The story behind "LFO - LFO" by Gez Varley | Muzikxpress 226

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LFO was a British electronic dance act from Leeds, formed by Mark Bell and Gez Varley. In the year 1990 they released their very first track as LFO, which also was titled "LFO". The track came out via Sheffield based label Warp Records and it became a big succes in the clubs and…. "LFO" even made it to the number 12 position of the UK Singles chart in July 1990!
For this week’s vlog I sat down with Gez Varley, to ask him about the story behind LFO and more!
Enjoy and thanks for watching!
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#techno #technomusic #lfo

[@DjStinger]

This is a typical example of someone that grows into the interview. He started kinda closed or at least it felt like it. later on he opened up, started smiling and even told you that you asked him the right questions! This was a nice interview with one of my English heroes from back in the day. I will definitely share it with my fellow veterans and electro lovers. Thanks Twan and obviously Gez 😊

[@muzikxpress]

Thanks so much! Very happy Gez was willing to share the story behind this one, such a massive classic! 🙌🏻

[@traphex]

I came here to make exactly the same comment! That's a sign of a good interviewer 😊

[@muzikxpress]

@@traphex Thank you! I really do appreciate it!

[@jmp01a24]

@@muzikxpress It's very good interview, with an artist that has little positive to say about the music press and industry. But I think when asked the right questions, given time to reply, feeling in a safe environment this became a very good interview. One that will be referenced to later when others catch up to the importance of LFO's output in the early days of modern electronica (experimental at the time). The music still holds up, which says a lot in this genre.

[@rickhibbert]

@@muzikxpress Yeah, he definitley warmed to you as the interview went on. Really enjoyed that, thanks.

[@keety1X]

The sub bass on LFO is undefeated and contributed significantly to the birth of Jungle/DnB/UKG, bass man, such a tune, big up🌻

[@olafurbjornsson]

100Hz - Catching Spiders ☝️ HEAVY competition

[@keety1X]

@ Good shout, definitely contributed to the uncles and aunts of contemporary bass from the first born, big up🌻

[@spngled8654]

completely undefeated, it's bigger than venus if you played it in space you'd rip a hole in the time space continuum and the ancestors would come flooding through to feel the power of that bassline

[@jamesowen418]

The "Frequencies" album is still a standout LP from that era, still sounds futuristic today 👍🏻

[@ExpectResistance]

100% agree

[@lambd01d]

My favourite track is Simon from Sydney.

[@Tachikoma-sj6kz]

your not wrong there :)

[@huggymoon]

Mark was a dear friend of mine. I did a couple of tracks with him at his Mam’s house in Lofthouse back in the day. We miss him. Gez is a super trooper 💙🫡

[@darrelduke]

ol' huggy bear. hope you are well. darrel from florida.

[@daveworzel]

Still gives me goose bumps like when I heard it for the first. RIP Mark. A classic British contribution.

[@LostwaveObsession]

I remember buying The Theme, LFO etc at the time, it was an exciting time - we called it Bleep. It was a great time to be 20-21! Hearing these tunes out was really mindblowing. Great thing is they all sound as fresh as they ever did.

[@muzikxpress]

Do you remember hearing "LFO" for the very first time?

[@MrDeni87]

Wie..Ich dachte jetzt kommt Oliver Lieb? Du lässt Uns ganz schön warten, Wir haben schon den 25. Oktober!

[@freekashyyyk896]

First time I heard it was today! Learning so much about the early electronic music scene from this channel!

[@schmuckpuppet4842]

Waarschijnlijk hoorde ik 'm voor het eerst op de Turn up the Bass Megamix 1990. Een unieke sound die een perfecte aanvulling was voor de house van de vroege jaren 90. Jeroen Flamman sloeg de spijker op zijn kop toen hij uitlegde dat de house in de loop van de jaren '90 steeds verder segregeerde in niche markten. Dat was geen goede ontwikkeling. LFO komt nog uit de goeie ouwe tijd toen electronische muziek nog gewoon gebaseerd was op kwaliteit en niet op imago.

