LFO - 'freak' (update 2014 - RIP Mark Bell)

Like, you know that episode of south park where everyone's digging the new Adam Sandler movie but all he can hear is fart sounds? That's what I get from LFO.

That's because you are a cloth-eared fool.

A few years ago Bjork did a live version of Hyperballad that mutated into the spasmodic breakdown from Freak, largely because Mark Bell was on knob-twiddling duties. I pretty much lost my shit the first time I heard it (partly because much of the gig that had preceded it was pretty muted and dull).

^ yeah, saw this in January 2008, was awesome

Yeah, I've got to say Charlie that's an insane thing to say. I fail to see how anyone couldn't love Frequencies. Got the reissue on vinyl. Still sounds mint now.

dog latin is a great poster, though it sometimes seems his opinion of 'idm' albums is the exact inverse of my own

I love all 3 LFO albums. Sorry DL, but you're wrong here.

I remember queuing up in our price at 9am to get Advance. There was like 5 people doing the same. Exciting days.

No, you're all wrong. Every one of you.

That said, I'm giving these albums another go this evening.

did you come to your senses then?

Impossible to hate Frequencies. Flat out impossible.

did you come to your senses then?

i assume he's still raving in a dark warehouse somewhere, just him, a boombox and a bunch of tapes of old LFO gigs

god that sounds like fun

didnae realize this cunt has a heavily cunningham influenced promotional video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCaSWVTMka0

Rewind seven years ago to 2003; this track never gets old.

LFO is a UK techno/electronic band that’s been cutting tracks since the late 80s and are currently on Warp Records. For those who don’t know, their name comes from “Low Frequency Oscillator,” which is integral in producing the dubstep wobble sound.

RIP Mark Bell

:-(

shit no way

Looking for more confirmation...

Oh no!

https://twitter.com/TheBlackDog/status/521690167363796992

:( he was pretty young afaik

RIP

There is a formal statement from Warp

http://warp.net/records/lfo/mark-bell

Fuck. This is terrible. RIP.

RIP

this is completely unexpected and awful.

RIP

I was two years old when "LFO" came out so I never got to live through its peak and instead hear it as retro, but I get to live in a culture where a piece of music so singular and striking is part of the canon, and that's a testament to the power of his ability to both innovate and excite. Even more amazing is that hearing his work from his later years was just as thrilling and fresh. A truly talented figure, RIP.

Mark Bell's music was futuristic in the best way: not utopian, but urgent, vital and unconcerned with what came before. Shock to have that kind of life force vanish.

This is awful. RIP.

very, very sad; a true innovator. i had a promo of "LFO" by LFO a few weeks before it came out and was in the fortunate position of being able to play it to a room full of people on a huge soundsystem every week. nowadays, a few people might come up to ask what a record is but i swear the first time i played this, over half the people in the club came up to ask what it was. people would spontaneously start applauding when the bass break came in and the bar staff would plead with me not to play it as glasses would start falling off the shelves. it really felt like the future had arrived. it seemed almost revolutionary when it then nearly reached the uk top ten. almost every record he was involved with still sounds phenomenal.

Both Frequencies and Homogenic were completely pivotal moments in the evolution of my taste, although I came to Homogenic first and worked backwards.

At a time when so many British underground musicians release major label debuts with all the life triangulated out of them, and every pop record is accompanied by a tedious discussion as to whether x or y track is too whatever to be picked up by radio, you just want to take everyone concerned aside and remind them that a record as gloriously unhinged and uncompromising and singular as LFO could just come out of nowhere and crash straight into the top 20 and that maybe everyone should just have a little more faith in what they do.

not sure what to say about this so i'll just post my favorite lfo track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtKcUGRb-hk

:-(

this is from the freak single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEWrwyKXlps

as the ytimg helpfully explains

that and "butterslut" (they had the best song titles didn't they) are top tier

:(

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/nm7CYPeL1Dw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm7CYPeL1Dw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOG6946sY_0

revisiting LFO as a tangent to the Bjork poll results and remembering this amazing set rip which lived on a long-gone wiped hard drive:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en9hcFiqiko