One Trip

Factory Floor return with their first album in a decade, One Trip, via Phantasy Sound. Well-established as one of electronic music’s most uncompromising live acts, this new full-length on Erol Alkan’s influential London label captures the band further evolving from their raw, noise-driven beginnings into a more expansive sound that explores the outer edges of techno, minimalism, acid and post-industrial rhythms. 

Initially reunited in 2024, when Alain Mongeau, founder and director of MUTEK, invited Factory Floor back for a live performance at their flagship Montreal festival, that one-off show became the catalyst for a new chapter. What followed was a run of singles on Phantasy Sound — ‘Between You’, ‘Tell Me’ and ‘Buzz Saw’ — each signalling a revitalised creative direction, while retaining the physical intensity and hypnotic propulsion that have long defined the band.

Now performing and recording as a trio comprised of Gabriel Gurnsey on drums, percussion, and electronics; Nik Colk Void on modular synth and vocals; alongside new member Joe Ward with additional percussion, One Trip reconnects with the band’s earliest experiments in a pre-gentrification East London, closer to happenings or temporary installations than traditional concerts, while equally informed by the energy and experimentation of their recent reunited appearances at Berghain, Corsica Studios and festivals such as Simple Things and No Bounds.

“After the MUTEK performance, we felt an appetite to work in a space where artists could connect emotionally and physically, both in the studio and on a live stage”, explains Colk Void. “These environments hold more than sound; they carry a visceral energy that comes from being together. It’s something we’d really missed as solo artists, and it made us want to explore that kind of experience again.”

It was during these engagements that the guiding principles of ‘One Trip’ became clear. A sonic philosophy where, as Colk Void puts it, “balance tips the favour, rather than having to make choices and disrupt the flow”. The album’s double single, ‘Continuation / One Trip’, offers the perfect introduction to the groups’ current sonic philosophy; one side drawn towards intensity and the physicality of the dancefloor; the other towards euphoria, openness and the curiosity of the unknown. 

Dreamlike and expansive, ‘Continuation’ opens the LP, a step into unfamiliar territory with a reassuring sense of certainty. The sound of a tightly organised machine operation shaped by human intuition and vulnerability, further reflected in the more optimistic, textural grooves of ‘Obsessed’ and ‘Between You’.

This halcyon rush is contrasted with the darker energy of title track ‘One Trip’, joined here by ‘Buzz Saw’ and ‘One Two One’ as among the band’s most intense dancefloor transmissions. Hypnotic in new ways, its modulated deep bass increases in pressure, offset by Gurnsey’s renowned rhythmic percussion and an optimistic guiding sample; “one trip, one dance”

Leaning in opposite directions, yet aligned to the same machines, One Trip finds connection in contrast, delivering a new perspective on one of the most exciting bands in electronic music.

The bonus CD is a collection of tracks drawn from studio album sessions recorded with Stephen Morris (New Order)