[@muzikxpress]

@@MrDeni87 patience please 😉 The interview is finished for a while already but Oliver is very busy at the moment… I’m waiting for his feedback and approval still and once I have that, the interview will go online.

[@MrDeni87]

@@muzikxpressAh okay.

[@MDX.Mashups]

Bought it on the day it was released here in the UK. I was a club DJ at the time and could not wait to play this on the club system to see how far I could push the bass bins, trust me the glass in the windows of the club were wobbling with those Low Frequency Oscillations. Good times. Thanks Gez and Mark 💓 R.I.P.

[@muzikxpress]

🙌🏻

[@LIVERNIL723]

LFO - LFO Remix 1990 - Vibrated my Windows. The Best Bassline Ever.

[@sidwallace6053]

Such a great tune,such a great era RIP Mark Bell

[@muzikxpress]

🙌🏻

[@SuperGinkgo]

Love that LFO tune! Heard it played out all over in the 90s including Leeds. Bought it in Jumbo Records (if ya know ya know). That title track had and absolutely immense bass line, blew an old pair of Mission 710's up so bought some floor stander Tannoys, mass ballasted with skeet shot and RATTLED my letterbox! (not a euphimism, for real). It was a fantastic time and LFO was the soundtrack to a great deal of it. 🖖👍💯🎶

[@GeorgeBeyond]

That sub bass is legendary 😎

[@muzikxpress]

Yes it is!!!

[@extereem1260]

Yea it almost cost me my windows as i didnt expect it

[@pofe3]

such a beautiful being Gez, thanks for the approach

[@erostypop1]

gettin goosebumps all over again. first heard it in The Crypt, Brixton and constantly on Fantasy FM 1990 . Great times. Turn it up !

[@Beansontoast-m8b]

❤🇮🇪🇬🇧✊

[@Raymund-Swales]

John Peel played LFO on his radio show and it so took me by surprise I called Radio 1 and spoke to him. Went into Birmingham and was going to buy it from The Plastic Factory, but there was a little record store in Digbeth, they had one in their window and I bought it there so I could get home quicker to listen to it. 🙂

[@Baron_von_Fargone]

I bought my copy on cassette 👊 I used to play it on my Hitachi 3D super woofer and pretend to be a live pa in my bedroom 😊 I had a dream .... It actually came true (kind of) AntacîD 🕉️

[@BenMillar-y9e]

I went to The Plastic Factory a few times as a teenager from Coventry. I also went to a few gigs in Digbeth, including Front 242 at The Irish Centre.

[@annother3350]

There's an LFO peel session worth looking for. found the mp3s recently

[@RCD1566]

​@annother3350 have you any links please ?

[@annother3350]

@@RCD1566 It loks like it is still for sale from Warp but I found it on Soulseek

[@ajwuk46]

Always play LFO when testing new speakers , got two copies on vynl from the 90s, i reckon we have at least 4 copies between my family absolute banger track !

[@000slappydirk]

Gez is a legend , big up unique 3 and all the Bradford heads.

[@exiledlarky]

Excellent interview. The track still sounds like the future after a third of a century.

[@benji.B-side]

As an old school break dancer, Gez may have been in the leed's crew, that came up to battle my crew at Tiffany's 'The Sidewalk' in Newcastle, in 1984? I got into Acid House, Hip House, Rave and many times I danced to this beauty of a track or when I DJ'd, I played it. It felt a natural progression to love this type of music, after break dancing to early 80's electro music. Big happy memories of this song in that 'Warehouse Rave' era. I also saw Unique 3 at 'The Sound Yard' in Bradford (Gwen Guthrie was also performing) and at Havana in Middlesbrough. Fantastic and very interesting interview, that make me reflect of those wonderful times and the soundscape journey of music through the years. A journey I still travel on. Big respect and love to you and fellow 'Music Heads'.

