When I recently caught up with the iLL.F.O., one half of Nerd Revolt, she was kicking off a weekend of cat-sitting and seemed equally excited to have a chance to talk to a human as she was to indulge in a weekend with a feline friend. Nerd Revolt is the iLL.F.O. on vocals, synths, and programming and m.0 doing synths and programming. They are an electronic duo based in San Francisco… although the iLL.F.O. is, thus far, still largely unfamiliar with the city:
“We’ve only been here for a couple of years. Most of the time we’ve been here we’ve been working on the album, so I’ve kind of been a hermit. We went underground for 20 months, doing the album. Approaching it was very daunting and intimidating. We had an EP released in 2010, but it was my first album ever.”
And as scary as the idea of writing and recording an entire album was for the iLL.F.O., she found it to be equally empowering: “It was very liberating for me. I’ve always been very shy and a loner.” (This is something you’d never know, based on her exceptionally bold and colourful style and the number of press photos that have her in nothing but a bikini.) The (self-titled) album, which was released late this summer, rings of an interesting amalgamation of the history of electronic music. It is very primally and erotically haunting. Certain tracks would seem to call to the dance floor, but only for the evening’s slowest, steamiest, and haziest moments… It really is more suited for a sensuousnight of sinning. However, a few songs do subtly recall Industrial at its lightest and most whimsical.