By the mid 90’s the Levellers had become an established festival act, were touring almost constantly and on a creative high. They’d played an iconic Pyramid stage set at Glastonbury in ’94, the band were firing on all cylinders and easily stood toe-to-toe with the swagger of Britpop that was sweeping the country. Zeitgeist was released in August ’95 and promptly shot to No 1 in the album charts.

The Levellers arose through a counter-culture that was on a high, a generation of the disaffected were rejecting capitalism and wanted something else from the world around them. The Levellers, and a few other bands like New Model Army, offered a soundtrack to that way of life. Zeitgeist was their album that packed all of that world weary defiance and acerbic wit into the songs, yet it also contained that unique special ingredient that the Levellers alone possessed; a yearning for the green places away from the the incessant rumble of modern life, a recognition of the healing power of nature, summed up so well in Maid Of The River, Haven’t Made It Yet and Men-an-Tol.

What made this album stand out was that the band were not sequestered away in some secluded corner of the music scene. Their ears and eyes were open to everything going on around them, and as we mentioned above Britpop was in full swing so the band absorbed some of the best bits of that sound into their music, the guitar in Fantasy or indeed the bombastic intro to Hope Street all fitted perfectly into the current vibe of the mid 90s. However time has proven them very prudent in the influences they absorbed – none of the tracks sound dated or stranded in that particular style. I guess that’s why many of them have become live favourites ever since in their sets.

Jon Sevink says of the remixing:

Working with Al Scott on the mixes has been a real joy. He understands that once released, the music becomes part of the consciousness of music fans and any dealings with the past need to be treated carefully and with respect. The aim is not to reinvent but enhance and having been involved with the 1995 production he has brought a clarity to the new versions without losing the feel of the originals.

That’s all thirty years ago now, but it means we get a remixed anniversary re-release with a shed load of extras, from B sides to an unreleased track, Alive, that has just sat on a shelf all those decades despite being really rather good. Producer Al Scott has returned to remix, and what a job he has done in opening up some of the tracks so individual parts have more room to breathe. In Exodus for example Jeremy’s baseline is more prominent and you realise what an integral part it is of the whole, across the board Scott has made the whole album feel more alive somehow.

Zeitgeist was another era defining album and it opens on such a confident note, the guitar riff of Hope Street grabs you by the ear and gets right up in your face. Yet by the end we are in the arms of nature with the effortlessly atmospheric Men-an-Tol, ‘Running like a mad man on the moor / Let the sweet Atlantic rain / Wash away my ills’. Today it reminds me that The Levellers really did have ‘A different way of seeing, A different kind of life’ and this remixed album is a worthy testament to that. Personally this album was a huge part of my world, my son was born that year and it was played to him instead of those God awful CDs full of nursery rhymes. I feel that it was a responsible act of parenting, preparing him for the world he had been born into and offering some solid guidance in life. And he’s grown up fine (well, mostly).

The included B sides and rarities prove what a great drinking song they could write, whether that’s from the perspective of drinking being a bad thing we really shouldn’t do – to a let’s get-off-our-tits and have a party vibe. Drinking For England obviously fits this mould, as does the brilliant Your ‘Ouse which is one of Simon Friend’s best rabble rousing anthems. This remixed anniversary boxset collects together all of those rarities that have only existed here and there to paint a portrait of a band that was a part of, yet separate, from the Zeitgeist, which only proves the insight of the title being both cynical and prophetic.

Iain Hazlewood