kFactor - Ghastly Monolith

Introduction: A Journey Back In Time
   
In order for us to move forward with this journey into the wondrous works of kFactor, we first must go back to where it all began. As many of you are aware, this is a release by Electro Aggression Records (Also known as EAR). EAR kicked off its first release after severing ties with Vendetta Records with the monstrous document titled 'Old School Electrology'. This document featured handpicked artists by Mr. EAR himself, Nader Moumneh out of Toronto Canada. 4 CDs jammed packed with old school legends yelworC, Amgod, DRP, Haujobb, Digital Factor, Splatter Squall, Lescure 13, Serpents, Page 12 and Jihad. Other acts such as Tri-state, Terminal State, Serpents, Object and Astma went on release full albums with EAR. Many of the artists provided remixes for the bonus material on the EAR albums. Check out Discogs for the full tracklisting. http://www.discogs.com/Various-Old-School-Electrology-Volume-One/release/3186396. Many of the acts on the 'Old School Electrology' compilation are future considerations for releases or remixes. This compilation took 6 years to compile. Every release on EAR started with an artist featured on 'Old School Electrology. So far the only artist not featured is the one and only kFactor.

The year is 2013, about 2 years after the release of 'Old School Electrology'. Nader and a team of talent scouts got word of this idealistic man of great abilities locals called Junior. Nader heard of his many talents with programming, music theory and IT. Nader commissioned his team along with a boat captain to take a long journey into the deep forests of the Amazon. In a sort of Kurtz/Marlow adaptation, Nader sets off to find his Kurtz. After several days of traveling down the river absorbing extreme temperatures, dense fog and a few attacks from the territorial indigenous people, Nader and his group arrived to a tropical paradise on the southeast coast of Brazil…... in the middle of the jungle. Nader looked out towards the endless beach as the sun was setting, a silhouette of a man emerged from the brush. As Nader walked closer to this figure he was able to see the features and so realized it was indeed Mr. Junior kFactor. Nader and his team admired Junior's dashing mustache, his babylonian hanging garden like-beard and myriad of tattoos. Nader asks "Are you the one known as Junior?" Without hesitation the man replied, "Yes!"

Nader went on talk about kFactor and the possibility of signing a contract to release an album. After a short time of negotiating, the deal was done. Nader informed Junior he had to return to avoid any late charges on the boat rental. Junior simply stated, "I'm on Facebook and I have an iPhone. Next time just text me bro!" The men laughed and soon the EAR contingent was headed back to Toronto.

kFactor holds the honor of beating out several other 'Old School Electrology' hopefuls for an album release.

We know Junior loves his facial hair. 2007 UK Mustache and Beard Champion in the Imperial Partial Beard category, Karl Heinz-Hille stated, "It's very unlikely I will be dethroned by Junior kFactor, but the man has potential. He generates a mustache curl that is seldom seen by professionals. I would love train him for the 2016 trials in Norway. With my tutelage and his fine strands, we could rise to the top together." It is rumored that Junior did meet with Karl, as Karl became obsessed with Junior's mustache curling technique. He had to know the secret. In an interview back in 2008, local newspaper reporter Beth Maloney asked Junior about his secret to the legendary curl. Junior told a story about his unique abilities to withstand great amounts of poison due to his close relationship with his natural surroundings. "He is able to harvest non lethal amounts of the toxic secretion created by Brazil's 6th deadliest animal, the Poison Dart Frog. To most, a single touch spells certain death due to the high concentration of poison these adorable little death mongers give off. Junior's uncanny ability to harvest this poison as well as break it down scientifically and add a few secret ingredients to complete his very own styling gel is a stunning achievement." Beth went on to say, "No Dart Frogs are ever injured during the extraction process".

So, we know Junior is from Brazil. More specifically, Sao Sebastiao, Sao Paulo State. kFactor is either a key factor or kill factor. It's up to the audience to decide, keys or death. kFactor has been around for 10 years or so making music. Junior studied harmony, composition and arrangement so he could eventually create his own music. He draws inspiration from Skinny Puppy, Mentallo and the Fixer, Oneiroid Psychosis, Batz Without Flesh and Sphere Lazza. Other influences are taken from different styles like lo-fi indie, electronic indie, lounge etc.

Junior works as a web and graphic developer. In his free time besides napping in his backyard he plays shows mostly in Brazil. He's slated to play Dark EBM Souls 2 in Bratislava, Slovakia in February 2016. He plans to do other dates around the Dark EBM Souls show in Europe. Any dates, feel free to reach out to Junior!

