London, UK · industrial techno

Factory Floor

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DFA's industrial techno machine, returned — relentless hardware grooves that grind post-punk down to pure repetition.

Factory Floor formed in London in 2005, originally as a trio of Gabriel Gurnsey, Mark Harris and later Dominic Butler. Harris left early on to form Shift Work. Two singles followed in 2008, then the mini-album Talking on Cliffs in 2009, before the group signed to Blast First Petite for a run of twelve-inch releases.

Nik Colk, formerly of KaitO and later known as Nik Colk Void, joined around this time, adding vocals, guitar, samples and electronics as the sound turned more industrial and electronic. New Order's Stephen Morris remixed the single 'A Wooden Box' and went on to produce for the band, while Chris Carter joined them for shows at Primavera Sound and the Roundhouse in 2011.

The group's music is built from repetitive analogue hardware sequences, live drums and processed vocals, sitting between industrial post-punk and minimal techno. Their self-titled debut album, released on DFA Records in 2013, drew wide critical acclaim and was ranked third in The Skinny's albums of that year. Dominic Butler left soon after, leaving Factory Floor as the duo of Gurnsey and Void.

A second album, 25 25, followed in 2016 to more positive reviews. The following year the group were commissioned by London's Science Museum to write a new live score for Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis, premiered at the museum's IMAX cinema and later reworked into the album A Soundtrack For A Film, released in 2018 on their own Heart of Data imprint.

Both members have pursued separate projects alongside the band. Live, Factory Floor perform on machines rather than laptops, extending and reworking tracks as they go, with the emphasis falling on rhythm and slow textural change rather than song structure.

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industrial techno