You're standing in the middle of a busy street in New York City. Cabs and buses are whizzing by like flies moving at light speed. All you hear is this constant hum and squeal of tires thrashing the pavement and metal crashing into each other. You are a beacon in the middle of chaos. Radio waves are being transmitted directly to your skull, and because of it you are paralyzed. It's like some reoccurring nightmare, except this time its real. Oh, and you've been stripped naked. Sounds like hell, right?
Welcome to The Futurians' sonic masterpiece, "Faktory." This, their "studio" album, is a masterful ode to the days when punk rock was not about a particular look, but about screaming at the top of your lungs on stage and puking your guts out on the street. This is as loud and angry as anything that came out of New York or London in the late '70s. Clayton Noone and his posse of Duckling, ISO12, Rocko, and Krauss have enough energy to light a small town for a year. These recordings are as raw as a skinned knee. That raw, unbridled energy is what makes The Futurians so great. There's never a dull moment here.
The chaos that pours out of this music is gargantuan. I imagine The Futurians on the back of a flatbed truck driving through the heart of a busy metropolis. As they pass through the gauntlet of skyscrapers, they begin pounding their instruments and screaming as loud as they possibly can. Slowly, one brick from 20 stories up plummets toward the asphalt below. Rocko pounds out the opening to "PinkPinkBlue," and anarchy ensues. The buildings start to break apart, tumbling like houses made from cards. In the midst of all this destruction, The Futurians ride unscathed below, spewing venom and breathing fire. With respect to Pulp's misleading album title, this is hardcore.
One can't really appreciate The Futurians on a singular level. It's not about each individual song, it's about the record and experience as a whole. You will not find intensity like this anywhere else. Even in the midst of a busy city street, you feel no fear. Their energy puts you in a bubble that cannot be broken. This music is contagious. Each subsequent listen makes you want to get involved, it makes you want to right the wrongs of this world, and perhaps most importantly, it makes you want to destroy everyone and everything that is faking it. This is the new punk rock. And if you take your eye off of them for one second, they'll kick your fucking teeth in. 8/10 --
Brad Rose (25 May, 2005)
