FACS

Facs channel Chicago's experimental indie rock roots into their singular vision of post-punk and post-rock, yielding an adventurous, emotionally charged sound. Emerging in the wake of Disappears, the band reduced their approach to its most elemental rhythmic core on the 2018 debut Negative Houses before introducing further sonic exploration and melodic detail on later works such as 2020's Void Moments, where shoegaze, jazz, and dub textures converged in strikingly spectral fashion. The trajectory extended through 2021's Present Tense and 2023's Still Life in Decay, both channeling the group's weight into songs marked by haunting emotional depth.

Damon Carruesco, bassist for Disappears, stepped away in late 2016 to devote himself to visual art and his electronic project Tüth. Guitarist/vocalist Brian Case, guitarist Jonathan Van Herik, and drummer Noah Leger chose to continue working together, with Case moving to bass and the trio adopting the name Facs. After circulating demos, they joined the Trouble in Mind roster and tracked Negative Houses at Electrical Audio in Chicago with John Congleton during June 2017.

Van Herik departed shortly before Negative Houses appeared in March 2018. Case resumed guitar duties and the band invited former We Regazzi drummer Alianna Kalaba, an old associate, to join on bass. For the next album Facs again collaborated with Congleton while also involving Jeremy Lemos, Case's partner in the electronic project Acteurs. Built around the interplay of Kalaba and Leger plus Case's fluid guitar work, Lifelike emerged in March 2019. Melodic elements surfaced more clearly on Void Moments, released by Trouble in Mind in March 2020. Late that year the group returned to Electrical Audio with engineer Sanford Parker, adopting a freer creative process. Their aptly unpredictable fourth album, Present Tense, arrived in May 2021 and moved from Gang of Four-style attacks to passages touching psychedelic rock and metal.

Still Life in Decay followed in April 2023. Recorded once more with Parker at Electrical Audio, the fifth album functioned as an extension of Present Tense and broadened its daringly heavy palette with brooding songcraft. After the sessions concluded, Kalaba exited and Van Herik rejoined the lineup.