LEFTFIELD - Melt - How Was It Made? Ep 3 

This album has aged so well. Some of my favourite electronic music ever made.

Modern classical music really, isn’t it? Gives me goosebumps every time.

That Leftfield album was the absolute sonic bible from the mid 90's onwards. just every single track is incredible.. and Massive Attack - Mezzanine , huge influences.

Memories of Melt: Camping in Ullswater listening to Leftfield Essential Mix Aug 94, in the dark open air, camp fire burning down, milky way in a clear sky and they open with Melt. A memory I'll never forget and a favourite track ever since.

This track is a supreme lesson on less is more. The spaces left in the arrangement make you listen closer and hang on to each sound until the next one arrives. Everything is weaved together so nicely by these short little sounds that are timed to punctuate the spaces perfectly. The note sequences of things like the bass, lead, strings, and pizzicato synths are so simple but together they produce something very elegant. Thanks for another very enjoyable breakdown and reconstruction. You have a great ear for recreating the original sound designs. 😎👍

would love to see a fsol we are explosive remake...great stuff, remember walking thru a sea of empty water bottles at the end of a rave and the sound engineer played melt, always stuck with me as a poignant memory

Great job, very difficult thing to break down such a timeless track. Well Done, i really want Leftfield to see this and invite you in to the studio and show you exactly how it was done. mainly to put you at ease but also for the rest of us! I remember the first time i heard Melt and i will never forget where i was and what i was doing (record shopping). Can't wait for the next one as sunshine underground is in my mind a similar timeless masterpiece!

I love the joy and passion for the acoustic nuances and the energy you bring to recreating these masterpieces. It's such a nice way to explore production.

Melt is just an amazing piece of music even when you try to deconstruct it and I never tire if it. The squiggle at 2:59 is from a patch on a voice crystal card on the JD-990. Its possible to do it on any JD990 once you know the settings. Pulse wave - LFO Saw -> Pitch and HPF. I believe the bass intro is 106, tho I had thought it was SE1 but it just doesnt twang like that. Your enthusiasm is a tonic to see.

Sven Vath, Banco de Gaia, Orb, FSOL, Hillage, happy days...

To get even 80-90% close to the original is so commendable! Loved how close you got that LFO part, and also how close that (tribal) drum/percussion loop was. I always try to imagine which parts of the original track were ‘happy accidents’ from jamming etc, and which were completely calculated and deliberate - so it’s fun to hear your own take on things. Can’t wait for the Chem Bros breakdown - again, another fav track with such amazing and uplifting progression!

100% a tune make me Smile great after party & early Sunday morning tune. Sad think 90s long gone.,

I sat on a beach in Portugal for almost half a day, under the shade, looking at the sea, listening to Melt all the time. A state of utter 'bliss' perhaps, maybe more.

I ADORE this track, I can never tire of hearing it.

Art of Noise - Ransom on the Sand is an incredible track. They're really known for their 'Moments in Love' which was pretty huge in late 80s and 90s.

Man you nailing it on here. Melt is one of the all time classics from an insanely talented couple of geniuses.

Really feel it's a conversation between the different samples / instruments

im on your 5th video in 2 days and am in love with you channel. thank you for making these vids.

Said it before....This series has had a great start and can only see an impressive future for it.

The little LFO blip sound and the hi-hats are both from the Special Part section of the Roland JD-800. Tony Banks from Genesis famously used several sounds from it in "I Can't Dance".

boomtown 2014 they played this over the speakers throughout the entire venue and campsites mid sunny Sunday morning. Me and this girl Layla crawled out of our tent and just watched and listened as everyone on the other side of the main arena bowl emerged from their tents... beautiful tune, beautiful moment.

Always pulled hard on the Heart-strings this one. Cosmic timelessness. Up there with Jean Michel Jarres' Oxygen. Our personalities are not who we are, they are just defensive covers, let it Melt. Prior to time and space, We Are Consciousness Itself.

Amazing job mate! What a timeless track, it’s so rare for an artist to produce an album you can listen to start to finish. Leftism is an all time great for sure and Melt is my favourite track. Found your breakdown interesting and inspirational. What geniuses Leftfield were/are! Keep going I’m loving your videos! ❤

Holy smoke your series is priceless .. beautifully presented .. THANKYOU & inspiration for the next time i'm in the studio

I have no idea how you ended up on my feed. Thanks algorithm. Subscribed. This is awesome

What an amazing track been listening to it for years but listening to you break it down makes you realise how incredbible it is.

Great work and very close to the original. Thank you. Leftism is my all time favourite album - hearing it as a teenager blew my mind as hadn’t before heard any non-mainstream music. The ethereal and out-of-this-world opening to Release the Pressure is still special - a remake of that would be much appreciated!

19:48 I suppose it could be a modular system. Maybe the Roland 100M or such. With those wires connecting you could modulate a lot even back in the day, quite like we do now virtually.