‘Ghastly Monolith’ is the debut album release by kFactor. It contains 2 CDs filled with the complex dark electro compositions fans have come to expect from the EAR label. The art concept came from the mind of Mr. Michael Renfield of R010R and Noise Process. The satanic extraterrestrial pillar of souls monolith adorning the front covers probably serves a warning of the contents within the plastic casing. Junior stated “I just let this guy do the magic”, referring to Michael Renfield’s artistic approach to the cover. Another notable credit goes once again to Arnte of Pyrroline/Nordschacht for the mastering.

“Error” introduces us to the chemistry of the album. It represents the core standards and personality of kFactor, a slow to mid-paced, carefully arranged dark electro decent into the heart of the darkest regions of the Amazonian rainforests. The chemistry of the music and its affect on certain animals was studied, identified and documented in a recent field experiment conducted by a team of researchers headed by Denville, New Jersey scientific legend, Kristen Faber, known for her extensive research into field service animals and their affects on their human behavior. Faber’s research found selected tracks off ‘Ghastly Monolith’ brought a calming effect to selected creatures from the rainforest. Jaguars, the Black Caiman and the Harpy Eagle prey on sloths, monkeys and other small creatures. These predators violently dismantled the monkeys and sloths, as they are a necessary part of the food chain. To reduce the pain and terror monkeys and sloths feel while avoiding the possibility of upsetting the dietary needs of the apex predators, Faber selected random tracks from ‘Ghastly Monolith’ and played them continuously in the animal’s habitats on small speakers strategically placed around the rainforest along with night and day vision cameras. The results were stunning. Although still violent, the time from the capture to the kill was reduced 30%. One Jaguar, Steve we spoke to said, “In the wild we really go all out to feed ourselves and our families. I guess there is a more civil way to perfect the kill. Evagination and evisceration can lead to over kill, but with kFactor’s tunes I get in a zone without distractions. It seems every time I’m mauling a sloth my son interrupts me to fix the WIFI connection in his nest. This leads to more suffering for the sloth because I have to leave him to there with 2 of his legs torn off and a half eaten lower back. The poor bastard is writhing in agony. I’m excited about kFactor’s music helping me focus more on the kills rather than the distractions”. Faber went to explain the kill-factor in the test subjects was made more efficient through the music by the opioideric mechanisms often studied in human long distance runners.

Local reporter Courtney Medina spoke to a few of the local quadrupeds including a capybara and a few annoying frugivorous kinkajous. One of the kinkajous agreed to speak under an assumed name, Walter. When asked about kFactor’s new double CD, Walter had nothing but great things to say. "We both share a fragile ecosystem. Everything is better when we all get along. As a distinguished member of the 4th Street Kinkajous we play a lot of alternative music. One artist that really grabs our attention is kFactor. Junior played a free open-air concert for our group as well as our long time homeboys, the East Side Capybaras. "Error" is our favorite song. There's a lot going in the composition. It's dark; it's clandestine and it draws you into an altered state of consciousness. You get lost in the music, while being simultaneously awed by the craftsmanship. I even met my wife and mother of my 3 pups, Dave, Mark and Julia at this concert. The dark grooves continued with "A Blind Spot" and "Take A Chance". The music and vocals could easily fit into the sound that dominated dark electro in the mid to late nineties. It conjures memories of Decoded Feedback ('98/'99 'Bio-Vital' & 'EVOlution'), with its drawn out grinding and churning beats and heavily distorted whispered vocals. I especially dig the background sounds strategically placed in each of these songs. I really feel without kFactor's music our groups would have cohabitated as enemies instead of friends. Since the truce between the East Side Capybaras and 4th Street Kinkajous at the open-air concert last year, violent crime dropped 80%, a stunning achievement by one man armed with only his keyboard and a surfboard. Nest values skyrocketed to all time high. The economy is on upswing. Things are good in Capybara and Kinkajou land! Avid rainforest hiker, Silvia Villena was interviewed by Forest Maiden Quarterly for her findings in the rainforest a few months after the legendary open-air concert. "Junior is becoming a household name and for good reason. His track "Disorient" is played in every Capybara club in the rainforest. Most Capybaras are obsessed with The Klinik's "Black Leather" track and "Disorient" feeds on that very influence to produce a minimal dark electro masterpiece! "Lobotomy" and "Iron Tree" also harness influences from the vintage years of The Klinik, with more minimal beats covered in black leather. The groveled squealing vocals on "Lobotomy" have every wild boar in the rainforest going berserk. Anyway, whilst hiking in my usual haunts, I started to notice rock structures around the rainforest. All of them looked like a prominent bearded man. The craftsmanship was definitely of terrestrial origins. Through my research, I have concluded these structures are indeed Junior of kFactor. Many different species have created these structures to pay tribute to great bringer of peace! It is amazing what an album can do for not only a human, but also for our animal brothers and sisters of the forest!"

