About Factrix

"Factrix was a pioneering industrial music group from the U.S. city of San Francisco, formed in 1978 by members Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, and Joseph T. Jacobs. As Factrix, the group released a number of subversive and 'dangerous' recordings in the early 1980s. Their first LP, "Scheintot", was a document of morbid, moody, and subtle experimental rock that is as eerily unsettling today as it must have been way back in 1981 when it was initially released. The live LP California Babylon (1982) was a collaboration with Monte Cazazza that remains a rough and violent selection of guitar-noise deconstructions and primitive machine-noise rumblings. Conversely, the Empire Of Passion/Splice Of Life 7" single was a marvelously sinister bit of apocalyptic sound-poetry and industrial soundscaping..." - Excerpt from "Industrial Nation" magazine FACTRIX was a pioneering experimental/Industrial music group from San Francisco circa 1978-'82 who formed from the ashes of another seminal post-punk act, MINIMAL MAN. Members: Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, Joseph T. Jacobs Frequent collaborators included Monte Cazazza, Ruby Ray (visuals/projectionist), Tana Emmolo-Smith, Survival Research Labs/SRL (Mark Pauline, Matt Heckert), and Minimal Man (Patrick Miller). Factrix the group released a number of experimental industrial and gothic rock recordings in the early 1980s. Their first 7" single, "Empire Of Passion/Splice Of Life" balanced sound-poetry with minimalist rock, using tape permutations and found percussion to evoke bleak and droning walls of sound. The first full-length LP, "Scheintot", expanded on the directions taken with their first single, creating a morbid, moody, and subtle experimental rock album that was highly innovative for its time. Reminiscent at times of bands like Throbbing Gristle or early Cabaret Voltaire ("Anemone Housing" or "Over My Shoulder - And Out of My Life"), the album also managed to demonstrate a strong rock sensibility, betraying influences of bands like The Velvet Underground ("Ballad of the Grim Rider") or even avant rock contemporaries like Art Bears or '70s era King Crimson (the opening track, "Eerie Lights" or "The Center of the Doll"). The live LP California Babylon (1982) (a collaboration with Monte Cazazza - the record is credited to "Factrix-Cazazza" on the cover) by contrast was a far more stark and abrasive release, in both minimalist sound and morbid lyrical content. The record also featured a musical treatment of the Brion Gysin cut up "poem" "Kick that Habit Man" with avant garde percussionist Z'EV backing the band. In 2003, German based Storm Records re-released both the single and album recorded by the band as well as selections from the California Babylon LP and previously unreleased live material on a double CD titled Artifact. The release was well received and has since gone out of print.