Stereo, Glasgow
The inscrutable electronic trio's songs were just as expansive as on record, but a lot warmer in the flesh
A serious-minded electronic trio hymned by everyone from Pitchfork to Elton John, Factory Floor have a reputation for mesmeric live shows that take place in art galleries as often as music venues. Though London-based, their eponymous debut album was recently released by DFA, the New York label that will for ever be associated with LCD Soundsystem, and it feels like a logical partnership: Factory Floor create pliable, zoned-out songs that encourage the mind to wander, even as incontestable beats commandeer your feet.
On the album, where vintage kickdrums and Nik Colk Void's heavily treated vocals are foregrounded, it can sound a little icy and alienated. Live, the songs remain as expansive - many nudge toward the 10-minute mark - but feel warmer. The key is Gabe Gurnsey, drumkit set at a right angle to the sold-out crowd, his playing relentless but fluid. If the cowbell rapidly became a cliche in punk-funk, Gurnsey gets an astonishing amount of mileage out of a woodblock that cuts through the mix.
Opposite him, Void plays keyboard and guitar, sometimes thwacking her Fender with a drumstick, sometimes caressing the strings with a violin bow. Between them, Dominic Butler attends an enormous mixing board, sporadically rerouting leads like an old-fashioned telephone operator and creating nagging, repetitive synth loops that swirl and decay. The combined effect is patient and cumulative, a steady ascent rather than the speedball builds and drops of commercial electronic music.
There is no shortage of drama, though. A traumatising alarm effect howls through the vigorous Turn It Up, while Fall Back iterates from a slight two-note phrase into something far bigger and more volatile, a swaying tower of frazzled black-box howls shepherded by Void's uninflected refrain of "higher". The audience certainly enjoy it, though even during an extended, semi-improvised encore built around a lockstep beat that seems like it could march for ever, Void, Gurnsey and Butler remain inscrutable.
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by Graeme Virtue via Music: Electronic music | theguardian.com
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