The more you immerse yourself into the 'Ghastly Monolith' the more you notice the efforts put into the creation of the songs. The rhythmic pulsations of "Prototype" are a favorite of the Hammerhead Shark posse. The repetitive beats compliment long swims into deep waters. "Symmetry" explores the world of the popular human video game Doom. With references to Frank Delahue, power plants and Mars City, fans of Doom will appreciate this slow brooding soundtrack inspired piece. "White Monolith" continues to push the creative boundaries into a slower atmospheric approach with heavy cinematic musical score influences. The vocals are tucked away into the layers taking a backseat to the driving rhythms. The "White Monolith" may have something to do with the cover art? It may have something to do with the human stone structures paying tribute to kFactor mentioned earlier? There is an arcane and mysterious feel to kFactor's approach. Perhaps not really knowing the meaning behind the track's title intensifies the wonder of the concepts. "You Worm!", is a malicious piece that conjures unsettling feelings of uncertainty and despair. The vocals kick off just after a sample referencing an incident of police brutality. "You Worm!" is the primary lyric repeated often throughout the track. If not for the sample referencing police brutality, our thoughts on the theme of this track may go into the biodiverse world of the 2.5 million different species of insects found in the Brazilian rainforests. The Predatory Glow Worm's bioluminescence garnered worldwide attention shortly after being discovered with similarities to a very common insect displaying bioluminescence, the Firefly. After enjoying a school project involving insect habitats, 11 year old Wilhelm Montgomery of Fairfield New Jersey stated, "Their asses light up, that’s so cool!" As we forge ahead to the last 4 tracks of 'Ghastly Monolith' we are treated to more murky dark beats with complex arrangements and more fascinating sounds with "Parallel". "Chrome", "Casting Shadows" and "Full Pressure" charm us with a slight experimental twist. Towards the end of "Full Pressure" there is excellent display of horror in the last minute or so of the track. kFactor raises the bar on just how dark and creepy his song structures can get. The songs utilize elements of cinematic musical scores meshed with the signature distorted vocals that give each and every track a taste of darkness with no diminishing return! Discovery Channel reporter Steve Canterel caught up resident Jaguar and leader of the West Coast Feline Front regarding his thoughts on the first disc, 'Ghastly Monolith'. "kFactor's music scares the hell out me. No wonder the Capybaras and Kinkajous are such psychos! The music brings on an unsettled feeling across our habitat. I guess in some ways that is good. I like to get my dark groove on once in a while. This is the perfect release to separate myself from the modern world by losing myself in the music".

‘Old School Prototype’ supports the overflow of music with 9 more track as well as six remixes from Pyrroline, Jihad, Soillodge (Michael Renfield), Tri-State, Serpents and Astma.

