Music
The best kept secret in music
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A few Rotunda devotees milled on the stairs outside the venue with Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye, the headlining band of the night, for an audience to arrive. Having lost Timbre, the opening act, to illness, Wilson and her band were out on a limb. But the Rotunda always draws its own, modest crowd (the mostly free programming at the University of Pennsylvania's alternative venue presents some of the best emerging, local and national fringe artists) and eventually a satisfactory audience trickled in. Nevertheless, it was surprising to see how unknown Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye remain, even here in their hometown.
A truly roguish looking band of crusty punks, stamped with facial tatts, piercings and decked in vaudeville-tinged gypsy garb, Porchfront Factorye approach a slightly Irish flavored brand of folk with a progressive, eccentric flare. It is irregular music that unravels the tightness of folk structure into a lone, wispy strand. Reminiscent now and then of Mogwai or God Speed You Black Emperor, in terms of dense melodrama and prolonged, unresolved musical tangents, it also touches on the spaced falsetto explorations of a younger Will Oldham. All this in the stiff parameters of a guitar, pedal steel, banjo, didgeridoo, accordion (occasionally two accordions at once) and a hurdy gurdy, also known as a 'wheel fiddle,' a mechanical violin that is cranked rather than bowed.
In the less than ideal circumstances of the night, Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye maintained an arresting resoluteness, throwing themselves wholly into their performance. Wilson's commitment to her singing shivered in her every tendon, her voice expansive and round, alternating between warm, embracing vibrato and shear, chilly sustain. The band as well put on a soulful performance, composed and somber, but not without brief levity (for instance their excellent version of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wanderer").
Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye still have a ways to go. They have a great presence on stage, creative orchestration and arrangement, and a good musical direction. Yet, too often the music fell just short of engaging, a bit flat, or came off as self-absorbed. A few more upbeat numbers would have done a world of good; even the most dirge-obsessed musicophile needs a bit of variation. At the close of their act they drew a couple more poppy, faster tunes from their back catalogue. These songs opened up a new, unrepresented pole in the band's range. If they didn't exactly fit with the rest of the set, and were perhaps too sugary, it wasn't a bad thing.
- Phrequency, a division of Philly.com
A few Rotunda devotees milled on the stairs outside the venue with Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye, the headlining band of the night, for an audience to arrive. Having lost Timbre, the opening act, to illness, Wilson and her band were out on a limb. But the Rotunda always draws its own, modest crowd (the mostly free programming at the University of Pennsylvania's alternative venue presents some of the best emerging, local and national fringe artists) and eventually a satisfactory audience trickled in. Nevertheless, it was surprising to see how unknown Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye remain, even here in their hometown.
A truly roguish looking band of crusty punks, stamped with facial tatts, piercings and decked in vaudeville-tinged gypsy garb, Porchfront Factorye approach a slightly Irish flavored brand of folk with a progressive, eccentric flare. It is irregular music that unravels the tightness of folk structure into a lone, wispy strand. Reminiscent now and then of Mogwai or God Speed You Black Emperor, in terms of dense melodrama and prolonged, unresolved musical tangents, it also touches on the spaced falsetto explorations of a younger Will Oldham. All this in the stiff parameters of a guitar, pedal steel, banjo, didgeridoo, accordion (occasionally two accordions at once) and a hurdy gurdy, also known as a 'wheel fiddle,' a mechanical violin that is cranked rather than bowed.
In the less than ideal circumstances of the night, Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye maintained an arresting resoluteness, throwing themselves wholly into their performance. Wilson's commitment to her singing shivered in her every tendon, her voice expansive and round, alternating between warm, embracing vibrato and shear, chilly sustain. The band as well put on a soulful performance, composed and somber, but not without brief levity (for instance their excellent version of Gordon Lightfoot's "The Wanderer").
Aimee Wilson and Porchfront Factorye still have a ways to go. They have a great presence on stage, creative orchestration and arrangement, and a good musical direction. Yet, too often the music fell just short of engaging, a bit flat, or came off as self-absorbed. A few more upbeat numbers would have done a world of good; even the most dirge-obsessed musicophile needs a bit of variation. At the close of their act they drew a couple more poppy, faster tunes from their back catalogue. These songs opened up a new, unrepresented pole in the band's range. If they didn't exactly fit with the rest of the set, and were perhaps too sugary, it wasn't a bad thing.
- Phrequency, a division of Philly.com
Discography
Timbers Fall, 2004 (10-track debut album)
Photos
Bio
Aimee Wilson is lead vocalist and guitar player for her band The Factorye. She and The Factorye deliver a searing fusion of old folk and eastern moans, delicately woven within the intricacies of Wilson's dynamic voice and strings. Her self-produced 2004 album Timbers Fall, is a rare 10-track debut of some of Wilson's finest Appalachian tunes. Timbers Fall draws upon Wilson's Tennessee roots with fine-tuned vocals and rare ballad form.
The Factorye now resides in Kensington, Pennsylvania and have performed in various music halls, universities, festivals and venues across the nation. Instrumentation includes Wilson’s delicate guitar and sitar playing, darbuka, banjo, pedal steel, oboe, accordion, hurdy-gurdy, drums and more. If one were to attend a performance, one would learn quickly the swelling ebb of the musics’ movement across the distance of the room, just as well as Wilsons’ arresting voice. Despite the changes the music has undergone through the years, all could attest to the fact that it has always enveloped the sharp delicacy that comes with Wilsons’ voice and writing.
Their current music draws upon a more orchestral, eastern sear with ancient revering hymnes and the dynamic musicianship of Wilson's entourage. She is recording, and plans to produce two new albums in Philadelphia for the coming year.
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