Description
Chicago trio FACS was founded in 2017 by former Disappears members Brian Case & Noah Leger, along with their bandmate Jonathan van Herik. After van Herik amicably parted ways with the group just before their debut album Negative Housess release, Case & Leger recruited longtime friend Alianna Kalaba (Cat Power, We Ragazzi) to play bass. Lifelike is their sophomore release; six tracks clocking in at half an hour, carrying forward the musical trail blazed by the debut towards a new frontier. Lifelike occupies a space in between the bands debut & Case & Legers work with Disappears, applying minimalism & space in compositions that reside somewhere near the realms of post-punk, art-rock, shoegaze, industrial music & post-rock. Lifelike however adds a more melodic sensibility, without sacrificing any of the debuts punishing sonic muscle, with a discernible audial force perceivable thru the speakers (credit due to engineer Jeremy Lemos recording via Electrical Audio as well as John Congletons mastering for accurately capturing the punishing heft of the bands live sound) Kicking off with the lumbering Another Countr y, whose opening drone lulls the listener into a trance before Legers drums crack the earth below. The band veers close to This Heat territor y here, with Kalabas minimal bass throb and Cases nearly unrecognizable guitar loops and multi-tracked voice punctuating the spaces between. Album standout In Time careens with purpose with cascading sheets of guitar noise over the rhythm sections ever-advancing march, while XUXAs melodic washes of monochrome eases the tension ever so slightly. Side two awaits, with the anxiety-ridden opener Anti-Body and the claustrophobic Loom States clanging aura of menace. Lifelike closes with Total History, whose syrupy shuffle belies the blunt-force trauma of its closing minutes, with the sheer weight of sonic force seeming to blow out the speakers it emanates from. A phoenix returning to the ashes from whence it came.
Limited light blue vinyl (TIM146LPC1) is for Cargo Collective stores Only.
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