Bay Faction & their debut album, "Florida Guilt"
By Sam Mackey || Photos received via the band’s Instagram, @bayfaction
Traveling through an electronic adventure, James McDermott, Kris Roman, and Alex Agresti of Bay Faction return assertively with their first full length album, Florida Guilt. Recorded locally within their Bushwick apartment and home studio, album maintains an intimate, personal touch throughout. Ominous in lyrics and eccentric in sound, Bay Faction creates a composed self reflection that dives into physical and emotional distress. Angstily accepting the situations at hand, the musicians create vivid representations of past events disguised by electro-dissonance.
With the majority of the tracks lasting only two minutes, Bay Faction concisely sways from one song to another with no distractions. The haunting tone of Faux Snow Globe leads the listener into the album, creeping through isolated guitar plucks met with a combustion of noise.
The pace abruptly elevates with the forceful drum beats of It’s Perfect which carries throughout the following songs. Here McDermott explores a lack of truth with himself, persistently repeating “No more after this one.” While the relationship never took flight, he continues revisiting a situation he strives to depart from, relatable in nature to everyone’s guilty pleasures and vices.
Bay Faction ventures deep into their raw emotions, disregarding any glamorization of the world around them. In the album’s title track, McDermott confronts his habits stating “I’ll keep my teeth clean for two weeks...wake up queasy,” soon dissolving into a cluster of sound. In the following track Soppping, the band playfully distances themselves from the truths they are seeking to reach, by passively asking “how to keep a man, asking for a friend.” The remainder of the song discusses the fading of youth as it slips through our fingers relentlessly. “Fall off the bone, Drink all night, Sopping wet, 2009, Young life, What’s it like? How’s it disappear?” transporting the listener to their past with vivid remembrance, yet an alarming sense of detachment all at once.
In the final piece One Thrill, the artists highlight the mundane that comes with a the repetitive routine of life. “Slipping through a day job, One thrill, Sleeping like a lap dog,” they portray the lack of motivation that painfully lingers. Throughout the nine tracks, Bay Faction materializes the rolling of eyes into musical form, inspecting their own life decisions and questioning the future to come. With fragmented poem-like lyrics, Florida Guilt dwells into deepness by acting with simplicity.
Make sure to check out their debut album, “Florida Guilt” on all major streaming platforms. And keep up with the boys on Instagram for new releases and show dates.