F/T/W is one of the most impressive ambient-noise albums I've heard in a little while. Dark and abrasive, but always vivid and musical, it never gives in to that nihilistic chaos these adjectives might suggest.
Just three minutes into the first track, I ask myself "how has so much happened already?". The pace never feels rushed or crowded, but yet the album is dense with new and interesting musical ideas all the way through to the closing few minutes.
The mental imagery was vivid. In track one, I feel as though I'm hiding from a large machine in a mossy post-apocalyptic abandoned mall. In track two, an autonomously operating robotic chainsaw, long since abandoned, slowly takes down a forest one tree at a time. A local villager loses their sanity.
There's so much detail in these sounds at both the textural and rhythmic time scales. The mix is polished. The use of stereo is excellent. At the time of writing, their Bandcamp page suggests this might be their first release, but the quality of the production sounds like the work of an established professional.
I find the later tracks equally surprising, as they manage to maintain the same level of persistent engagement while nonetheless offering space for reflection.
It pains me to say this, but I have a solitary nitpick that I feel should be mentioned. The final track cuts off abruptly. Since this is the very last impression you're left with, it feels like an important oversight in my eyes, even if it's really a minor problem. A short fade to close out the otherwise excellent album would go a long way.
Despite this small, solitary technical issue, F/T/W is a phenomenal work of dark ambience that I see myself returning to many times.