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Present Tense

by FACS

supported by
pablo6580
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pablo6580 Play this album in the loudest system you can find, set to 11 and blow you and your neighbours minds. I find interchanging this with Carcass and early Killing Joke a great antidote for any niceness that creeps into my soul. Favorite track: General Public.
Glitz Insect
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Glitz Insect I'm very selective about what I let take up space on vinyl in my house but I can only buy this on vinyl because the drums, among everything else, sound so fucking good and it's gotta go on the good speakers. Really glad to have discovered this band.
Sonic Sleuth
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Sonic Sleuth Found FACS by way of Disappears. Found Disappears by way of Sonic Youth. Saw them live once. Best show in recent memory. Favorite track: Mirrored.
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1.
XOUT 03:01
War World of interiors Summon your future Devoted to refusing What the world wants War
2.
Wasn't the spring time cruel? Strawberry cough You do it until you cannot State of certainty Dead letter Message receiving Hauntology Spectral threat In your private life It's cultish now Wrapped in gold and coded State of certainty Dead letter Message receiving Hauntology Would you rewrite This history False dawn Plague distraction What is this feeling?
3.
Peaceful reaction Progressive lack Try to remember Your other laugh The one you used for family The one you use when alone Peaceful Without a chance
4.
General public Just a body A structure for the Memory I made up For you Predicted With accuracy And a witness I made up Without you
5.
Controlled mystery No justification Accepting an unknown Grace Your faults Without jury A language Not yours This is how You see in the dark
6.
Present tense A violent corollary is useful And evergreen When the line you draw Keeps shifting Stronger than your medicine Songs you thought had beauty They pale like dead men Slow kiss from black perfume Titanics you won't beat me Love your jealous lover Become what you seek Unmoving blues navigate this island You marked me washed up Fish up my drunk body Lulled to a watery grave I asked the waves who rolls the dead All life has passed through you All life remains kneeling in love Remain kneeling in love
7.
Mirrored 06:07
There is another world Mirrored Distant Tomorrow said with different words No ritual No regret Conscious being is being alone Failure is what you get for trying Your intentions were good until they were not You said it in your sleep I will make it mean something Your shadow split They are following you

about

Chicago trio FACS never stop pushing forward; they’ve honed and refined their stark, minimal scrape and clatter for four years and counting, having risen out of the ashes of beloved Chicago band Disappears in 2018 with the bone-rattling intensity of Negative Houses. After three albums in the past three years, the trio return in 2021 with Present Tense, their fourth album and perhaps their sharpest statement as a band.

Opener “XOUT” barrels forward like a tank, with Case’s guitar chiming like warning bells, until the climax comes crashing down, glitching out near the close. “Strawberry Cough” comes next, its fusion of corporeal playing and stately, electronic heartbeats punctured by random bursts of noise or backwards masked sounds. “Alone Without”, a track originally recorded for Adult Swim’s 2020 singles series appears next, albeit in different form; more menacing and serpentine. Side two opens with “General Public”, taking the loud/quiet dynamic as a jumping off point for the song’s unsettling seasick vibe. ‘How To See In the Dark” offers a brief respite, with its persistent, dark quietude that lingers until the song’s end. “Present Tense”, the album’s title track, offers up its first truly weird moment mid-song when the song changes mood distinctly, and the music drops out save for Case’s guitar and vocals. The album’s final track, the densely packed “Mirrored”, begins with a restrained, post-rock shuffle. The mind-scrambling cacophony that comes next takes its time to roll in, but once it does, it comes in waves, flipping back onto itself multiple times until it’s folded into oblivion. 

FACS once again shuttered themselves into Electrical Audio with lauded engineer Sanford Parker to lay down the basic tracks and overdubs for Present Tense. This time, the band approached their songwriting from a different angle “Alone Without was the first song we recorded and we really built it in the studio” Case says, “Alianna and I played different instruments, and I think that freedom informed how the other songs developed. All the lyrics were random phrases on a big sheet and were put together as the songs took shape, so I feel like I was collecting these thoughts and trying to figure out how to process them as a big picture vs making complete ideas in individual songs.” Case adds ”...letting the songs go where they wanted, without steering them into what we all think a FACS album should be.” The change is palpable from last year’s claustrophobic and fried Void Moments, but Present Tense is still ALL FACS, albeit draped in a layer of haze. Paranoia in soft focus, perhaps?

credits

released May 21, 2021

Noah Leger - drums, keyboards
Alianna Kalaba - bass, keyboards, drums on A3
Brian Case - guitar, vocals, bass VI on A3

Recorded January & November 2020 at Electrical Audio with Sanford Parker.
Mixed by John Congleton
Mastered by Matthew Barnhart at Chicago Mastering Service
Photography by Cory Dewald and Alison Green

Remember Tom Relleen and Alejandro Morales.

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about

FACS Chicago, Illinois

FACS use minimalism and space to create abstract, modern art rock.

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