Neil Barnes

Leftfield
Leftfield performing live in 2016: L-R: Adam Wren, Neil Barnes, Nick Rice (Hadouken!)
Background information
Origin	London, England
Genres	Progressive house electronica trip hop dub techno house
Years active	1989–2002, 2010–present
Labels	Infectious Music (present) Outer Rhythm / Rhythm King, Hard Hands / Chrysalis Music, Columbia / SME Records (former)
Associated acts	Earl Sixteen, John Lydon, Roots Manuva, Afrika Bambaataa
Website	leftfieldmusic.com
Members	Neil Barnes - keyboards, programming Adam Wren - engineering, programming Nick Rice - drums
Past members	Paul Daley Sebastien Beresford - drums (2010) Andy Burrows - drums (2012-2014)

Leftfield is a British electronic music group formed in 1989. It began as the duo of Neil Barnes and Paul Daley (formerly of the Rivals, A Man Called Adam and the Brand New Heavies). In January 2010 Barnes resurrected Leftfield without Daley and, after touring for a few years, finished writing new material for a third album entitled Alternative Light Source. Daley declined to be involved and is focusing upon his solo career.

The duo were very influential in the evolution of electronic music in the 1990s, with Mixmag describing them as "the single most influential production team working in British dance music". As with many of their contemporaries, such as the Chemical Brothers, Leftfield were notable for their use of guest vocalists in their electronic music. Among the more prominent were Toni Halliday on "Original", Johnny Rotten on "Open Up", Djum Djum on "Afro-Left", and Earl 16 and Cheshire Cat on "Release the Pressure". The term progressive house was coined to define their style, a fusion of house with dub and reggae.

Neil Barnes' music career started off as a DJ at The Wag Club while simultaneously playing percussion instruments on a session basis. Around 1989, inspired by Afrika Bambaata, Barnes decided to try his hand at electronic music production, the results of which were the tracks "Not Forgotten" and "More Than I Know", released on the Rhythm King label. For the remixes of these tracks, Barnes called upon Paul Daley, percussion player with A Man Called Adam and 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 "[t]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 his first single with editing/arranging and additional production added by Daley, but after this, Daley was involved in remixing "Not Forgotten" and then in the creation of all Leftfield's music.