factrix: scheintot

Arguably the most prescient band of the entire late '70s San Francisco underground, Factrix released just one 7-inch and two pioneering LP's in the early '80s. Formed in 1978 by Cole Palme (one-time member of the LAFMS group Airway) and Bond Bergland (later of Saqqara Dogs), the two initially called themselves Minimal Man and performed a handful of shows along with Patrick Miller (who would go on to have a great solo career under the MM moniker). Soon they enlisted bassist Joseph T. Jacobs (Bay Of Pigs) and emerged from their Mission-district basement with their own unique take on the burgeoning English and New York post-punk scenes. The results were throbbing walls of damaged electronics, grim lyrical musings, droning bass, piercing guitar, and a modified Roland CR-78 played at 1/4 its slowest speed. Factrix's sole 'studio' album, 1981's Scheintot, is a dark, moody, and penetrating work that grows more contemporary every year. Genuinely disturbing at times and often disorientating, it filters the influence of peers such as Cabaret Voltaire and DNA through the sonic and structural sensibilities of The Velvet Underground. An underappreciated masterpiece of the early industrial/No Wave era, Scheintot is a record that compels the listener to lift the needle from the run-out groove and listen again and again. Julian Cope describes it best: 'Factrix's Scheintot deserves to be experienced several times, preferably in the darkness and in a state of near exhaustion (and/or informed by psychoactive chemicals).' CD with 16-page booklet + Empire of Passion b/w Splice of Life single. Liner notes by Julian Cope.