Factory Star was formed in December 2008 by Martin Bramah, founder member of both The Fall (1976–79 and rejoining for Extricate in 1990) and Blue Orchids, with whom he recorded the astonishing The Greatest Hit (Money Mountain) LP for Rough Trade. “Some of the most visionary music of its era” was how Simon Reynolds described Blue Orchids’ hallucinogen-fuelled pagan Celtic postpunk psych-pop in his book Rip it Up and Start Again – Postpunk 1978–1984.
Factory Star’s combination of Bramah’s distinctive guitar style and masterful lyrical flights, along with swirling, hypnotic keyboards, is reminiscent of Blue Orchids at their most potent. The new mini-album New Sacral follows the debut Factory Star album, Enter Castle Perilous, released Easter 2011 and followed in December 2011 by the unlikeliest of perfect Christmas singles, Lucybel.
New Sacral is a distillation of Factory Star’s first quest for “Pure Land” wherein the band are pushed to the very limits of reason and forced to face the ineffable question. When asked to write a press release Bramah just muttered something about “channelling the Dark Spark…” All that can be truthfully said is that they returned changed men with six powerful songs to share – the whole adventure is encrypted within this one Occultation/ Fishrider disc.
This is the second joint Occultation/Fishrider release following the eponymous debut album by Opposite Sex which saw an already successful NZ album given a full UK release earlier this year. This time the boot is on the other foot. The Factory Star mini-album is a perfect fit with the Fishrider catalogue of “psych-pop & no wave from below the underground”, as Bramah is something of a kindred spirit to The Puddle’s George D. Henderson in his journey through and beyond the dark edges of music, life, literature and the arcane history of human ritual.