A.M. Architect is more than just an electronic duo, listening to the group’s new album Avenir, is an experience. Ideas have been reworked, shifting landscapes, as they drown out the noise of the rest of the world. While blisteringly soulful, the musical constructions remain edgy with electronic samples and blips strewn across its colorful vistas. Interestingly enough, there are several tones and watery textures that shift the energy but allow for a variety of emotions from track to track. This is delicate, filled with warmth, and completely comforting.

FACS – WISH DEFENSE

Consistency is a key factor in just about anyone’s success. Not everyone’s but just about. You’ll be able to see, hear, read, and feel, the progression someone has made through the regularity of one’s work(s), and for better or worse, it is something you’ll always find within the audio paintings of a music artist. As an artist crescendos in skill & talent, there’s a point when we either hear someone challenging themselves or the sounds created have been honed and have arrived at the pinnacle that’s never been reached before.

Now with Wish Defense (Trouble In Mind), the 6^th full-length release from Chicago’s FACS, there seems to be a clarity within the band’s music. Some things seem much more, um, deliberate. While I take absolutely nothing away from the band, Wish Defense is the last piece of recorded material the group worked on with Albini behind the board. Present, is the dry recorded sound Albini has always been able to pull out of every artist, but with FACS, the trio’s sonically constructed sound seems to break free of that, offering a much wider range. With its opening “Talking Haunted,” there’s the dreamy richness we’ve all become accustomed to, dark & brooding as the harmonics are extracted from guitars. With clear vocal prose directly on the surface. FACS does work within a verse-chorus-verse framework with its music but doesn’t need to actually work on a vocal chorus, allowing the music to ride the lightning. One thing about the group, it’s able to pull elements of other subgenres and make them their own. On “Ordinary Voices,” the band adds a colorfully placed guitar at the beginning of the track which is reminiscent of something Kevin Shields might do. The band doesn’t allow us to remain comfortable with it, shifting its rhythm, lightly pummeling us all into submission without the need to overly indulge. Truth be told, FACS has always seemed to take things on a much more minimalistic approach but will surprise with several sonic excursions. Like this one.

The band’s rhythmically-heavy title track allows guitars to again, place harmonic chords(?) and notes across it with matching vocal melodies that follow the same patterns. The band is repetitive but it’s never repetitious, always keeping listeners engaged, and here the band is ablaze with its punchy rhythms and melodies. FACS doesn’t fail to surprise at just about every turn, and on “A Room” it milks a rhythm & melody for all its worth right before hitting a beast of a choral arrangement before making its way across that bridge. Simplicity is key and with just its 3-instrument attack, FACS can get its point across from track to track. That’s what it’s able to accomplish from track to track. When you listen to “Sometimes Only” it’s the same thing as beautiful guitar notes are stroked as drums and a distorted bassline follows it, hitting that repeat button for just over a minute before an additional wave of seductive guitar notes clatter around.

Alright, there’s bias but when it comes to FACS, how can one not be? Time and time again, the trio has proven itself to be more than just a noisy post-punk band, instead delivering an assortment of delicious instrumentation scattered across songs and albums. With Wish Defense it’s no different, aside from the fact the band has its most refined work to date.

DROP NINETEENS – 1991

When you barely remember something, or someone, do you feign interest or do you play the I-remember-them-well game? Well, it happens and while I barely remember what happened back in 1995, I’m not going to even try to guess where life was taking us all at the beginning of that decade. ’91 was the year that did mark an explosiveness in music, with two albums that would change the landscape of rock music: Nirvana’s Nevermind and My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Both bands couldn’t be much more different from one another but so similar in challenging listeners, but it was MVB that took a genre on one wild ride.

The Boston, Mass. outfit Drop Nineteens scored a bit of notoriety with a couple of albums back in the 90s before the shoegaze subgenre began to wane, finding itself deeper into the underground. The band resurfaced back in 2023 with a new release, Hard Light, and now two years later, the Drop Nineteens digs things out of the crates with its new album, 1991 (Wharf Cat). The band’s latest offering though, isn’t something new, it’s actually culled from the group’s original demos, which landed the band its first record deal. The release originally circulated around fans, a bootleg that was known as Mayfield (1991), before officially releasing it today, 24 years later.

