Grey Factor
A Peak in the Signal: Live 1979-1980
Tiny Global Productions
Grey Factor might as well have been buried in an unmarked grave. Almost entirely erased from history, until the revelatory compilation 1979-1980 A.D. – Complete Studio Recordings surfaced in 2023, they were synth-pop subversives who rarely performed in public. Their mind-bending aural assaults could have resulted in their arrests.
Logging about 20 shows in their brief existence, Grey Factor’s oddly compelling, avant-garde artistry was witnessed at venues like Madame Wong’s and The Hong Kong Café in Los Angeles. That only a handful of disparate concert recordings have been discovered should come as no surprise. A Peak in the Signal: Live 1979-1980, then, is an essential companion to the critically acclaimed archival set referred to previously, even if it contains as few as six challenging and wildly unhinged, yet irresistibly disciplined, tracks. It’s still as important and revolutionary as anything Suicide ever produced.
If that sounds blasphemous, try comprehending the electronic dissonance of “Won’t Have to See You,” a short-circuiting, robotic cacophony of arcade babble, off-kilter undertow, crazed skitter, and disembodied vocals as bewildering and confounding as the Art of Noise at their most abrasive. And yet, as an exercise in paint-peeling, cyber-punk violence, it gives birth to an undeniable urge to sift through its electro-clash trash of weird textures and sounds.
Just as enlightening, on the other end of the spectrum, the ambient calm of “Inja” expands and narrows in vaguely disturbing, echoing reverie – alien, liquid shapes and throbbing menace creating a surreal experience for a completely enraptured audience, whose silence means everything. A rowdy welcome, though, greets Grey Factor prior to “Why Me,” setting off a dazzling electronic asteroid shower, while divergent beats, tortured warble, and silvery streaks heighten the anxious, infectious urgency of “No Time” to almost unbearable levels.
Dancing is allowed, even encouraged, amidst the rapidly mutating, ricocheting chaos of “Every Five Minutes,” which is grounded in a trippy, repeating groove. A Peak in the Signal: Live 1979-1980 clears the floor to let everyone’s freak flag fly.