A consistent reoccurring theme of these videos is you saying "I'm not really happy with my version", then you absolutely nail it 😁 Legend. The LFO bit could have been done with separate legato\mono notes in the sequence rather than a held note with each note retriggering it's pitch modulation envelope and\or pitch LFO

One of my all time favourite tunes, beautiful, give me goose bumps every time. Great breakdown. Bass is incredible in this track. Like your "strings" gives it a slightly more ethereal sound.

Mate, this is like Columbo but for synth nerds. Love your work

songs for those series are one by one my favorite tracks of all time couldn't imagine i'll find someone with so similar music taste as mine pleasure to watch, thank you very much

My idea at the time for a video of Melt was to have a camera shot walking along next to people with blurred out faces on a long stretch of road with tall buildings. As the song progresses the seasons change from winter through to summer. It just seemed to fit with my morning commute

LOVED Leftfield first time around and still do. Please. Keep these coming as have subscribed.

I have Melt on a loop when I go for my morning walk in the local woods. Such an awesome track.

This brings back memories. Back in the early 2000s coming back from a club absolutely mashed. Being in my mates car driving down a country lane listening to this. It was magical.

Very cool ! This was such a classic track already in the 90's and still sounds fresh. You have some serious skills to remake this!

Another well articulated breakdown of a well loved classic track. Great job and look forward to the next one

I felt the exact same when I first heard the track after borrowing the album off my sister. You can really get lost in it and it's intensely visual. Glad I got to see them live a few years back. Was everything I'd hoped! Super cool to hear the samples and it's construction - really deepens my love of the track. Thank you!

a stunningly beautiful piece of music one of the standout moments on an incredible record thanks for the breakdown !!

my guess at the "LFO" sound at @18:50 is that its not actually an LFO sound. To me it sounds like a sample of "dub feedback" delay saturated through the track its patched back into (dub delay returns on a normal track not a return track). Thats why the beat of it does that tuplet which restarts with a second beat at the bar loop/ retrigger. Think of a delay return overdriven and into feedback, it's possible to "carve" or construct a sound using the EQ boost in the FB path. Its very unpredictable so a classic 90s thing was to record a bunch of it to dat and sample a good bit

What a tune. I remember rolling my head off to it !!!!

Wow, happy to hear where the horn sample comes from finally - for my recreation I played it in using a synth patch, wasn’t too far off but it took a long time getting the notes and pitch variations sounding right!

One of the best albums of the 90s decade. Thanks for this insight. This track brings me profound memories of my early 20s.

amazing concept and work from you, can't wait for more ! thank you very very much ^^

love these vids....I met Paul Daley a few years ago at one of the ALFOS parties.....nice when you meet one of your heroes and their sound.

Great job! The elephantine trumpet sample you were looking for, could it be Toshinori Kondo?

Just discovered you this week! Your energy and understated enthusiasm really puts across your passion for this music, loads of love x

This is great, thanks so much for making this, I am sitting here listening to this on a saturday morning and getting teary eyed over and over as you go through the track

Amazing breakdown again, looking forward to your future episodes!!

First heard this track on Adidas Power Soccer on Playstation 1, loved it but forgot about it.Years later i found it by accident, such a great track, beautifully produced by Leftfield, so mellow.

Not sure if you're closer to discovering that other "treated" trumpet sample, but it reminds me of Jon Hassel or Marc Isham who both have large back catalogues but I discovered via their contributions to some of David Sylvian's early solo works. At least that's the *sound* - without a painstaking trawl I wouldn't know what tracks to suggest. And of course, I could be way off base anyway.

10.06 it's a trumpet with half valves- guessing it could be from Don Cherry ECM album again(first sample)

Great video on such an awesome track, it’s sublime beauty never ages and somehow makes my heart ache. Keep up the good work fella!

Thank you! A real favourite!!! )

Can't believe you have made a video of this! I remember it being on a football game years ago and I never knew what it was called then I stumbled across it thanks to my college tutor. Thanks!

Amazing! Is it possible to maybe attempt an Orbital track?

Just like to add my voice to the chorus of the deeply impressed. Always a pleasure to watch one maestro deconstructing the work of others, but the additional demands of the sound design and sample sourcing takes it to another level.

What an album. One of my all time favorites

Hey! New subscriber here. Love your "How was it made" videos so keep them up!

Oooohhhh lovely - indeed. Thanks for the detailed analysis of a classic. It used to be one of the last tunes we'd play after a big night out then either crawl into bed on pass out on a sofa. Another track in the same vain is The Sabres Of Paradise - Ballad Of Nicky McGuire

Nicely done! Chems will be very cool. If you're sticking with the 90's/2000's artists, could I request anything off Geogaddi - Boards of Canada. Astonishing album

I am glad, that I grow up on this music, not the that is now playing on radio! You may know The Prodigy Weather Experience and how about The Prodigy - Kewl Song (unfinished), can You finish it in the same style and in same style?

