Lifelike

Chicago trio FACS landed on the scene early last year, seemingly fully-formed with their debut album Negative Houses, the next logical step from Brian Case and Noah Leger's previous band (the almighty) Disappears. Now with bassist Alianna Kalaba (Cat Power / We Ragazzi) on board, they unveil the follow-up, Lifelike. FACS occupy a liminal space bordering the realms of art-rock, shoegaze, industrial music, and post-rock, applying minimalism and spaciousness in service of stark, forboding compositions. Lifelike adds a melodic sensibility to the greyscale post-punk aesthetic established on their 2018 debut album Negative Houses without sacrificing any of their punishing sonic heft characteristic of their live shows (accurately captured by recording engineer Jeremy Lemos at Electrical Audio and brought to visceral life via John Congleton's muscular mix).

The album kicks off with the lumbering Another Country, whose opening drone lulls the listener into a trance before Leger's drums crack the earth below. The band veers close to This Heat territory here, with Kalaba's minimal bass throb and Case's nearly unrecognizable guitar loops and multi-tracked voice punctuating the spaces between. Album standout In Time careens with purpose as sheets of guitar noise cascade over the rhythm section’s ever-advancing march, while XUXA's monochromatic melodic washes ease the tension ever so slightly. Side two opens with a one-two punch of the anxiety-ridden Anti-Body and the claustrophobic Loom State. Lifelike closes with Total History, whose syrupy shuffle belies the blunt-force trauma of its closing minutes, with a sheer weight of sonic force seeming to blow out the speakers it emanates from. A phoenix returning to the ashes from whence it came.

LP - Black Vinyl.

LP+ - Limited Blue Vinyl.