Noise Factory United release debut debut EP 'Visions From The Frontier'.
- Richard Blowes
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Portsmouth quartet Noise Factory United release an urgent missive from post punk psych control with a six track debut EP Visions From The Frontier
EP: Visions From The Frontier
Band: Noise Factory United
Released: March 6 2026
In their Bandcamp biography, the excellently monikered Noise Factory United, who hail from Portsmouth in the UK, rather pointedly say of themselves: "Peddlars of apocalypse anxiety through a gnarly trill of guitar and synth. You won't find any songs about unrequited love or self-obsessions of minor narcissisms. Instead, this four piece offer up socially-driven, self-deprecating observations about the grey & enigmatic zones of the everyday in their port city of Portsmouth." They also do a great line in cover artwork.
Someone should have (probably has) written a learned tome on what post punk is. For this reviewer, it means the attitude of punk, more jagged and funky, more reference to other art forms such as poetry, literature, philosophy & film, heavy bass and more keyboards - all of which we find in abundance on this marvellous EP. And to the simplistic point that it is anything made after 1978? Explain then how Television (yes they are in here too) were making post punk before punk happened; but that conundrum is for another day's discussion. Along with Trig's broom (or The Ship of Theseus for our highbrow readers).
Since reviewing 2025 single The Quickest Blade in the West, in truth I have become somewhat obsessed myself with the band; outwardly and productively though. And so what a thrill that their debut EP Visions From The Frontier has landed via the medium of streaming and also on vinyl.
Tattooed Street is a joy. How the band must have been itching to unleash this stunning stew of ideas and sounds into the world ... it's chantable, danceable and also pulls off the neat trick of having backing vocals which somehow become the actual vocals.
The EP contains previous singles The Quickest Blade in the West, Ladyhammer, Fractures and Cloud Pleaser (the latter two in extended versions; Fractures in particular a somewhat unexpected invitation to the dancefloor) along with two new tracks Tattooed Street and That's When the Cuckoo Kicks.
Tattooed Street is a joy. How the band must have been itching to unleash this stunning stew of ideas and sounds into the world. Taking in everything from Bowie's Scary Monsters album to Shift Work era The Fall, it's chantable, danceable and also pulls off the neat trick of having backing vocals which somehow become the actual vocals.
We have reviewed Cloud Pleaser previously (obsessed? me?) and before we get to the second new track, Ladyhammer fades in with some of the gloriously unhinged exuberance of punk outliers Swell Maps. Zena's distorted backing yelps and words, a feature of the whole EP, are foregrounded to great effect to elevate ... well punk to post punk I guess.
And so to the motorik beauty of That's When the Cuckoo Kicks. A track that shows Noise Factory United are not just about rhythm and hues. It has a gorgeous melody too. I remember the first time I heard Magazine's The Great Beautician In The Sky when the time signature and melody change towards the end and Howard Devoto does his quasi operatic bit. I was stunned then and when the chorus of Cuckoo kicks in for the first time around the 1:18 mark, the experience was similarly euphoric.
Welcome to the wonderful and enlightening world of post punk and Noise Factory United. Always different and never the same. I'm off for a lie down and another listen.
Gas mark: 9/10
Standout track: Tattooed Street
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