Leftfield – Open Up

14th January 2025 · 1990s, 1993, Dance, Electro, Music

No prizes for guessing why this one popped into my mind this week as Los Angeles battles the terrible wildfires.

Sad times, obviously, for everyone over there. And just appalling to hear about the looting – especially that c**t who dressed up as a firefighter in full regalia to rob people’s homes.

No idea whether Lydon’s gaff has burned down but it would be ironic after he lent his sneering snarl to Leftfield’s trancey techno anthem back in 1993.

I remember feeling surprise at his conversion to dance music, but nothing but pleasure as he chanted the mantra “Burn Hollywood burn!” over that throbbing beat.

I didn’t know a lot about Leftfield when this came out, but became a huge fan after seeing them a couple of years later – in an amphitheatre in Barcelona, supported by Pulp.

And although it’s not a PiL song, it’s probably the last time I liked a Lydon song before he reformed the Pistols and began his depressing evolution into a Trumpy old curmudgeon.

Still, it’s as fine a tune to go out on as you could wish for, as are most of the remixes, by The Chemical Brothers and Sabres of Paradise (the ‘I Hate Pink Floyd Mix’ and ‘Open Dub’) as well as the ‘Skream Mix’ by Leftfield themselves.

And this one: