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Sheath Image
Metascore
73

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews What's this?

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  • Summary: 'Sheath' marks the first album for the groundbreaking Sheffield, England techno outfit since 1996's 'Advance.' Gez Varley has left the duo, leaving Mark Bell (who in recent years has kept busy producing the likes of Bjork and Depeche Mode) as the sole member.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 13
  2. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. An album of rich melodies, aggressive percussive breaks and richly textured atmospheres that intelligently synthesize the whole of electronic music history.
  2. LFO's gift is an ability to strip Detroit's electronic music of its soul, punishing any soft southern edges with a brutal attack of noise, while still managing moments of subtlety and consistently adventurous beat programming.
  3. Alternative Press
    80
    LFO executes these retro moves with flamboyance and subtlety, so we can forgive Bell his derivativeness. [Nov 2003, p.118]
  4. If the album has a fault, its that LFO can occasionally be accused of complacency, and a handful of tracks here stray into bog-standard Warp generictronica, but it’s a minor gripe considering the joys on offer elsewhere.
  5. Since LFO hardly need to be innovators to produce a good record, I don't have much problem recommending Sheath, with the caveat that when pleasant, easy-going atmospheres set in, sometimes amiable disinterest on listeners' parts follow shortly.
  6. Q Magazine
    70
    Bell has an instinctive feel for sound but, as Freak's teeth-grinding acid house nostalgia underlines, he won't find a new audience with this. [Oct 2003, p.108]

See all 13 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. davea
    Oct 15, 2003
    10
    this is going to make you freak!!!