FACS Silencing 2018 by Brian Case

Formed 2017, Chicago, IL, United States Brian Case (bass, guitar, vocals) Noah Leger (drums) Jonathan van Herik (guitar, bass, 2017, 2022-present) Alianna Kalaba (bass, 2018-2022)

FACS- Constellation

Though Still Life in Decay is Facs' last recorded work with bassist Alianna Kalaba (founding member Jonathan Van Herik returned after the album was completed), at least she left on a high note. An "addendum" to 2021's Present Tense, the band's fifth full-length is one of their finest. While the titles of both albums evoke the suspense of seemingly frozen points in time, Still Life is often more present than its predecessor. Working once again with engineer Sanford Parker at Electrical Audio, Facs trade Present Tense's crushing density for a roomy, live sound that electrifies the space between each instrument and the pregnant pauses within each song. That the album consists of just six tracks hints at the band's expansive playing, but even the shorter pieces are remarkably rangy. "Constellation" begins Still Life in Decay with Facs' vaporous and claustrophobic extremes: Kalaba's plunging bass anchors Noah Leger's cleanly carved-out drums, while Brian Case's blurry guitar harks back to Void Moments' hallucinatory sonics and the ways he's reimagined shoegaze since the Disappears days. Still Life in Decay also serves as a tribute to Kalaba's stint with Facs. Her fuzzed-out tone is a stroke of genius, adding seething color and texture that subtly dominates each track. The magma-like low end on "Slogan" complements the icy chime of its guitars perfectly, and "Class Spectre"'s razing drones embody the "negative power" Case sings about. The band's own negative power -- their refusal to use dynamics, space, or resolution in obvious ways -- expresses Still Life in Decay's soul-deep unease eloquently. More than on some of the group's other work, Case's voice and words channel the music's emotional entropy. On songs such as "When You Say," his anticipation of inevitable rejection ("I know it's coming/I can't change that") hangs in the air as the music prickles and churns around him, stretching the moment to the breaking point. As on Present Tense, the last two tracks blow Still Life in Decay wide open. "Still Life" is a beautiful ruin, its corroded tones and sweeping chords echoing Case's alienation before transforming into a hovering sound-world of cresting reverberations that rival EVOL- or Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth when it comes to poetic noise. Facs sustain this mood on "New Flag," a ten-minute excursion into broken majesty that features soaring, trumpet-like melodies, backwards guitars, and a ferocious breakdown, then ends with amp buzz that pulses like a heart. As noisy and fractured as it gets, Still Life in Decay is executed with crystalline vision and haunting impact. It's the moment where Facs evolve from an impressive band into a transcendent one. all music

FACS -Slogan 2023

FACS - Strawberry Cough

FACS - XUXA

Alternative/Indie Rock, Indie Rock, New Wave/Post-Punk Revival, Experimental Rock, Post-Rock

FACS - Void Walker

FACS - Casual Indifference

For Facs, redefining themselves and their music is a way of life. Fortunately, they're consistently great at it. Void Moments is the band's second album with bassist Alianna Kalaba, and it feels like the stability of their lineup allowed them to be even more daring with their music. Even when they pared their sound down to its bones on Negative Houses, Facs have never been a simple proposition. However, on their third full-length they give the melodies, harmonies, and textures they introduced on Lifelike even more depth. With its jittery, jabbing rhythm, "Boy" initially sounds like it could be a Negative Houses outtake, but the way Brian Case's angular guitar lines play against Noah Leger's slinky polyrhythms in a shifting audio illusion has a mesmerizing complexity that feels new. As on Lifelike, Void Moments' melodic and harmonic elements make Facs sound even more singular instead of more conventional. Tremulous guitars drift through the album, floating above the gritty din of the rhythm section and lending an eerie sensuality to tracks such as "Casual Indifference," where Case's androgynous harmonies when he sings about playing "around with different sexes" suggest that the music's fluidity extends to Void Moments' themes. Those weightless guitars take center stage on "Version," a fascinating collage of zero-gravity shoegaze, dub's spooky atmospheres, and jazzy, freewheeling interplay that culminates in triumphantly noisy catharsis. Though the post-punk violence of Facs' playing is undeniable, the intricacy of their performances is just as remarkable. Leger remains a brilliant drummer; on "Teenage Hive," it sounds like he's having a conversation with himself on his kit while he ties together Kalaba's taut bass and Case's radiant guitar washes. Here and on the standout "Void Walker," each member of Facs traces different trajectories that complement each other perfectly. When they close the album with the monumental-sounding "Dub Over," the sheer hugeness of the track makes it feel like they can do just about anything. Though Facs demand a lot from their listeners, when the results are as stunning as Void Moments, it's well worth paying attention.

FACS "XOUT" (Official Video)

Facs have earned a well-deserved reputation as post-punk innovators unafraid to hit as hard and be as weird as they want. They're prolific -- 2021's Present Tense is their fourth full-length in just over three years -- and they're consistent. Even at the best of times, their music is filled with paranoia and uncanniness, qualities that fit the fraught era in which this album was made all too well. If possible, Present Tense is even more hallucinatory and high-strung than Facs' previous output. "You do it until you cannot," Brian Case intones as everything around him wobbles seismically on "Strawberry Cough," one of the album's most beautiful and nightmarish moments. Here and on the rest of the album, all of Facs' touchstones are present and accounted for: elegant, inventive drumming, Dutch angle guitars, a psychedelic strangeness in how they layer their sounds, and a willingness to build tension and resolve it only when they're good and ready to. The implosive, nine-minute "Alone Without" (previously released as an Adult Swim single) is a prime example of Facs' expertise at suspense, with fuzzy contrails of guitar stretching out almost as long as the spaces between Case's surreal lyrics. With highlights including "General Public"'s slashing Gang of Four homage and "How to See in the Dark"'s sculptural sleekness, Present Tense seems like a very good but somewhat straightforward Facs album until the last two tracks. The band took a more experimental approach to writing and recording that stands out on "Present Tense," where backward drums and cryptic observations ("all life remains kneeling in love") take on an almost spiritual dimension that feels equally ominous and optimistic, and on the brilliant closer "Mirrored," which brings the album full circle by adding a metal-tinged doom to the heaviness the band hinted at on the opening track "XOUT." Exciting developments are just more proof of how Facs extend the challenges they set for themselves to their audience -- if they leave you rattled, they've done their job.