[@colleennoble1756]

I loved Tiffany's, I was only 12, Planet Rock was my favourite, it was always the same 2 lads with ski googles won

[@Krazythedj]

Music that never will die ❤

[@stefj4660]

Great interview! As the saying goes.......They don't make them like that any more. Once you hear the track LFO, you don't forget it. Thanks Gez, RIP Mark.

[@sonicstate]

Great interview, shared on Sonicstate today! 👏

[@muzikxpress]

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate it!

[@SamHocking]

Friend gave me a mix tape from his older brother and i'd never even heard techno / detroit techno before. 1990 and listening to LFO-LFO as the opening track on it on headphones waiting to get some lunch at college immediately made me flashback to hearing Kraftwerk in a clothes shop as a child and that same feeling I felt then came back and that is the music journey I then followed forever.

[@jyrilehtinen_aka_grimreaper]

Oh the rumbling sub bass in the track.. Still remember it very well. Also had this as a ringtone in many of my cellphones in the early to mid 90s.

[@popcycles]

Yeah! But one version, they took that super low subsonic bass away. 😢 Or maybe it was the mastering.

[@DaveMcGarry]

We didn't have phones in the early to mid 90s...landlines only... Maybe a pager at best!

[@jyrilehtinen_aka_grimreaper]

@@DaveMcGarry I think I got my first almost pocket sized cellphone in 1990, was in the NMT (Nordic Mobile Telephony) network here in the Nordic region. I actually grew up in the city where Nokia cellphones were originally created and manufactured so got my first cellphone in the GSM network in late ’92. But I think it wasn’t until the next phone I got which had an option to add or alter the ringtones even if they were far from polyphonic at the time..

[@MulletRecords]

Bless him... as others have commented, love the way Gez gradually opens up during the course of the interview. Great work!

[@muzikxpress]

@@MulletRecords Thank you! 🙏🏻 Glad you enjoyed the interview!

[@ScienceHorror]

I'm always amazed these interviews don't get more views. Great work. The algorithm needs to catch on!

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you! And more and more people still discover my channel, so hopefully one day each video will get at least 10K (or more hehe) views. I still have a lot of plans, so as long as I have time (and budget), I want to keep doing this for a while :) Thanks for your support and the kind words!

[@MajesticZMR]

loved that album, listened to it when I was in Puerto Rico in 1992, I think it was the only thing I would listen to ❤

[@russ8889]

My goto record for testing any speakers or headphones.Mark Bell will always be remembered alongside for this.Wherehouse rave mix …..now blow your speakers

[@acciid]

Me too-: 😄 All these years later.

[@spngled8654]

it's such an amazing track, it's timeless and has the best bassline ever created, gez is a bit of a genius, the fact he comes across as unassuming is endearing

[@Riptorn73]

The bassline that has never been bettered!! The speaker buster Love this track & have the 12” vinyl.. obvs.

[@curlingking]

Massive in uk in acid house days and still huge to this day ..

[@lostreligion1313]

A fascinating and raw insight into the music industry

[@theoriginaldanalogue]

I remember buying this as an intrigued 11 year old on a Saturday afternoon having heard it on the radio thinking… this is the future! Still have my copy.

[@DJPCTV]

I was a regular at the leeds warehouse back in the day and those were some great days, big up gez and dj martin 🔥

[@hardwaresecuritymodule]

What a legend Gez is! Lovely to see his human side here - great interview

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed the interview!!

[@dirtyhabitz2888]

I still have my OG 12” vinyl. 100% classic banger 🙌

[@boratsagdiyev6633]

This track single handedly destroyed countless sound systems, FACTS ❤

[@chewabledrapery]

I met Gez a few years ago at the RPM festival in London, met one of my heroes, lovely bloke!

