Chicago’s FACS formed out of the remnants of drone-kraut-punk Disappears, centered around guitarist Brian Case (90-Day Men, Ponys) and drummer Noah Leger. Their 2017 debut Negative Houses was dark, claustrophobic and haunting. In her review, Jennifer Kelly observed that it “clank[ed] through haunted technological spaces, the scree of effected guitar shining a klieg light on moist, abandoned underground corridors.” Void Moments, the band’s latest, adds a bass player in Alianna Kalaba and considerably advances the sound. Said Kelly this time, “The space is still thick with ghosts and luminous with dread, but the music moves with new purpose and focus.” Here Brian Case lists the music that matters to him.
Fugazi—Steady Diet of Nothing
I made myself listen to this over and over again until I fully understood all of it. Still my favorite.
Talk Talk—Laughing Stock
Every time we finish a record, I always say the next one is going to be our Laughing Stock. Absolutely perfect and completely out of reach.
Sonic Youth—EVOL
I have such a vivid memory of the first time I heard this; I can still go there very easily. I hope to make a record that does that for someone. "Tom Violence" is the best song ever written.
The Smiths—The Smiths
Someone let me borrow this and I never gave it back, it instantly became that important to me.
Alice Coltrane—Journey In Satchidananda
My wife introduced me to this album and for YEARS I thought it was part of the Vincent Gallo album the CDR was labeled as. Insane on all levels.
Raincoats—Odyshape
As mysterious to me now as it was upon first listen.
David Bowie—Low
I've spent more time listening to this album than anything else.
With their fourth album in the same number of years, Chicago post-punk trio FACS have let their sound take shape into its most natural form. Present Tense, released in May via Trouble In Mind, features Brian Case, Alianna Kalaba, and Noah Leger bouncing around different instruments, and its songs embrace a sort of controlled chaos. Vocals and instruments cut in and out, distorted guitars crackle, and drums crash until they devolve into silence, a bleak soundscape that’s often nonetheless catchy and dynamic. Take a song like “Strawberry Cough”, whose reversed swirls of feedback and circular washes of noise contrast Case’s shimmering guitar and speak-sing vocals. “You do it until you cannot,” he says, a vague platitude that’s nonetheless apropos of FACS’ aesthetic. “General Public” sees the band admittedly channeling Solid Gold-era Gang of Four, Leger’s urgent drums leading the way until zooms of industrial noise take over. “How To See In The Dark” toes the line between new wave and post-punk, Case’s echoing vocals soaring over Kalaba’s spindly bass and Leger’s thwacks.
Of course, as with FACS, there’s some truly elegiac clamor on Present Tense. In contrast to “Strawberry Cough”’s rigid stomp, “Alone Without”, originally recorded for Adult Swim’s singles series in 2020, builds up with flexibility, carried by Kalaba’s bass dirge until the beat drops, followed by harmonic squalls and Leger’s snapping drums and eventual machine-like buzzing. Closer “Mirrored” is perhaps the most impressive track on the album, at first a slice of Slint-esque post-rock but then reminiscent of a different band with an album that shares the song’s name. Battles might be a band that’s cleaner and more dexterous than FACS, the latter of whom embrace seemingly oxymoronic qualities in their music, but both embrace a sort of uncomfortable tumult. The end of “Mirrored” presents an at-first upbeat rock instrumental that threatens to enter into blast beat territory, eventually giving way to cacophony before slowing to quietude, capping the band’s most exhilarating listening experience to date.
The band plays three sold out shows at the Empty Bottle tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday.