“A Dead Place” submerges the listener into the foggy uncertain regions of kFactor’s sources of inspiration. Perhaps this is the killing ground of the mighty Jaguar or the remote hiding areas for the Tapirs. Jihad’s remix of “A Dead Place” polishes the minimal murkiness off the original music replacing it with an atmospheric touch while retaining low distorted vocals that are present throughout both heavily stacked CDs. Jihad adds some some cool synth pieces to their take on “A Dead Place” to another region of expression.  Pyrroline’s version of “Symmetry” takes the Doom themed track to more robust heights. Pyrroline cleans up the experimental nature of the original and turns it into a long slow descent into the unknown world extraterrestrial warfare, or whatever Doom’s theme is centered around. “A Blind Spot” received the Soillodge treatment. Soillodge is the alter ego of Michael Renfield. Aside from doing artwork and producing his own songs he is very active as a remixer. He turns up the pace of “A Blind Spot” to a Jaguar jog from the slower lumbering Anaconda slither making this version a great alternate take on the creeping  crawling original on CD1. “Faithful Children” appears as an original version as well as a version remixed by old school legends Serpents. Both takes are solid testaments to the old school. The Serpents prepare for an all out state of war by giving “Faithful Children” a more old school feel with serpentine twists of technological surgery into the layers of labor. There is enough punch to terrify even the mighty and vicious Black Caiman. High profile serial killer Mr. Miller returns with his pals Astma to scare a few Jaguars and shake up some of the other miscreants of the rainforest with a collective old punch in the snout with “You… Worm!” The Jaguars have always been a pain in the ass to other inhabitants of the rainforests. The old school stomping demonstrated on Astma’s ‘600 Pounds Of Body’ packs enough power to frighten the boldest of Jaguars. Their remix keeps up that same intensity. Jaguars are resilient creatures. They don’t stay frightened too long. The Capybara’s asked Mr. Miller to stick around for protection, but Miller refused to stay longer than week due to his insane desire to kill humans in Sweden and Japan. In a 2012 article in Playboar monthly Miller stated, “Yeah, I like the Capybaras and the other players in the rainforest power struggle, but I kill humans, not animals. I am not a hired a hand.  I am a vegetarian unless I need to eat the evidence like when this guy Ryan, started pushing his stupid Star Wars collector toys on me at the NYC Comicon. I told him I wasn’t interested but he was persistent. Ultimately I butchered him just outside the My Little Pony stand in a secluded corner. I severed his limbs and head with a ceremonial dagger I bought from this weird yet very attractive Wiccan chick. Anyway, they need to work things out diplomatically like the Capybaras did with the Kinkajous. I know the Jaguars, Anacondas and Black Caimans are all total assholes but you have to try”. As we continue our journey into the remixes, the last one conjures a dark force in the old school dark electro wonderland, Tri-State. Tri-State are known for their sinister sounds that are nicely complimented by some of the most depressing dark and unnerving lyrics in recent memory. Tri-State adds their voices and technical talents to “Prototype”. The angelic female voice is also present to bring “Prototype” into Tri-State’s world of symphonic bliss!

‘Old School Prototype’ or disc 2 kicks off the listening party with “Humans”. Laced with minimal beats and blips “Humans” seems to have been stripped down to the bare necessities making a slightly different approach to song writing. Don’t worry, there are still some sounds that would scare the webbing out of a nest of Brazilian Wandering Spiders. “Nature’s Dream” inspired the peace treaty between the Amazonian Manatee and the Leafcutter Ants. A long standing feud started when the Leafcutters of the lower east side started growing their fungus under the ground using the leaves they cut using their impressive sharp jaws. The whole thing blew up into an all out gang war when the Manatees found out the Leafcutters chewed up the leaves then spit it out and added feces to it to create a very tasty dish. This angered the Manatees enough due their disgust of ant feces soaking into their shorelines that war was declared on the Leafcutter. The war raged on for years. No Manatees died but millions of Leafcutters were slaughtered. This was brought to kFactor’s attention and he responded with a free concert played both under and below water to please the rivaling factions. Richard, a local civil lawyer for rainforest rights, mediated the treaty and signs it into official status 5 days after the truce. “Nature’s Dream” digs in and keeps you prisoner with its enticing repetitive rhythms.  “Auto-Darwin” adds a slight glitch influence that works well with whispered vocals. “The Right Course” and “The Vultures” offer an experimental edge. The experimental influence imposes its will on the tracks by taking them to unexplored regions of song structure. “The Right Course’ is more vicious in nature than the simplistic thin feel of “The Vultures”.  “No Land” starts off with nice synth piece that may have roots in Asian origin. Regardless of the possible geographical influence the song will pull you in with its gentle stature that caresses the mind into nice state of relaxation. This is the perfect state to enjoy many minutes of kFactor. “Images Of The New World” is brilliant electro glide into the darkest corners of existence. kFactor tends to favor this approach very much on the first 9 tracks of disc 2. Slicing and chopping beats set to twisted tones with a flare for experimentation.

There is always a lot to digest with EAR releases. This is no exception. You get 2 CDs packed to the limits of data storage for you to enjoy. ‘Ghastly Monolith’ or CD1 is an all out thrill ride straight through the heart of the 80’s and into the 90’s. The heavy mid 80’s Klinik influences are very recognizable.  Other notable influences that can be detected include: Decoded Feedback (1998 & 1999), In Strict Confidence (1997-2000) and throw in some Individual Totem for good luck circa 1994-1997.  Although these influences are very prevalent and very noticeable, kFactor has the skill to manipulate tame and set free his abilities to design a killer compositions. I am very impressed with ‘Ghastly Monolith’ from start to finish. ‘Old School Prototype’ or disc 2 contains the first 9 tracks with all their minimal experimental dark electro wonder as well as all of the amazing remixes. As for the remixes, I could not pick one that really outshines the others. Fans should definitely explore releases from these artists.

This is a must buy for the dark electro fiend! EAR delivers again and again! I welcome kFactor to my listening devices!