[@X-STATIC-k9b]

Lfo ....still the best bassline ever period!!!!! and good to see Gez is still making great music today RIEP Mark ....gone but not forgotten 🙏❤️🙏

[@-technodream-]

This track,along with GTO-pure,Tricky disco,unique 3- the theme ,quartz- meltdown,forgemasters-track with no name are absolute staples in any ones collection💥x

[@markjames5723]

@@-technodream- GTO Pure. Genecide II Narra mine. Jesus loves Acid. Sounded great in my bedroom and always went down well at Exodus when I played them.

[@jasondouglas2132]

Said to my mate at the time, "where's the bass on this?" my speakers couldn't do it but my bones jangled at Storm. Thanks mate. stands up today.

[@WeskerXM96E1]

Great listen. Wow I remember I bought LFO - LFO and Black Box - Ride on Time as the first vinyl singles I'd bought ever as a 15 yo kid in 1990 and it's no exaggeration to say that it changed my life. Within a year me and my mate had a set of decks and were buying records every week and started going raving. I remember my first rave, Carlisle leisure centre 'Phobia' 1992, Carl Cox etc on the decks, The Prodigy live, it blew my tiny mind and I was hooked. Great insight into an all time's classic electro track. Brilliant.

[@calalex2612]

Great stuff! You are not going to find more honest and straight forward answers in an interview than this one with Gez. More of this please.

[@muzikxpress]

@@calalex2612 lots to come still, already working on names for 2025 as we speak 😉🤞🏻

[@tristronic7789]

Great Interview, LFO - LFO was a game changer for me and a key point in my love of electronic music, up there with the likes of Kraftwerk and Moroder. This and the Frequencies album changed my life. 😍I think I blew a couple of speakers playing LFO a bit too loud! 🤣

[@nictrax]

Fully agree mate and fancy seeing you here 😂👍

[@pepbizmo]

Heard it in a local club after release in 1990, bought it the next day....what a great track! thx for this great interview.

[@Ashfaq1999]

Great interview of this legendary song 😊

[@muzikxpress]

thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@ddoubledutch4783]

Great guy. Great tunes. What a time to be’in’ a music movement. LFO was ours. Probe. Oh man. So many. Thank you

[@andropolisstudiomusic]

This track started everything for me. Thanks a lot guys!

[@DoctorRevers]

Goddamn legend in the house. Incredible music. Thank you sir. Right back to frequencies, it all sounds amazing. 🍻

[@martinreynolds5632]

So many Urban Myths about the origins of this track, CHEERS for this awesome interview x

[@muzikxpress]

@@martinreynolds5632 thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@martinreynolds5632]

@@muzikxpress loved his favourite memory of walking into his local pub! Very humble guy who clearly employed quite a bit of resolve when referencing his first Label, good interview 🧐🧐

[@davidkristian6606]

Wonderful interview! LFO were a huge inspiration for me during a transformative time in my music-making!

[@muzikxpress]

@@davidkristian6606 thank you, glad you enjoyed the interview!

[@alexadrenalinejunkie94]

An awesome interview Twan! This tune was a massive part in the history of how electronic dance music developed in the UK. The sub bass is ridiculously heavy!

[@muzikxpress]

Thanks so much Alex! 🙌🏻

[@danizm4165]

belter of a tune! first head it in 1990 as a kid, i recorded it off the radio, 34 years later i now own the record.

[@housinauthority5258]

Great interview and what a cool guy, still after all of these years full of that independent spirit which wass pivitol in the early years of the house and techno scenes.

[@Gittface73]

The base on that tune, like no other! Banger!!! 👍👍👍

[@Atricapilla]

Awesome interview man. Cant help but feeling that many of the best tracks were always made on relatively simple setups.

[@nick1635]

Great interview, that track used to be one of my favorites back in the day. Those were the days at the Sanctuary, Bagleys, etc, I'm so glad I grew up in that era.

[@earlofcumbrae-Ground_Zero]

Great interview. Interesting! I've subscribed.

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you! And welcome! 🙌🏻

[@vélociti-001]

That was fun to watch. What a pleasant fellow he seems. Top producer too, of course.

