LFO SHEATH ALBUM WARP RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2003 REVIEW: NOVEMBER 2, 2003

It’s been seven years since LFO last released an album. During those years Mark Bell, the sole LFO member since Gez Varley left the band, has produced the great Björk albums “Homogenic” and “Selma Songs” as well as Depeche Mode’s sleeping pill “Exciter”. He’s apparently also found the time to work on some music of his own, which has now found its way onto a new LFO album.
"Sheath" doesn’t really bring any surprises. The sound is still firmly rooted in old Detroit techno; sparse and at times rather grim. "Mum-Man"
sends out huge jolts of electricity through the speakers, and "Snot" displays equally electrified sounds over a monotonous bassline that would
have sounded amateurish in any other context. Single "Freak" is almost ridiculously stripped-down, but still funky as hell, with rhythms that sound like old mechanical devices. There are also moments of shimmering, ambient beauty here, like opening track "Blown".
"Sheath" is far from the breathtaking highs of “Homogenic”, but I suspect that if Mark Bell had brought a track like "Mum-Man" along to the "Exciter" sessions it would have proved capable to electro-shock even that album to life.

KRISTOFFER NOHEDEN