Factrix on DeBaser: industrial hauntings and post‑punk experiments

Factrix

Musical Group

Forlisteners into industrial/post‑punk experimentalism and the san francisco underground.
2 Reviews 0 Definitions 2 Charts

The Profile

Factrix is an American experimental/industrial post‑punk group from San Francisco, active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, featuring Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, and Joseph T. Jacobs. Known for ‘radio guitar,’ minimal percussion, and confrontational performance-art aesthetics, they released Scheintot and collaborated with Monte Cazazza on California Babylon.

Origin: San Francisco. Core members: Bond Bergland, Cole Palme, Joseph T. Jacobs. Associated with Subterranean Records; notable use of ‘radio guitar’ and non-traditional instrumentation; live concepts intersected with Survival Research Laboratories (Mark Pauline). Key releases include Scheintot (1981) and California Babylon (with Monte Cazazza).

Two detailed reviews dive into Factrix’s Scheintot, framing the San Francisco trio’s industrial/post‑punk experiments and stark atmospheres. The writings highlight their ‘radio guitar,’ absence of conventional drums, and performance-art extremity linked to SRL. Scheintot emerges as a grim, immersive journey—far from standard goth/dark tags—praised for its intensity and vision.

Notable Quotes

❝ Factrix did not play "instruments," as they proclaimed - they played "industrial artifacts", gadgets constructed against all logic except that of experimenting with the "never tried."

❝ Throughout the nine tracks of the record, the music accompanies us in this hopeless zone marked by agonizingly invasive percussion, medium-chanting spoken word, and the effective evocative use of radio guitar, which proves to be a mediumistic vehicle for exploring this unsettling reality.