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Factory Floor 25 25 DFA Records

30.08.16

The mesmeric allure behind Factory Floor’s music can be quantified by their harmonious balance between restraint and anarchy. For their 2013 DFA Records-endorsed self-titled debut, the group exhibited a sort of sonic paradox of uncontrolled order. Their performances ached with an air of mass destruction; pandering to techno’s formulaic decadence before reeling away in disgust and exposing its man made facade. It was a truly important moment for Factory Floor, proving that minimalism inspires invention (and visa versa). So to strip back a sound based around this cryptic ‘club-not- club’ ideology even further, as they present here with 25 25, seems like the only logical form of progression the band could take.

Now a two-piece consisting of Nik Void and Gabriel Gurnsey, the duo have actively explored the cavities of acid- saturated techno from their debut and enhanced its percussive thump. Here, the structural inconsistency finds a greater stability, giving the record a vigorous pulse that palpitates under gluttonous basslines and spectral vocal samples. Tracks such as Dial Me Up, Relay and Slow Listen are abnormally austere yet play upon the perversions of a late-night club peak; absent-minded yet enraptured by the marriage of drum and melody.

By doing so, 25 25 is less human than its predecessor; a transition most likely inspired by Nik Void’s decision to move from guitar to modular synthesiser. But that is not to say that Factory Floor’s improvisation-led playing is totally abandoned. Void and Gurnsey have rechartered their boundaries. Here they allow each other to approach their hardware with a sense of utilitarian simplicity – plunging into the confines of their previous successes and rewiring the inner workings of their unrelenting machine.