Upon first reluctant exposure to the ruinous undercurrent of trembling noise that emanates from the debut LP, Alien Native by Seattle's Factums on Siltbreeze Records, it seems like the walls might really be closing in around you. Their confusingly bleak and ominous imagery will already sent a cold and eerie sentiment across your evoked set of expectations just from the record sleeve alone, and now the primordial displacement that lies within the deep black grooves starts to soak into your cerebral cortex like a rare and poisonous agar unavoidably seeping into your most vulnerable orifices. Yeah, seriously. As their debut 7" EP on PollyMaggoo suggested, their sordid agenda to coalesce the fractured remnants of Chrome's neurotic splendor with a modern metronomic twist is exactly what the loosely defined noise scene needs, and on this LP it really comes to an ugly head in the most beautifully vexatious way. If you tracked down Factums self-released demo recordings passed around back in 2004, you might already be familiar with the songs on this platter, but to the criminally unexposed, it really benefits from the sequencing and the grandiose silk screened packaging that continues to lend credence to their alien affiliation more so than any of their anonymously configured peers.
Although the first side of the album may draw long on it's instrumental proto-Cabaret Voltaire squelch and emission drone that can be so abstract that you may think your household appliances are trying to tell you something, it's potency lies in the b-side's hammering incessance that lobs Factums into their glorious fold alongside fellow misanthropes and cohorts, The Intelligence and Pyramids. While industrial music hasn't had a real resurgence that's made an impact like its initial footprint with Throbbing Gristle and COUM Transmissions in the mid 70's, the current blossoming crop of contumacious and anti-image based 'bands' like Factums and their melodically corrupt circle of conspirators could easily be the original formula's righteous second coming, if not just a jagged stab in the right direction. Don't be expecting Ministry-type stuff with Factums, but think more atmospheric and unilaterally apocalyptic, cross-wired with a lo-fi punk anchoring that keeps the Wax Trax fans scratching their receding hairlines in wonder and amazement. Pick up a copy of the LP right HERE in a screened-sleeve limited edition of 500 copies, so don't wait for the next chance and zone out as soon as you can with the unfriendly tones of an ugly world perpetuated even further by the prime oddness of Factums.
check out a Factums video for "Take Drugs" by Brent Watanabe right here...
