Review of 'Artifact' | Compulsion Online, June 2003:

In many ways, FACTRIX belong to the original Industrial culture vanguard headed by Throbbing Gristle and Cabaret Voltaire in the UK, and represented by the likes of Z'ev, Mark Pauline's Survival Research Labs, NON, and documented by the pioneering punk tabloid Search & Destroy (the formative publishing venture that later became Re/Search publishing house) in California, USA. Monte Cazazza, the infamous prankster, performance artist, and TG Control Agent (who codified a genre with his 'Industrial music for Industrial people' slogan) was a floating member of Factrix, alongside Cole Palme, Joseph Jacobs, and Bond Bergland. Their few releases, together with the previously unheard Factrix (Disc 2 of 'Artifact') demonstrate that Factrix are deserving of more than a footnote in the history of industrial music.

It's perhaps not surprising upon listening to Artifact that the protagonists were heavily into psilocybin. Artifact displays a potent blend of sprawling guitarlines, taut bass and the industrial use of electronic rhythms -often provided by their sound wizard Tommy Tadlock. There was a seeking of possibilities, a searching for a black hole of sound. Experimentation derived from altering technological devices ("amputated bass", various tape treatments) cajoling instruments in an effort to slip into a swirling vortex. It's a bad trip from the sunny climes of California.

Factrix left only a small body of recorded work (particularly on the Adolescent and Subterranean labels); Artifact compiles a selection of studio cuts (including the album Scheintot in its entirety) together with an intriguing selection of unheard material culled from outtakes, live shows and unreleased demos, including a rough reworking of the Velvet Underground's 'Beginning To See the Light', a live track (featuring Christian Marclay on turntables), and a Manson track. Monte Cazazza's presence is all over Artifact, most notably on 'ProManSon' (from the Factrix / Cazazza split LP California Babylon), which features his familiar tones-- but the unhinged and improvised squall heard to best effect on the unheard Factrix disc could also lay claim to be a direct influence on the likes of Sonic Youth and the New York guitar-noise scene.

This package, with cover artwork from Ruby Ray (an early contributor to Search & Destroy) and booklet artwork by Monte Cazazza has been produced with the resolute care and attention of Michael Moynihan (of Blood Axis): there are copious liner notes, archival research and photos, with a masterful grasp of aesthetics which truly fit this reappraisal of a largely forgotten and underrated group. (BTW: we'd be keen to hear what the former members of Factrix did next.)

To order 'Artifact', or for more information, go to Tesco-USA (at www.tesco-distro.com) or Tesco-Germany (at www.tesco-germany.com).

Review in "Freedom from Reviews":

Factrix / Cazazza - 'California Babylon'  LP (1981)

This record is the document of the ecstatic performative collision of the
entities Monte Cazazza (a long time industrial guy- an American soul mate
of Throbbing Gristle) and Factrix (a California outfit fond of unconventional
and modified instruments, wierded-out drum machines and searing guitar
feedback, compatriots of Nervous Gender et al.). According to the record
sleeve “All songs recorded live at Ed Mock Dance Studio, SF 6-6-81”
Except for two songs recorded live at Berkeley Square 12-12-80. And from
the looks of the video stills on the front and back of the record it was one
hell of a show.

Just so you have an Idea of what we’re dealing with, here is a list of the
instruments involved: “gitarre”, tapes, treatments, “radiogitarre”, vocals,
“amputated bass”, “monochord”, electric violin, “chemicals”, flutes,
“glaxobass”, and “found percussion”. I don’t know what the fuck a
glaxobass is, but I can tell you that whatever it is it sounds awesome.
And I don’t mean “awesome” in that California slang kind of way
(like, dude, “awesome glasses!”) but rather in the traditional sense of the
word (Awe: An overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear etc.,
produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like).
A logic exists to the songs, that is to say, a structure, deconstructed and
improvised to be sure, but recognizable. Maybe if you played The Ex’s
Aural Guerrilla through the mouth of one of those machines that crushes
cars at the junkyard this is what it would sound like.

This recording has a crushing urgency fettered to its shredding, tear-assing feedback, and seesaw bass lines. The vocals have that disheveled sort of
half-caring diction to them, like the singer is too filled up with the moment
o concentrate on phrasing or delivery, it makes the shouted, barely
discernable lyrics all that more raw, almost unintentional, like yells form
nightmare taunted sleeper. This record sounds, NOW, the moment has
arrived, it sounds like the end of the century, like what everyone imagined
would happen when y2k finally arrived and citizens started looting off-line
banks and cutting down telephone poles for firewood, except this was
1980, and things were already pretty fierce. Think about expanding your
current dictionary of sounds out beyond, and into the infinite range. There
are vibrations of that kind of infinity here, of possibilities being explored,
new sounds getting kisses full of broken teeth and bloody lips. Is someone
smacking the microphone against the stage repeatedly? Because that’s what that "thump-thump-thump" sounds like.

I wish I was there.  

 - LH

Review In SLASH Magazine (Vol. 3, .5):

FACTRIX, NERVOUS GENDER, UNS, FLIPPER - 'LIVE AT TARGET' LP
Subterranean Records, 1980

"..FACTRIX delivers the two best cuts on the album right off-- 'Night to Forget' is, if you have to draw comparisons, Black Sabbath-meets-PiL. Wonderful dirge guitar that isn't the familiar experimental jerk-off groans through a blasted mental nocturne. Likewise 'Subterfuge'..."