Amazing

These are Brilliant - please keep going... thoroughly enjoyed!!!!

Great way to learn. Looking forward to checking out more of your stuff

I feckin love your vids - absolutely fantastic & very entertaining. WRT Melt - Possibly my favourite track ever - I have always used it as the perfect track to test speakers / soundsystems - such a richness of sound & when the bass kicks in, you get an idea of what the speakers are capable of - always raises eyebrows in the store - lol

Have you reviewed SPACE SHANTY yet? That melody/track/composition 🎵 is a BANGER and a *Maaaarrrrsterpiece.*

I remember this being on the BBC intro music with a balloon rising before the program. I remember from primary school just before through the dragons eye came on .. haha showing my age, really got me into electronic music at an early age didn't realise what the song was until in my 20s, but remember that piece of music intently

Wow so good - that was such a huge style explosion in music at the time

As soon as I watched your Song of Life breakdown I thought about Melt. Awesome work!

Hello there, I love your enthusiam and technical proficiency in your deconstructions, I would like to recommend you seek out a William Orbit vehicle from 1995, 'Torch song' and the CD, 'Towards the unknown region'. If you have not heard it already you are in for a treat, take care and keep up your amazing work.

Loving these mate.

I know nothing about synths or music production but I've enjoyed watching your first 3 episodes tonight. Really looking forward to the next one - The Sunshine Underground is a great track.

Just a thing about the "free time" trumpet sample. I believe the best thing to do with arhythmic riff samples is move them around (no snapping) until the main note of the melody falls on a strong beat, and/or lines up to create a harmony in the place you want it. The rest of the sample will then sort of flow into and out of that one main sonic event, grounding the whole thing. It's a technique I don't really hear much these days. Anyway, I'm enjoying your videos and insight.

You could really trace Leftfield's influence in dub music just the way how they used delay/echo fx in their samples, along with the usage of deep bass lines, ethnic instruments, and tribal percussions. They definitely knew how to make some psychedelic music that sounds tropical but spacey/sci-fi at the same time. I would love to see a deconstruction of The Future Sound of London or The KLF some day.

Nice breakdown, thanks! Interesting to see that the trumpeter in the main sample was Don Cherry: as well as being a legend in the avant-garde jazz world, he was the stepfather of Neneh Cherry.

I still have this brilliant album

Always found it strange that producers sample The Art of Noise who mostly made records made of samples... so bascially sampling a sample. Maybe those sounds were so evocative & familiar, they gave some deeply spacey music a bit of grounding & context.

I have loved that album, and that track in particular, for many years. I bought the album on a whim, purely on the strength of the fact that they also did the title music for Shallow Grave, which I thought was awesome!

Hey Gyu ......... SO Inspirational ..... Thank you SO much. As a newbie into Production, you have helped me to 'peep' into the abyss of how such amazing songs have been made. Respect both to you & Leftfield !!!!

Really amazing that you got so close to copying this amazing track from one of the best electronic albums of all time! Very well done!!!

the first Glastonbury after this was released, you could not go anywhere around the festival without hearing the album! Youth used to do lots of tribal loops in his productions too... The Burundy Beats sound like Adam and the Ants

Superb work. The AON sample is Ransom in the sand by the way.

Another great deconstruction! Love getting to see and understand all the constituent parts that went into some of the finest electronic music ever created. Would be great to see you have a go at Afro Left next ;)

Everyones' a banger! The "elephant" sample I always heard as a sampled Muezzin (the caller to prayer in the Islamic faith) not that I have the foggiest lol. Also the tribal drumming I heard as a passing goods train manipulated... Weird things ears! Looking forward to the next dissection, it's like rummaging through my records. 😊🎶👍

Amazing! We share the same favorite songs, for the same reasons! I used to dabble in ACID in the early 2000s - Please do more how its made! More Leftfield! Orbital would be great!

oooOOft!,,Absolutely love your breakdown of this track, what an awesome reconstruction!! I'm ever so glad i stumbled across your channel,.. totally appreciate the time and effort that you put into these videos.🙏

Such a good album.

What a fine track this is and great content on breaking it down, many thanks!

Enjoyed this a lot. One of my favourite records of all time

this is my favourite Leftfield track ever.

Looking forward to this

That second phrase from the trumpet sample was used on a track from Coldcut: Journeys by DJ mix, can't remember which track tho.

Nice one matey - I think i read somewhere (years ago) that the drums were a sampled marching band - drum section (obvs timestretched) the beats seems to suggest that too, to my ears

bought the album in 1995 and is still one of my favorite albums

Really loving these videos, I'm so glad the algorithm suggested them to me! Melt is a fantastic track, and I agree with others this album has aged well. The ending of Melt also has delicious extra context from the fact it's in the tracklist right before Song of Life

Crackin choice of track to cover!

Love this. Thanks for making it

Great work on the deconstruction. Really enjoying these. The elephant sound is a bit like a pitched up sample from the intro of Buffalo Girls.