Back catalogue: Leftfield

Review: A true enigma, an artist that represents all that was fascinating and romantic and alluring and intriguing about 20th Century sounds, Brian Eno was always going to need a feature length documentary, when the time was right. Premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Eno, Gary Hustwit's ode to the man, myth and legend, wowed critics and blew audiences away. Not least because it uses a computer programme which selects footage and edits the movie so a different version is shown at every screening. Innovation befitting Eno, removing the visuals and focusing on the sounds readjusts our vision to bring Eno into greater focus. The breadth of what's on this soundtrack is remarkable, from upfront indie on 'Stiff' and the weird folk-pop of 'Spinning Away', a John Cale collaboration, the ghostly post-rave of 'Cmon' with Fred Again, spectacular pianos of 'Motion In The Field', ethereal ambient vocals on 'There Were Bells', the angular punk dominating 'Third Uncle' - we could go on, and on, and on.

Review: Last year, Brian Eno served up his latest critically acclaimed album in the form of FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE. Now he follows it up with the much anticipated instrumental version. Despite his advancing years and the sheer scope of what he has already accomplish dint he ambient world - not least devising the genre in the first place - Eno still manages to excite and intrigue here. The artwork alone is beautiful, and the music inside is similarly lush - widescreen cosmic soundscapes with subtle melodies and shifting timbres, pregnant empty space and a knack for sounds designs with meaning few others can match.

Review: When The Ship was released in 2016, Brian Eno was comfortably settled into a rhythm with Warp Records which had yielded multiple albums with Karl Hyde amongst other projects. The Ship was notable in that it was Eno's first solo record with vocals since 2005's Another Day On Earth and its widespread acclaim saw it make an impression on the UK charts. Loosely based around the rich thematic thread of the Titanic, but it's as much an exploration of Eno's older, lower register vocal. There's also a choice cover of The Velvet Underground's 'I'm Set Free', which brings this majestic album to a close. Now it's seeing a re-release via UMR pressed on Coke bottle green vinyl.

Review: Now here's a rarity for you. Not even many of the most committed megafans know that Brian Eno, Holger Czukay and J.Peter Schwalm, accompanied by Raoul Walton and Jern Atai, performed a secret live music show, outside the esteemed Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, situated in the city of Bonn, in August 1998. Forming a part of the opening party of Eno's Future Light-Lounge Proposal multimedia installation, this furtively-recorded album hears an exclusive slice of incidental "high-altitude food music", of course made during Brian Eno's airborne ambient era. Now reissued via Gronland, this five-piece cut of sophisti-ambi-krauttronica makes for a welcome surprise.

Review: Roger and brother Brian Eno have already assured their legacy as pioneers of experimental ambient music. Mixing Colours was their first album on Deutsche Grammophon and this reissue reminds us why the par are so well known for revolutionising music-Brian through innovative pop treatments and Roger with ambient synth/piano works. This collaboration reflects their shared genius and guides you through rich soundscapes blending mood and place into immersive auditory experiences. Crafted over several years, this poetic collection highlights the brothers' mastery and is a deep dive into ambient sound.

Review: If you don't know the backstory then Fred Again and Brian Eno being on the same record might seem rather unlikely. One is an ambient innovator and long-time musical wizard who has worked with the like of David Bowie on his most seminal albums, and the other is a dance music powerhouse who has turned out plenty of pop hits under his own name and worked on even bigger ones with stars like Ed Sheehan. But as a youth, Fred was mentored by Eno, so there you go. Together they fuse their respective sounds perfectly - Fred's diary-like vocal musings over Eno's painterly synth sequences, the whole thing an immersive and escapist masterclass.

Review: 
For the first time ever since the mid-80s, Robert Fripp's God Save The Queen is now avaialble on fresh vinyl once more. It was the second solo album from Fripp and is made up almost entirely of so-called 'Frippertronics,' which means much of the record was performed by improvisation. Under each track are solid drums and bass to get the grooves going and guitar loops for the five tracks were recorded live in concert during 1979. It's a real left turn of an album and one that can be as mesmerising as it can wild.

Review: Robert Fripp's pioneering work in electronic music reached its influential peak with the so-called Frippertronics tour of 1979. Creating compelling soundscapes out of tape loops might not seem revolutionary now, but it certainly was at the time, and out of the tour came this limited and highly prized album, perhaps the most sincere recorded document of Fripp's creative breakthrough. Now Let The Power Fall is being pressed on vinyl for the first time since its initial release on Editions EG in the 80s, and it comes with additional versions of '1984' never heard before.

Review: Given 'Africa' has been the soundtrack to university athletics union night's out for the last 40 years or so it's safe to say Toto are a band that really deserve more in-depth attention. As this mind-blowing soundtrack to the cult science fiction film Dune goes to show, there's a lot more to the outfit than the chart-friendly glam-riffdom of their most famous single.



Brian Eno's name gives a sign of how arty things get, but in truth he's only responsible for a fraction of this adventurous listen, which is packed with movie soundbites to set the scene among fantastical landscapes, rather than realism. From classical overtures ('Leto's Theme', 'Trip To Arrakis'), through tense incidentals ('The Box') and crystalline synthdom ('Prophecy Theme'), it's only really on the credit-worthy 80s pop balladry of 'Take My Hand' that we get the stadium payoff Toto fans are used to, completing an epic journey.