1991 serves as a snapshot in time, and while it doesn’t offer anything new, it hints at nostalgia to a time when life was different. That’s not to say there aren’t some damn fine songs here, beginning with the opening “Daymom,” with its haunting wall-of-guitar melody, breathy vocals, and captivating rhythm. The track isn’t over-the-top but it grasps your attention right from the get-go. “Song For J.J.” sounds like a song of its time though, with its mind-numbing, underlying rhythm and beautiful yet inaudible vocal melody. Sure you can’t make out the words but we can hear the beauty within the mix. That drum pattern is something that needs to be revisited because it’s overshadowed by the guitar fuckery throughout. It cleverly lines the track with what it needs, even if it isn’t the main focal point.

The band does some interesting things on “Soapland,” which rides a repetitive melody, transitioning occasionally into an angelic chorus of sound. It’s hypnotic in its movement but while interesting, it doesn’t move further than that. On “Mayfield,” again, it’s the drums, relegated to the background, that provide a healthy amount of entertainment as guitars & vocals circle around it. It intrigues and allows the rest of the band to create something pretty expansive. But it’s “Shannon Waves” where the band seems to have missed an opportunity to create an actual thriving pop song but allowed the song to live an instrumental life. It’s catchy AF with effects swirling all around it but that was the era, that was the genre.

In all honesty, it’s nice to look back to see where things were with 1991. At the time, yes, the band was finding its way, creating something that sparked interest and was innovative. By today’s standards though, let’s just say others have moved past & forward, but Drop Nineteens should be proud of what it left behind.

SQUID – COWARDS

Have you ever been smitten? Well, it happens, and sometimes when you least expect it. That’s normally the best time. But seriously, Cowards (Warp Records) is Squid’s third full-length release, and just after the first couple of songs, there’s no doubt you’ll feel the same as well. Of course, we’re spoiling the meat & potatoes of this review because well, this U.K. post-punk outfit doesn’t follow any rules, creating its own set, and never looking back.

I won’t preface this with any cute or clever quip because Cowards needs everyone to just get to the point. The quintet is nothing you’ll be able to resist, as the multi-instrumental talent of many of the members is at play throughout the release. The album is filled with not only guitar, bass, and drums but also keyboards, strings, brass, and additional percussion. Throughout the nine songs comprised here, the songs Squid has pieced together take on a life of their own. There are things unimaginable like “Crispy Skin,” which sounds like a pinball wizard attacking an Atari game for the very first time. That’s how it seemed before drums & bass created the rhythmic foundation here allowing keyboards & guitars to battle one another while Ollie Judge pained voice has a number of highs & lows. But when his voice matches that of guitar notes, it’s pretty subtle, right before the band’s slow crescendo takes control. But then the band moved its way into “Building 650,” which is more in tune with what one might expect from an indie post-punk outfit, expelling demons in the form of their instruments. Although, it’s done with a certain panache as guitars rally along with the rhythm section before the strings come right in. With the additional instrumentation, it’s expansive and engaging, not that it wouldn’t be just as engaging without the inclusion because the band rides a melody that’s captivating.

Now for the first two minutes, “Blood On The Boulders” takes on a much more vibrant jazzy feel, that is until guitars coax it to head in another direction altogether. Squid rips through the fabric of time with disjointed guitars, strings shredding through, and a piano filling out the remaining space around. It’s a free-for-all but with direction, leading towards its eventual finish which ends just as it began. I do feel that I have to point out “Cro-Magnon Man,” one of the most infectious songs I’ve heard in some time. Guitar notes might make your eyes squint as it follows the rhythm and when the choral vocal harmonies come in, they match the energy all around. Lyrically, interesting and odd, while musically, it’s invigorating, and every note is thoughtfully placed. There’s so much going on within the album and I don’t think anything captures that sentiment more than “Showtime!” which is set on storming the senses. The band goes through several different motions here at just over five minutes, the band shifts its sound and halfway through turns into something completely different while still based on its origins. There’s a lot to take in here but it’s well worth the journey Squid transports us all on, especially with the thunderous drums at about a minute to closing!

Squid. There’s nothing left to say about the band I haven’t already shared. Cowards invites us all to get out of our shells and try something different musically. There’s nothing else around that can do that for us all. This is it.