Still Life In Decay

ブライアン・ケース率いるシカゴ発オルタナティヴ / ポストパンク・バンド!
HANDS IN THE DARKやTROUBLE IN MINDなどのレーベルからソロ作品のリリースもあるギタリストBRIAN CASE率いるシカゴのトリオ・バンド、FACSのニューアルバム!ジョンスぺばりのファットでキラーなベースラインと殺伐とした空気感が最高にクールな"WHEN YOU SAY"などなど、強烈なカタルシスをもたらすポストパンク / エクスペリメンタル・ロックを展開しています。

Though Still Life in Decay is Facs last recorded work with bassist Alianna Kalaba (founding member Jonathan Van Herik returned after the album was completed), at least she left on a high note. An "addendum" to 2021s Present Tense, the bands fifth full-length is one of their finest. While the titles of both albums evoke the suspense of seemingly frozen points in time, Still Life is often more present than its predecessor. Working once again with engineer Sanford Parker at Electrical Audio, Facs trade Present Tenses crushing density for a roomy, live sound that electrifies the space between each instrument and the pregnant pauses within each song. That the album consists of just six tracks hints at the bands expansive playing, but even the shorter pieces are remarkably rangy. "Constellation" begins Still Life in Decay with Facs vaporous and claustrophobic extremes: Kalabas plunging bass anchors Noah Legers cleanly carved-out drums, while Brian Cases blurry guitar harks back to Void Moments hallucinatory sonics and the ways hes reimagined shoegaze since the Disappears days. Still Life in Decay also serves as a tribute to Kalabas stint with Facs. Her fuzzed-out tone is a stroke of genius, adding seething color and texture that subtly dominates each track. The magma-like low end on "Slogan" complements the icy chime of its guitars perfectly, and "Class Spectre"s razing drones embody the "negative power" Case sings about. The bands own negative power -- their refusal to use dynamics, space, or resolution in obvious ways -- expresses Still Life in Decays soul-deep unease eloquently. More than on some of the groups other work, Cases voice and words channel the musics emotional entropy. On songs such as "When You Say," his anticipation of inevitable rejection ("I know its coming/I cant change that") hangs in the air as the music prickles and churns around him, stretching the moment to the breaking point. As on Present Tense, the last two tracks blow Still Life in Decay wide open. "Still Life" is a beautiful ruin, its corroded tones and sweeping chords echoing Cases alienation before transforming into a hovering sound-world of cresting reverberations that rival EVOL- or Daydream Nation-era Sonic Youth when it comes to poetic noise. Facs sustain this mood on "New Flag," a ten-minute excursion into broken majesty that features soaring, trumpet-like melodies, backwards guitars, and a ferocious breakdown, then ends with amp buzz that pulses like a heart. As noisy and fractured as it gets, Still Life in Decay is executed with crystalline vision and haunting impact. Its the moment where Facs evolve from an impressive band into a transcendent one. ~ Heather Phares