FACTOTUM - ALBUM REVIEW

Factotum - Knife Gun (Stolen Body Records) 
Factotum - Knife Gun

Release Date: 27th January 2014

Somewhere in middle England, there is a small pub with a large room full of tables for one each populated by someone in their 20s nursing a pint and staring wistfully at the floor. These people are all bass players. Such is the recent rise in the duo, there must be a slew of 4-string cowboys just roaming the landscape just looking for a drummer to follow. Bristol twosome Factotum are the latest partnership to come across my ears (not literally) and they're all about the noise. After the yelp of opening seven second track 'Knife Gun', we're in to the distinctly non-organy sound of 'Wurlitzer' and the Garage Rock of 'Melt'. Combining the strut of the White Stripes, the blues of the Black Keys and the rasp of Gary Stringer at his most strained, Factotum make an almighty racket for just two fellas. There is a certain sexiness about 'Minute' that brings me images of a girl in Daisy Dukes and a pair of cowboy boots swaggering in to a bar and stopping the world with a gentle shake of her lustrous hair. 'Powerjam' is the Ronseal track, a 30 second jam where the words power and jam are repeated at throat damaging intensity.

The distorted openings of 'Red Dust' are pure 70s pysch rock and you can just picture a field full of spaced out, caftan wearing freakazoids swaying gently to the funereal beat and the Hendrix-esque guitars. 'Tocame La Polla' (presumably some Mexican chicken dish) sounds like the lift music for your journey to hell whereas 'Hey Hey Hey' is a relentless assault on the senses with a plodding, stomping serial killer of a beat. My favourite track on the album is the groove-heavy fun of 'Ruin My Trip' which should feature in a road movie directed by Russ Meyer. Final track 'Gentleman' is a slow, acid fuelled, meandering track that sounds like it's being played somewhere at the end of a long corridor full of David Lynch doors and possibilities. Factotum have created a simultaneously nostalgic and fresh sounding album that I recommend you listen to. If nothing else, it would provide something for bassists to play along to in their spare time...


Live Dates:


22nd February - The Stag & Hounds, Bristol

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