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FACS lurches and spasms, finding an irregular way forward amid clanging, pick-clawed bass notes and guitar harmonics that ping against the void. Words come in bursts, then subside into quiet, a hollowed out, discontinuous poetry. This is the Chicago punk bandās sixth full-length album and first since original guitarist Jonathan von Herik returned to play bass, replacing erstwhile bass player Aliana Kalaba, and it is desolate, powerful stuff.
It begins in clanking dissonance as von Herik lays in slithering menace while drummer Noah Legerās beat alternatingly bunches and elongates, like a slinky coiling down the stares. Brian Case, as always, finds space in the echo-laced mix, letting the white space between phrases stretch to abyss-like lacunae. āLoveā¦this weapon is absoluteā¦the safety of customā¦and historyā¦you canāt refuse.ā Periodically the guitar turns lighter and more lyrical, providing a lift in the music thatās like light streaming in through the skylight of a dark place. But overall, the vibe is dank and glowering, alienated and inscrutable.
There is often quite a lot of negative space in FACSā impacted, complicated grooves, but āOrdinary Voicesā starts uncharacteristically in a blurring firehose of tone. Guitar notes bleed into each other in radiating bursts, while sticks on cymbals slur and slash in continual agitation. The song resolves, as FACS cuts often do, in a slouching ritual beat, the drums making a slow heartbeat rhythm, bum-ba-dum, bum-ba-dum. The music pulses and seethes, finding a doom-y propulsion. Ā
Case says that Wish Defense is concerned with the duality of manāthe disconnect between the way we are and the way weāre perceivedāand the title track puts this thesis forward most directly. āEnter the mirror / Double walker / An intimate / Wish defense / Is it real? / You beside meĀ / The detailĀ / Terrifying / Abject self / Your grief / A public / Performance,ā he chants, against a lumbering riff that pulls up short, like the light just turned to red. And then, more agitatedly, he shouts, āIām not hereā and āAre you real?ā repeatedly, in a frenzy of existential inquiry. Musically, too, the song butts and rears against invisible constraints; itās not comfortable with itself. No, this is a desperate dance self-preservation, limned in bass and guitar and drums, boxy like the Ex or certain iterations of the band E.
You may have heard that FACS was the last band to record with Steve Albini, and this album captures their prickly agitation with remarkable clarity. After Albini passed away, between recording sessions, they finished with John Congleton, and if thereās a difference between the sound and aura of the two sets of tracks, I, personally, am unable to hear it. Ā
What I do hear, however, is a precise and focused form of musical anarchy, an assault that is tightly disciplined but unfettered by guardrails. FACS has been a monster band for a while. Wish Defense may be their best so far.
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Thank you Endi (left) for always helping me with my photos at a moment's notice. You're the best! Please please please go check out her version (with her credits) over on her flickr here!
The Higher State - Inside Information Man
Freckle - Taraval
Poppy Jean Crawford - Glamorous
clipping. - Keep Pushing
House Of All - Born At Dawn And Dead At Sunset
The Embrooks - Terry and Julie
The Jackets - Intuition
Chime School - Mercury Girl (Cleaners From Venus)
Splitterzelle - Golem
Cosey Mueller - Trotzstadt
Junior Dell & The D-Lites - Can't Stop The Reggae
Woolen Men - Change Life
Loose Koozies - Wobbly Wheel
Fleur - Tu N'es Rien
FACS - Wish Defense
Rotary Club - Safety Line
T.T.T.T. - I Saw You On The Bloody Floor
Ichi-Bons - Get Away