York Factory Complaint was originally a two-piece founded in New York in 2009 by Ryan Martin and Michael Berdan. Within the band’s first year and a half, they had collaborated in live performances with established legends Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Domokos of Future Blondes among others. After their initial success, the band’s permanent membership swelled to four with the addition of Theresa Smith and Michael Yaniro. Following a series of recordings with the new lineup, Smith and Yaniro left the group in 2012. Lost in the Spectacle, York Factory Complaint’s first release for Accidental Guest Recordings, is the result of the original, pared-down duo of Martin and Berdan formalizing their sound in the studio for the first time since the departure of their former band mates. The album is also the definitive statement of where the band stands today.

Conceived as the sonic embodiment of Martin and Berdan’s increasingly disgusted worldview, Lost in the Spectacle builds upon its noisy industrial backbone with colossal beat-driven passages and penetrating all-too-human vocals. While the album is unrelenting, it also offers a certain accessibility that is uncommon in contemporary noise music. Lost in the Spectacle is an extended hand, an invitation into the world of Martin and Berdan.