Firefriend have been putting out killer tunes since 2006 but it wasn’t really until 2019 when they hit the stage twice at Fuzz Club’s Eindhoven festival that things really started to take off and their back catalog quickly disappeared. The trio from San Paulo, Brazil features Yury Hermuche on guitar and vocals, Julia Grassetti on bass and vocals and C.Amaral on Drums. Dead Icons continues the trend of stellar releases featuring the somewhat lo-fi production that they have never abandoned. There is a sort of desperation in their sound perhaps coming from conditions in they have described in their home country. Borrowing from such influences as Sonic Youth, Velvet Underground and various shoegaze acts the music never sets itself in one place for too long yet never really breaks too far away from their sound as they methodically work their way through this record. I think Firefriend is at their best though when they really slow things down and extend the tracks. “Tomorrow” is a perfect example. Just places me in the crowd at three AM as the beer and smoke is wearing off and that gorgeous sound is echoing through the room. But then you kick right into “Three Dimensional Sound Glitch” with it’s spacemen “Revolution” vibe or maybe “Things Will Never Be the Same”. Another classic Firefriend LP. They don’t mess around with mediocre. You can be sure this one will be near the top of many end of year lists.
Already sold out at Cardinal Fuzz
Still available at Little Cloud Records
