The rules in leftfield are – that there are no rules. So bring back The Orb, two of electronic music’s great rule-breakers, to break the rule that ‘u.f.orb’ should only be written once. ‘The Dream’ was perhaps their best album since that magnum opus, and it sported ‘Vuja De’ as its lead single, with Juliet Roberts’ soaring vocals. The Infadels are a cracking band yet to get all the attention they deserve, and ‘Make Mistakes’ had Dean Thatcher proclaiming “It’s gonna get sweaty” at the end of February. Continuing the one per month theme, March saw the emergence of Santogold and the tune that brought her to the airwaves, ‘LES Artistes’. This was the first release in her year as a musical chameleon. April saw something we never thought would happen – Ninja going pop! Pop Levi, to be exact, whose ‘Never Never Love’ paid not so discreet homage to Motown and Prince – in a good way. In May the kings of leftfield since the 1990s returned from a long absence, Portishead’s ‘Machine Gun’ serving notice with what Lewis Dene called it’s ‘darkly buzzing electroclash undercarriage’. ‘The Rip’ followed up in June.
Mr Thatcher was at it again when he caught Port O Brien’s rabble rousing ‘I Woke Up Today’ in July, prescribing it as treatment on the NHS… while next month Ben Hogwood was on the trail of David Holmes, back – and singing – on the blissful shoegaze-type anthem ‘I Heard Wonders’. Only one candidate for September – Mujava’s Township Funk, all the way from South Africa and with Ashley Beedle on board, while October skirted the borders of leftfield and house with MGMT’s ‘Kids’, travelling via the mixing desk of Soulwax. Another bassline burner from Belgium, this! Esser is an Update tip for 2009, and ‘Headlock’ showed why – with Toddla T and Ross Orton taking it dancehall on the remixes. Finally it was time for Grace Jones to scare us all again (and secretly impress us!) with ‘William’s Blood’ soaring on strings and classy piano.
Ben Hogwood