Factotum - Knife Gun (Stolen Body Records)
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| 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...
More information: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Factotum/123685137756477?ref=br_tf
Live Dates:
22nd February - The Stag & Hounds, Bristol