[@mossadon]

Legendary Gent, Gez. A humble fella. Made some legendary music as LFO and as a solo artist. Great interview. I was blessed to have Gez play for my 50th birthday a few years ago and him dropping LFO took the roof off like it was the 1st time all over again. What a night. Gez, Edzy/ Unique 3 and a live set from Dutch acid techno legends Random XS in a lil pub venue in York. Gave the speakers a right batterin !

[@aeiouxs]

Thank you guys for this!

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you for watching! :)

[@vittya4373]

My favorite album from him is "Gez Varley Presents Tony Montana", absolutely digging his kind of minimal techno. The track "Political Prisoner" from Josh Wink's "Profound Sounds 1" instantly took him to my map... and only later I found out that he's behind LFO as well. A living legend! 🙏

[@marklewis35]

Absolute classic track. I love the Leeds Warehouse mix. I'm actually going to The Warehouse today for an event!

[@muzikxpress]

Ahh that’s great! Hope you had fun!

[@Fizzatron]

It is always interesting to hear how a lot of techno and jungle producers were into early electro and breakdancing. Considering that, for those that might not know I would be reasonably certain that the Juan Atkins track spoken of that used the speak and spell is Techno City, under Juan’s Cybotron alias. Great interview, and will be checking those G-man tracks out.

[@offworldnetwork]

early E L E C T R O 👾🤖👾🤖

[@Fizzatron]

@@offworldnetwork is that in reference to Techno City? If so, at the time in 1984, in the UK it was considered an electro track.

[@offworldnetwork]

@@Fizzatron naaa! just expressing my fondness for early electro 😀

[@Gertjanh72]

I thought he referred to 'Techno Music' from Juan Atkins, released under his real name n 1988. See kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZoPXpoV6Zaijatk.

[@kazoku_rec]

Pretty sure there is no Speak & Spell on Techno City. And Cybotron is not an Atkins alias. I'd bet Gez is talking of a early Model 500 (Atkins alias at the time) tune.

[@ManNoName-c9u]

LFO was the tune that got us out of that house nonsense in 1990. Absolutely bass floor ripper and still is. Cheers Gez and RIP Mark Bell!

[@SELEKTROw]

Great interview. Track was a huge influence from the first time i heard it, which was probably about when i was 16/17 in '99 '00. I got the tommy boy US version 12" here in the uk, love it man has the sound system warrning printed in it. I remember hearing it out for the first time probably around 2002 in what was a precursor to the warehouse project in manchester. Think it was a sankeys event in a few big wherhouses, main memories from that night are jeff mills on 3 decks with porn visuals and the bass stabs from this track being dropped in the room where the soundsystem was on 2 lorries. Evereyone freaked out and just absorbed the bass and looked at each other in amazement. Even back then it was a sort of fake warehouse 'rave' harking back to the early 90s, mad to think tunes like this are nearly 35 years old now. Also RIP John Peel, the open minded musical influence on my influencers as well as me, what a legend. And RIP Mark Bell, love all LFO albums.

[@muzikxpress]

Great story!! And glad you enjoyed the interview, thank you!

[@chrisshaw9836]

Classic time for me in Manchester, torn between hip hop and what i called rave, in the end i love all Music theres either good or bad❤

[@Ruhrrecords]

I still got this EP

[@Stun-69]

Track 4 is still one of my favourites, still have the vinyls of LFO.

[@DJkitchenmixer]

Gez is a modest man... another great interview

[@michaeldent1684]

Top bloke, i wish they repress the remix of lfo as i like the 2nd track on the b side as my copy went missing. You can’t get it digitally anywhere

[@leehesp140]

Gez is a great guy. Loved this interview, you extracted some great info out of our techno legend. Next time Gez checks his receipts and sees someone from Castleford has downloaded and playing Frequencies, that’s me ❤

[@muzikxpress]

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks a lot! Working on some new names as we speak, hopefully when they see the LFO interview, it will help to convince them ;-)

[@leehesp140]

@ hope so too. Subscribed. 👍

[@muzikxpress]

@ thanks for subscribing! ☺️

[@aaroninky]

absolutely love g-man. an all-time great producer.

