One too many times I’ve found myself in the predicament where I’ve been told: “Kobi you don’t have enough post-industrial, minimal house on your playlists!”, and I couldn’t agree more, my answer to this is the London-based band Factory Floor.
Formed in 2005 having released a slew of singles and mini-albums from then until 2009 when they signed to their first label Blast First Petite. Their eponymous debut album is an exploration into the reality of what dance floors could be; here no sound is synthetic but entirely organic. Pulsing rhythms and melodies repeat and repeat, not to fill time but to explore every possible permutation to its entirety within the bounds of a track. Even though repetition is used throughout this album no moment feels static, every second the music is changing, slowly evolving. New percussion parts enter, maybe a couple of extra notes in the sequence, or even an obscure Throbbing Gristle-esque vocal, all with the intent of throwing you off course and providing you with another tight groove.
As well as producing albums full of danceable tracks (albeit maybe ones played on dance floors in parallel universes), they should be praised for their incredibly unique and notable sound. Nik Colk, one of the principle members of the group, often plays guitar using drumsticks and violin bows to create abstract sounds to complement the drumming of Gabriel Gurnsey. In-between these sounds are mostly electronic ones, however, what makes this band so intriguing most of these electronic sounds are performed live. This is achieved using a variety of sampling, analog equipment, and most intriguingly, modular synthesizers.
This amalgamation of nuanced sounds may be out of place in the pop spectrum. However, on James Murphy’s DFA Records (to which they are currently signed) they are very at home, alongside bands (all of which you should totally check out) like: LCD Soundsystem, Black Dice, The Juan Maclean, Crooked Man, Guerilla Toss, The Rapture, Eric Copeland etc.
On their latest, and most developed album to date, ’25 25’, it sees their most progressed sound. It provides a refreshing development from their first album. Here the sounds of 808 State, Adonis, Virgo and other acid house visionaries echo through the album, if not to show their similarity, but to show how Factory Floor can strip sounds to its barest forms to bring out its true sonic beauty.
Factory Floor are one of the most intriguing artists currently around, they continue to challenge the definitions of music while simultaneously creating tracks that you can’t help but dance to. There are few if any other artists out there that are doing this so successfully. I live in anticipation of their next release as well as wait in excitement for when I finally see them live for the first time in March. More importantly however, I think I’ve found the ‘post-industrial, minimal techno’ band my playlists need, in fact, they deserve a whole playlist to themselves.
