The Lo-Fidelity Allstars have been a collision of ideas and styles since their inception in the mid-90's. Early shows and DJ sets at The Social and The Boutique (generally in the backroom) were six hour journeys through the best music of the last 30 years. With a wide range of influences drawn from soul, hip hop and R `n' B, the Lo-Fi's were always about the `best' music, not the right music. In the live arena, the band's collision of influences was complemented by a desire to create a show, to share the joy of the music with the whole crowd, for them to become part of the performance. It worked, Lo-Fi's live were quickly recognised as the best of the bunch.

Lo-Fidelity Allstars burst onto a UK scene in the grip of a musical revolution in 1997. When their debut LP How to Operate With a Blown Mind was released in 1998, the Lo-Fi's were right at the forefront of the new party-centred scene. With the members adopting nickname tags in honour of primary influence Funkadelic, the six-piece seemed a perfect encapsulation of the `dance `til you drop' ethic of the latest UK music explosion.

It is now part of folklore how vocalist Dave Randall, aka The Wrecked Train, left the Lo-Fidelity Allstars on the eve of the band's biggest ever UK tour in December 1998. It says much about the personalities involved that this departure only served to strengthen the band, and the end of 1999 the newly regrouped Lo-Fi Allstars, with additional member Dale Maloney, were one of the most successful UK bands in the USA following a heavy touring schedule. Sales of over 400,000 copies How to Operate with a Blown Mind was a grand retort to those who thought the end was in sight.

When the band came to record the follow-up they simply continued where they had left off. applying their cut and paste, "if it works use it" attitude to their new songs. The 1999 US tour had immersed them still further in hip hop culture, and as the USA dates Spun Out, so did their web of influences. Their success in the USA also opened the doors to two guest vocalists, Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli (who the band had supported on their first US date at CMJ in 1998) and long time hero Bootsy Collins: both of whom were fans who became firm friends.

With such a wide palette it is no surprise that Don't be Afraid of Love, recorded in the band's own self built Brain Farm studios, can be seen as a tribute to thirty years of dance music. From the more recognisable Lo-Fis beats and breaks of What You Want and Cattleprod to the house groove of the cheekily titled Lo-Fi's in Ibiza, this is a record that wears it's influences on it's sleeve and with considerable pride. Referencing favourite LP's such as There's A Riot Going On and Songs in the Key Of Life, the band set about making an LP that could accommodate a breadth of styles and moods whilst being identifiably Lo-Fi. As the dance scene refractured after the genre- busting of the Social's and Boutiques the Lo-Fi's deliberately took the harder road, talking about good music rather than right music. Two tracks in particular on the LP demonstrate this love of music over the love of correctness.

Feel What I Feel is a summer smash in waiting, a happy go lucky breeze of a tune with a crystal vocal and a booty shaking bass. It may not be what you expect from five guys immersed in the rockist world of touring, but it certainly hits the spot. It's antithesis is Dark is Easy. Inspired by a conversation in Nashville that concluded that you don't have to go to church to have faith, it closes the LP on a euphoric note. In a musical climate once again obsessed with the down side of life, Dark is Easy is a shot across the bows of the professional miserabilists, as Phil Ward notes:

"These days it seems that if a track is more joyous it is considered less serious. Take Isn't She Lovely? from Songs in the Key of Life, a pure unadulterated pop song on an amazing thoughtful LP. If that song was released today it would be written off as a bit of pop fluff, whereas I am sure more thought went into it than some of the tunes written by today's part time prophets of doom"

The critics obviously agreed as the LP garnered rave reviews, Maxim giving it LP of the month and concluding: "the future is safe in their hands".

Following the LP release, this is an ethic that the group has continued to follow. Remixes of the X-Ecutioners Play That Beat and The Charlatans We're So Pretty have continued the mark of quality that Lo-Fi's mixes have guaranteed since their radical reworking of Seattle's obscurists Pigeonhed's Battleflag (which became, conversely, one of the Lo Fi's biggest UK hits). Live shows, in particular a show as part of MTV's Five Night Stand at London's Ocean, have seen sell-outs and madness across the country whilst the USA continues to take the Lo-Fi's to it's heart.

Whilst the band finalise plans for a new regular club night in their adopted hometown of Brighton, touring beckons, with Europe and the US to be followed by trips to Australia and Japan before the end of 2002. Included in the touring schedules is a unique show at the Rock `n' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio and headline slots at Reading and Leeds Festivals. Meanwhile in clubworld, Pete Tong continues to hammer the Tim De Luxe mix of Sleeping Faster. As it was, so it is, Lo-Fidelity Allstars continue to ignore genres, continue to be everywhere people love music, continue to keep on keeping on: Don't Be Afraid.