[@weedaviec]

In 1989 I was 16, into electro and early house music and a big part of me wishes I was in a similar social set as Gez. None of my friends liked electronic music. LFO is an all time classic. I listen to it frequently and it sounds fresh as when I first heard it- a lot of early house records sound very dated now.

[@esotericspaces]

Really enjoyed that some great insights. John Peel ❤

[@djmightyming3329]

LFO are legendary- great interview 👍🏻

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you so much! And yes LFO are legendary indeed! 🙌🏻

[@MrDjunknown1]

This man has produced SO many great traxs. Well interviewed, he seemed down but energised and happy for the experience by the end. Very humble. Max respect to the G-Man.

[@fernandogimeno8427]

AMAZING interview. thank you so much

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you! 🙏🏻

[@KDEADS]

Great interview. LFO - total pioneers/innovators. Thanks for the music.

[@muzikxpress]

@@KDEADS Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the interview!

[@KDEADS]

@@muzikxpress It was fantastic. Listening to Gez Varley was really refreshing. You gave him the space to answer the questions. I learned a lot.

[@alka7145]

What a banger that tune is. Got a few copies and the remix. Cheers Gez and Mark (rip dude, way too young).

[@regenout]

finally a g-man interview! thank you!

[@muzikxpress]

@@regenout and thank you for watching! 🙌🏻

[@LlewynDaviesTheThird]

Massive tune. Enjoyed ever since it came out.

[@trsctr]

Great interview and actually got me inspired to go to studio asap, thanks!

[@muzikxpress]

And thank you for watching! Have a good one in the studio!

[@noosasoundsystem8398]

what a legend - keeping it real from day 1

[@OneHalfOfBent]

One of the greatest records ever made.

[@guspatersonmusic]

100% - Timeless

[@basictonal79]

fantastic interview, enjoyed that

[@muzikxpress]

Thank you very much!!

[@graysynther2169]

Recorded the first play of LFO on John peel’s show, bought the CD soon as it Arrived in the local HMV…still play it , fairly timeless & individual I’d say .

[@frederikalbrecht6091]

Alweer een heel fijn interview Twan! Bedankt!😉

[@muzikxpress]

Dank je wel!!

[@glyph2011]

Good lord. I was listening to their first Album this week. Amazing you got this interview! As others as said. Rest In Peace Mark. Gez and Mark are legendary. Their place in the history books of electronic music cannot be understated.

[@Francesco-sf1vh]

Thank you!! Was really interesting listening to the interview! The records arrived in Italy around 1992/93 and it was a blast played in the best alternative clubs from the best Italian DJ Thank u!!

[@greyloop]

the track is an ultimate classic, still sounds fresh. great interview, I think one of the most interesting one so far. Thanks for making this happen.

[@jmp01a24]

Good memories... LFO were pioneers.

[@RenniefosterRF]

BIG RESPECT TO GEZ!!!!!!!!

[@muzikxpress]

@@RenniefosterRF 🙌🏻

[@metafuel]

Excellent. Thanks for your work. This was fun.

[@muzikxpress]

@@metafuel thank you for watching!

[@ElectronicWitchcraft]

I used to know Mark through working in Leeds, he was a lovely bloke.

[@mwmingram]

Fascinating. Cool guy.

[@menshevik1012]

I remember seeing LFO at Rez 4 in Newcastle. Really amazing sound, dark and atmospheric. And they looked really cool. Freeze stood out and is still one of my favourites.

[@trancextend]

Its good to get to know these great producers.

[@CoolhandLuke552]

I was 16yo when this track was released in the UK. Went out bought the CD single and later collected alot of their early 12"s and E.P's on Warp. Also have their first three albums on CD. Excellent interview, enjoyed this, subscribed 👍

[@zamiadams4343]

Down the Sub Club in Glasgow this was amazing over the system, amazing track.