For those interested in deepen more details regarding the biography and discography of the French-Swiss band Factice Factory, its technical sheet was treated by Vox Empirea in the section dated 2015, precisely within the review of "The White Days", the debut album released in 2014, followed next year by a second publication, the ten-track self-produced full-lenght called "Nada". By refining more professionally the compositional techniques and then relaunching its own style in the direction of a more effective waving musicality, the project returns in 2017 with two great releases: the two-songs 7" entitled "Cherry Picker", issued by the German label Holy Hour Records and the waited album "Lines & Parallels", published in its two versions CD plus digital file respectively by the Belgian Wool-E Discs - sister-label of Wool-E Tapes - and the Dutch brand Wave Tension Records. The nine episodes included in the titletrack of the new work incorporate the primary 80's cold wave / new wave / post punk matrix further darkwave / minimal / synthwave ramifications, which osmosis generates an algid sound, which is the mirror of the restlessness, of the alienation and of the darkness that resides in the soul of the three members of the line-up. The exploration of "Lines & Parallels" is an endless voyage towards a visionary, tormented inwardness, in which spatiality they twirl ghostly gloomy shapeless shadows that evoke a sense of incessant obsessiveness; all these elements are expressed at first in the short instrumental opener "Lines", composed by a gaunt sequenced filament intersected by atmospheric pads extensions. The post-punk / cold-wave scheme of the next "Leuchtturm" is built through linear midtempo drum-beats perfectly synchronized with the pulsations of bass, depressed vocals pronounced with glacial essentiality, harmonious synths and distant electric guitar reverbs. "Audran" spreads basic minimal-synthwave / cold-wave / post-punk sounds soaked of emotional desolation, erected on a skeletal drum-programming midtempo percussiveness, psychotic evanescences of keyboard, deep hatchings of bass-lines and on hallucinated electric guitar evolutions , all this embellished by an inert, apathetic chant, which gives the track an aura of solemn coldness. "Defeat" fascinates, mesmerizes, propagating infinitely melancholic vocals and dense profusions of keyboard's chords that stand out on the symmetrical arpeggios of the first electric guitar and bass, while the reflections of the second guitar resound separately, remote, intertwining passionately with the downtempo drum-programming, in a sad cold-wave to hear during the long winter nights. The interlude "Parallels", consisting in a dry midtempo segment of drum-machine, sequencing and turbid synth saturations, roars fast, anticipating the next "Hatch End", a chapter in which they predominate funereal darkwaver / cold-wave / post-punk sonances, performed with regretful, bitter vocals, slowly scanned by the oscillations of bass and drum, while the electricity expanded by the guitar turns into a turbulence of lysergidating dilations that cause bewilderment and consternation, altering the perception of reality. "Sway" livens up the musicality through electronically waveing / synthwave aestheticism, in which the graceful intonations of the vocalist are embellished by those so sensuously warm of the guest-singer Jeanne Lefebvre - protagonist with Fabrice Lefebvre of the word music duo-act called Rajna - whose chant interaction, well drummed by the midtempo pulsations of drum-programming and bass, is permeated by diaphanous synth melodies, by sequenced intermittences and by liquefied extensions of guitar. The post-punker / cold wave frenzy that drags the next "Extinguisher" penetrates into mind, shaking it obsessively, through nervous beats of drumming and bass, telegraphic vocalizations and oppressive synth coverings. The last act of the tracklist is "The Weeping Willow", in which the structures they renew again feelings of melancholic despair, of dissatisfaction, revealed above all by a chant totally deprived of light, pronounced with endless sorrow, surrounded by decadent darkwave / post-punk harmonies created by torbid guitar reverbs, which refractions rise above the air in patterns heavy such as the November sky, combining with the downtempo drumming, with faded keyboard and the bloodless punctuation of bass. Formidably filled with charismatic spleen, "Lines & Parallels" represents the eloquent example of how an album can become part of your existence, if the sensibility and temperament of the auditor tend for nature towards the true introversion. It mesmerizes the spirit, offering to those who listen to it carefully a multidimensional perspective of its inner universe, to which to abandon without conditions, thanks to the persistence of ashen modulations, strongly suggestive, at times claustrophobic, always lacerated by an inconsolable, overwhelming suffering. The artistic value of Factice Factory, like the best 80's wave heroes, is once again demonstrated by their great ability to be able to musically and intensively transmit frustrations, pessimism, non-future and all the unexpected hopes of a generation upset by ambiguous, negative times. This album must be your. Knowing that it exists is not enough.
Author "Maxymox"
Vox Empirea webzine
www.voxempirea.com/en/rece2017en.php#f
released September 15, 2017
This new release will as the previous albums be made available as vinyl (Wave Tension Records),
as CD (Wool-E Discs) and tape (Wool-E Tapes).
Release date is set for the 15th of September 2017.
Factice Factory again paid a very particular attention not only to their sound but on the visuals of their new LP, collaborating with visual artists such as ML
(
www.limonadeart.com)
and French photographer Laurent Moulager
(
www.hipstoresk.com).
The mastering of the album was placed in the hands of Eric Van Wonterghem
www.prodam-berlin.com/mastering.html .