During the three years between their critically acclaimed Untitled EP and their self-titled debut album, Factory Floor did a lot of changing and growing. The band drew plenty of comparisons to post-punk and industrial greats in their early years, and collaborations with luminaries such as Chris Carter, Stephen Morris, and Peter Gordon didn't do much to dissuade them. A shift away from the grimy, pulsating sound the band forged on "A Wooden Box" and "Lying" was inevitable, but the leap they make on Factory Floor is as startling as it is exciting. While the blank rawness of their early work -- something their like-minded contemporaries never quite captured as well as they did -- is missed, the way they replace that bleakness with an even more challenging kind of sleekness is something of a triumph. Though Factory Floor is self-produced, it's easy to hear why DFA Records released it: songs like "Two Different Ways" -- which was also the group's first single for the label -- harness the machine-like repetition that is the heart of their sound to a percussion-heavy, more overtly danceable feel that suggests Factory Records as well as the band's literal industrial roots (their home base is in one of North London's sweatshop districts). The album's harshly lit sound makes the most of Factory Floor's key elements: stark, seemingly endless beats, a few atmospheric synths, and the equally wild and robotic vocals of Nik Colk Void. All of these dazzle on "Fall Back," another single the band released before this album and the one that suggested just how drastic their evolution was. A viciously sleek showcase for Void's taunting vocals and the almighty beat, it sets the tone for even more brutally spare workouts like the album opener "Turn It Up," which takes the trio's fondness for expansion and repetition to a trance-inducing extreme. Indeed, even with the brief palate cleansers "One," "Two," and "Three," Factory Floor's lengthy, droning grooves are so mantra-like that it's almost disorienting when "Breathe In" comes to a close. Worth the three years it took to materialize, this is a strong, assured debut that shows Factory Floor can build on their influences in a way that feels fresh.
© Heather Phares /TiVo