CD: Leftfield, A Final Hit

Leftfield split in 2002 to little fanfare. No surprise really as Neil Barnes and Paul Daley had always shunned the limelight, preferring to let their dub-inflected techno do the talking. They certainly deserved at least a slap on the back for their contributions to the 90s dance scene - most notably, 1995's million-selling album, Leftism, and their incendiary single with John Lydon, Open Up. But the duo lacked the charisma of their peers; while they invented "progressive house", they only lasted two albums, which makes this "best of" package a bit suspect. Phat Planet and Open Up still quicken the pulse, but much of this retrospective sounds as dated as the notion of dancing in a field.