Sound Factory

Overview

A no-alcohol, one-night-a-week members' club in a converted Chelsea warehouse where Junior Vasquez's marathon sets made it the spiritual home of New York's gay, Black and Latino vogue-and-house floor, 1989 until its January 1995 close.

Sound Factory opened in 1989 at 530 West 27th Street, then an abandoned industrial stretch of West Chelsea, founded by Christine Visca, Phil Smith and Richard Grant with Junior Vasquez as co-creator and sole resident. Its austere model (no alcohol, one night a week, members only) let it run as an after-hours room past the Sunday liquor curfew while sustaining big-room attendance. Vasquez held marathon sets (reported anywhere from seven to sixteen hours, often summarized as 'twelve'), pioneering live sampling, looping and dramatic stops and edits over relentless tribal bass on a system built by Steve Dash and Phil Smith. The crowd centered on Black, Latino and gay dancers plus ballroom houses (the House of Xtravaganza and House of Aviance voguing on a runway) and reputedly fascinated a regular Madonna, feeding 1990's 'Vogue'; Factory tracks like 'Get Your Hands Off My Man' spread the sound. The club inherited the Paradise Garage and Saint lineage (Smith had co-owned the Garage), cutting a tribal NYC house for that floor (Strictly Rhythm, Nervous, Wild Pitch). It closed abruptly on January 12, 1995 amid gentrification and Giuliani-era 'Quality of Life' and cabaret pressure (Grant told Billboard the close was pre-emptive). Vasquez moved on to Roseland one-offs and a Tunnel residency, then returned in 1997 to the same 530 West 27th building, rebuilt as Twilo, until the city shut Twilo in 2001.

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