Music Producer Mark Bell Of LFO Has Died, Label Confirms


The electronic music community has been plunged into mourning over the passing of one of its pioneers, LFO co-founder and producer, Mark Bell.

The Guardian has reported that Warp Records, Bell’s record label, confirmed his death in a statement on their website. The statement noted that Bell died last week from complications after an operation.

According to Rolling Stone many in the dance music community turned to Twitter to pay tribute to the LFO great.

“RIP Mark Bell. His work has always been an inspiration, total amazing balance of intensity and lush melodic atmospheres. So tragic,” Machinedrum wrote.

Fellow Warp label mate Mark Pritchard tweeted, “Mark Bell – Thanks for all the Bass and wicked music,”

Nathan Fake wrote, “horrified to learn about Mark Bell. one of my musical heroes. devastated. RIP.”

Bell started the electronic music group, LFO, with his friend Gez Varley while at Leeds university. The duo was very instrumental in popularizing acid house music in the late 80’s and early 90’s with their self-titled top 20 hit “LFO.”

In a rare interview with the BBC, Mark Bell explained how the duo got involved in electronic music.

“We gave a tape of our recordings to DJ Martin who helped loads with arranging our tracks so it’d work on the dance floor. We’d just been messing around with drum machines since we were like thirteen, tapping away at them like they were arcade games, making tapes to play our mates at school. Anyway, DJ Martin would play our cassettes in his sets and people would go mental – in a good way – cos they were totally raw.”

The group’s name is derived from the abbreviation for the term low-frequency oscillator, a synthesizer function widely used in electronic music.

In 1997, after Varley left LFO to work on other projects, Bell co-produced Björk’s fourth studio album, Homogenic, a collaboration which was still going strong a decade later on her album Volta and its worldwide tour. He also remixed a number of the artist’s tracks and produced Depeche Mode’s 2001 album, Exciter.

When news of Bell’s death broke, Björk posted a link to the LFO track, “Love Is the Message”, on Twitter.

According to the Inquisitr, Björk, who was a close associate of Bell, had her own stint with vocal surgery to remove a polyp from her vocal cords.

Mark Bell’s collaboration with Björk has greatly influenced her music career and success.

[Image via BigIssues]

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