As the last recording of Steve Albini arriving on a plane where David Lynch no longer walks among us in these evil times, there is something strangely poetic to be said about the timing in this universe giving us Wish Defense, the sixth studio effort from FACS. Like Lynch, the Chicago experimental noise-rock trio have explored space-time continuums in their work as well as places often left unknown by most eyes in that which lives deep within the dark recesses of the duality of man — a “tulpa,” if you will.

Only fragments of their sound can be characterized as “Lynchian,” however. The noisy art-rock of guitarist and vocalist Brian Case, bassist Noah Leger, and drummer Van Herik — who returns to the fold here in replacing longtime drummer Alianna Kalaba and rejoining his former Disappears ‘mates — have become more intensified from this turn inward after testing gravitational limits on the mortal coil with 2023’s Still Life In Decay. What Wish Defense presents is a magnified combustion of these existential elements.

That feels astute in a culture where we’ve been ripped down to Earth by grim truths on man’s actual intentions, and this point in 2025 already serves its purpose in accentuating that stark cold reality of it all through an icy coating over whichever way atonal guitar grooves and rhythm move. It allows FACS to slide deeper into the caverns of the individual through this medium, and with a more tightened grip on the electrical wire, it magnifies their style onto the subconscious through enveloping hypnosis (“Talking Haunted”, “Desire Path”) and focused friction (“Ordinary Voices”, “Sometimes Only”) that eventually pushes its way out (“A Room”, “You Future”.) The reflection off a figure’s outlines are something augmented, yet more truly accurate in shape than initially known.

Highlights: “Talking Haunted, “Ordinary Voices”, “Desire Path”

FACS’ Wish Defense is available now on Trouble In Mind Records.

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