FACS - 'Present Tense' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. XOUT

2. Strawberry Cough

3. Alone Without

4. General Public

5. How To See In The Dark

6. Present Tense

7. Mirrored

'Present Tense' is an apt title for this collection of songs.

The music is propulsive and abrasive, cutting and scraping, molding your senses into a razor’s edge that can’t help but exist in the moment. But this is couched in a constant forward motion, electronic elements building and blending with Brian Case’s textural guitar-wails and moans, the rhythm section of bassist Alianna Kalaba and Noah Leger creating a frantic heartbeat behind. The abrasion is enjoyable, the sonic equivalent of a tattoo gun.

FACS influences are proudly worn to give a frame of reference but distilled into something uniquely of their own making. The evolution from last year’s Void Moments is a sharpening of sound and intent, from opener 'XOUT'’s propulsive drum intro into a maelstrom of Noiserock to the slow burn danceable grooves of 'Strawberry Cough' and 'General Public'.

At seven songs this is a concise burst, but it doesn’t really lack for anything. These songs feel more like passages in a musical manifesto, the claustrophobia and tension of our times put to tape and honestly when you put this thing on you’ll have little choice but to give in.