- Given that it's been more than a year since we last heard original material from Factory Floor—their debut single for DFA, "Two Different Ways"—perhaps we might have expected some overhauling of style. Really though, the London-based trio have always been more interested in brutal refinement than modish experimentation. "Fall Back" is the first single from their long-awaited debut album, and it suggests more of the same—in the best possible way.
The elements are simple and by now familiar: crisp, aggressive percussion, part human, part drum machine; that eternally juddering synth line; Nik Void's deadpan vocals. If anything, though, "Fall Back" is more striking, more stylish than its predecessor. For the first half, ragged claps and hi-hat fills spar over the ubiquitous kick drum, details gradually accruing until we burst into a full-on motorik groove. Meanwhile Void delivers a quasi-robotic monologue, simultaneously disdainful and seductive, asking—though it sounds more like an accusation— "Did you feel like you were going to fall underground?" The whole thing is steely but erotic, a mix of flesh and machine in the spirit of the trio's industrial forebears. The imperative to dance is more or less irresistible.
Tracklist A1 Fall Back
B1 Fall Back Synth Loop
B2 Fall Back Drum Loop
B3 Fall Back Guitar Loop