Lo-Fi Losers: The Odd Couple

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  in Detonate
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Our choice in heroes is rather Apatowian, JUICE loves freaks and geeks. In the EDM world though, DJs are often larger-than-life characters, seemingly incapable of surrendering their glamorous façade even to small moments of humanity. They’re regularly as cold and artificial as the electronic music they’re playing. So imagine our elation when we discovered a local duo whose name is Lo-Fi Losers (LFL), and no, despite the hipster name they are not a drum-guitar indie band.

Going by their real names, local Aliff Ashari and Australian Jason Roper founded LFL while they were studying film together in Perth back in ’08. Discovering that they share a mutual interest in music, the 2 became fast friends to a point of Jason moving to Kuala Lumpur to further his studies and spread “funky disco love” in hopes of getting some amorous action. Well one did at least, “Jason got a girlfriend, I’m still a virgin,” Aliff told us in an endearingly self-deprecating tone.

As we discovered, Aliff (or Double F to some… well, just us) is the wackier of the two. He’s the goofball to Jason’s taciturn straight guy, making their dynamics something of a TV or movie odd couple. Frequently Jason would just softly chuckle at Double F’s jokes and just not say anything after that. The same social dynamics translate musically; Jason is the technical wizard producer, a melody and effects man on the decks, while Aliff is more of a track selector and arranger when producing. You can even see the dynamics when they’re spinning, Jason ever focused on his tech while Double F is all hands-in-the-air wacky.

Playing (and making) post-disco tunes regardless of what you’d like to label it – nu dico, funk, soul, house, deep house, whatever – LFL is their means to go back when things weren’t so overproduced and complicated. There’s not one name that they would attribute to being an influence, it’s just “funky disco vibes” that get their boogie on. According to Double F though, Jason is “influenced by his cat when producing.”  Letting the comedy slide for a bit before it got obnoxious, he told us “music [to us] has always been about feel good funky vibes and not getting f*cked up and slamming bitches.”

True to his character, Double F said “we have a problem expressing ourselves so we don’t really know what we’re actually doing or where we’re getting to.” Despite that rather humble statement, LFL is Lenovo’s Song Book ambassadors, have had their mix played on Fly FM’s Five-0 show, and started regular nights at venues the likes of The Pool (with Victor G to boot), The Hill, and Ecoba.

It’s obvious by now that these guys don’t take things too seriously, or maybe it’s just Double F, but they are very resolute when it comes to the scene. “There are lots of solid DJs and producers around. The scene could use more public support, Malaysians should explore music more. Why go to the clubs when you can listen to that same song on the radio over and over again?”

Bit of a counterproductive rhetorical question there – we think Double F meant that you guys should stop listening to the radio and go to one of their nights for something more original.

Get acquainted with the losers at www.facebook.com/lofilosers and listen to their mixes at soundcloud.com/lfl-official.