listen to Animals more these days than I do Dark Side of the Moon. I love both albums. * +

garion 26.07.15 - 04:24pm
I don't want to look like Pro's resident hi-fi nut here.. but I guess I'm going to; c'est la vie..

I first heard bits of this (as indicated earlier) via a stream, and since the horrible compression levels of mp3's make them fit only for ringtones, I wasn't impressed, but didn't expect to be, I just wanted a rough idea of what the tunes were like and where Leftfield themselves were at.
I bought the album anyway, 'cos, well, it's Leftfield innit?

My cd player was poorly at the time and was being nursed back to health by the splendid staff employed by the amiable Mr Richer, so it got shoved into my cheap chainstore dvd player, and I thought the album was awful and a hugely mistaken purchase.

When my Azur 640c was discharged with a clean bill of health, I decided to give the album another chance, and I liked it a whole lot more - there's lots of midrange which I couldn't even hear before and some deep, rich bass which bounces around between the speakers in a delightfully stereophonic way (I wish producers would remember that we hear 2 channels, not 256) and hence (and this is where the hi-fi nut bit comes in) I enjoyed it a lot more, because I could hear a lot more OF it, then I started getting into the tracks and it's definitely growing on me, to the point where I'll almost certainly play it again tonight (with appropriate refreshment).

So if you listen to music via an iPod, avoid, but if you play back music through a reasonable system, give it a couple of listens.. * +

garion 27.08.15 - 09:12pm

@ stratboy - 2.06.15 - 07:17pm
sleaford mods are fking s**te

Have to agree with you there - I didn't buy into the hype surrounding them (too old a hand for that) but from the media I'd assumed they'd be like the idiot ba stard sons of The Streets and Alexei Sayle, but the guy's just shouting random nonsense.
However, perhaps because of this rather than in spite of it

is surprisingly excellent. Nobody does an instant, grab you by the balls bassline like Leftfield, and the vocals in this case are just decoration - it could just as well be a football crowd bemoaning the central official's onanistic tendencies or jackdaws cawing; you give in to the riddim, and the fact that this geezer's shouting stuff is largely irrelevant.

Of all the albums I've bought recently, this is getting the most airtime - every track's a real grower, and with all due respect to @penfield, despite the utter superbness of Leftism, this is the one I'd most want to listen to. * +

penfield 28.08.15 - 03:41pm

@ garion - 27.08.15 - 09:12pm
Have to agree with you there - I didn't buy into the hype surrounding them (too old a hand for that) but from the media I'd assumed they'd be like the idiot ba stard sons of The Streets and Alexei Sayle, but the guy's just shouting random nonsense.
However, perhaps because of this rather than in spite of it is surprisingly excellent. Nobody does an instant, grab you by the balls bassline like Leftfield, and the vocals in this case are just decoration - it could just as well be a football crowd bemoaning the central official's onanistic tendencies or jackdaws cawing; you give in to the riddim, and the fact that this geezer's shouting stuff is largely irrelevant.

Of all the albums I've bought recently, this is getting the most airtime - every track's a real grower, and with all due respect to @penfield, despite the utter superbness of Leftism, this is the one I'd most want to listen to.

I'll give this album another listen via YouTube and re-evaluate my opinion. I can stream it from my laptop directly to my bedroom hi-fi system via Bluetooth.

As for the Head and Shoulders track, I'll probably still feel the same way about it and it's because I'm a big fan of Underworld's style of pseudo-random lyrics and what I heard previously was just a very poor imitation.

We'll see about this. I hope for better results this time.

* +

garion 28.08.15 - 06:43pm

@ penfield - 28.08.15 - 03:41pm
I'll give this album another listen via YouTube and re-evaluate my opinion. I can stream it from my laptop directly to my bedroom hi-fi system via Bluetooth.

As for the Head and Shoulders track, I'll probably still feel the same way about it and it's because I'm a big fan of Underworld's style of pseudo-random lyrics and what I heard previously was just a very poor imitation.

We'll see about this. I hope for better results this time.