THE BLACK HOLE
The Black Hole
Dreamscapes
Quiet Vampires
Dreamscapes
Quiet Vampires
Release date: January 28, 2017
SHIPPING: $6 - TO THE UNITED STATES ONLY.
Jack Beltane, US
There was a thread in American music in the late 1960s that someone untangled across the U.S., then stretched over to Europe, where it took root in 80s shoegaze. It ties together bands as disparate as the 13th Floor Elevators, the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star, Blonde Redhead, and the Jesus & Mary Chain. It’s noise rock or math punk or psychedelic or shoegaze or doom: It’s the down-tuned sound of chaos and beauty, and while no one was looking, it also worked its way through the Americas and took root in Brazil under the name Firefriend.
The Black Hole (Little Cloud Records, 2017) - a tight three-song EP that clocks in at 21 minutes - is the eighth release from the Sao Paulo trio. This is music to play in the dark, a sonic soundscape made for dreaming beside the campfire or - as the title track demands - it’s music for turning up and driving through the desert night with, full-tilt and fully immersed. The bass grooves move you along; the drums tell your heart to beat; the guitar-work needles its way into your subconscious and pulls forth demons; and the vocals ease you back to sleep.
Firefriend pulled that thread from the 60s and created something that feels like a bit of everything that thread ever touched. Their sound doesn’t rush to the pop hook or stall itself in the crunchy riffs, it glides above everything else in its own orbit, echoing the best parts of psychedelic, shoegaze, and noise by taking it all into strange new fields of bliss. And with a vinyl release from Portland’s Little Cloud Records, it can be heard as God intended at epic 45 rpm. Do yourself a favor: Turn the music on, the lights off, and let yourself go.
There was a thread in American music in the late 1960s that someone untangled across the U.S., then stretched over to Europe, where it took root in 80s shoegaze. It ties together bands as disparate as the 13th Floor Elevators, the Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Mazzy Star, Blonde Redhead, and the Jesus & Mary Chain. It’s noise rock or math punk or psychedelic or shoegaze or doom: It’s the down-tuned sound of chaos and beauty, and while no one was looking, it also worked its way through the Americas and took root in Brazil under the name Firefriend.
The Black Hole (Little Cloud Records, 2017) - a tight three-song EP that clocks in at 21 minutes - is the eighth release from the Sao Paulo trio. This is music to play in the dark, a sonic soundscape made for dreaming beside the campfire or - as the title track demands - it’s music for turning up and driving through the desert night with, full-tilt and fully immersed. The bass grooves move you along; the drums tell your heart to beat; the guitar-work needles its way into your subconscious and pulls forth demons; and the vocals ease you back to sleep.
Firefriend pulled that thread from the 60s and created something that feels like a bit of everything that thread ever touched. Their sound doesn’t rush to the pop hook or stall itself in the crunchy riffs, it glides above everything else in its own orbit, echoing the best parts of psychedelic, shoegaze, and noise by taking it all into strange new fields of bliss. And with a vinyl release from Portland’s Little Cloud Records, it can be heard as God intended at epic 45 rpm. Do yourself a favor: Turn the music on, the lights off, and let yourself go.
Emiliano D'Aniello, Italy
Questo trio psych di San Paolo, Brasile capitanato dalla vocalist e bassista Julia Grassetti (completano la formazione Carlos Amaral e Yuri Hermuche) ha il blues che gli brucia dentro l’anima. I Firefriend sono una formazione in giro già da una decina di anni e che ultimamente ha cominciato a attirare attenzioni anche oltre i confini nazionali, confermando peraltro l’ottimo momento per la musica psichedelica per quello che riguarda il Sud America. Ingaggiati dalla Little Cloud Records (che pubblicherà anche il loro prossimo LP “Sulfur”) il trio ha pubblicato lo scorso 28 gennaio questo EP intitolato “The Black Hole” che nonostante la brevità penso possa meritatamente essere definito come una vera e propria bomba. Il sound della band è una psichedelia drone infettata di quel sound noise derivato da esperienze come quella dei Sonic Youth o dei Blonde Redhead più sperimentali e riverberi ereditati dallal lunga tradizione dei 13th Floor Elevators. Su tutto però si erge imperiosa la voce e la espressività di Julia, una vocalist (che ricorda un po’ Tess Parks, la protetta di Anton Newcombe) che si potrebbe definire una versione al femminile di Jim Morrison e praticamente dedita a pratiche di ipnotismo che peraltro riescono perfettamente. Boh, che dire, sinceramente aspetto l’uscita del disco con grandi aspettative.
Questo trio psych di San Paolo, Brasile capitanato dalla vocalist e bassista Julia Grassetti (completano la formazione Carlos Amaral e Yuri Hermuche) ha il blues che gli brucia dentro l’anima. I Firefriend sono una formazione in giro già da una decina di anni e che ultimamente ha cominciato a attirare attenzioni anche oltre i confini nazionali, confermando peraltro l’ottimo momento per la musica psichedelica per quello che riguarda il Sud America. Ingaggiati dalla Little Cloud Records (che pubblicherà anche il loro prossimo LP “Sulfur”) il trio ha pubblicato lo scorso 28 gennaio questo EP intitolato “The Black Hole” che nonostante la brevità penso possa meritatamente essere definito come una vera e propria bomba. Il sound della band è una psichedelia drone infettata di quel sound noise derivato da esperienze come quella dei Sonic Youth o dei Blonde Redhead più sperimentali e riverberi ereditati dallal lunga tradizione dei 13th Floor Elevators. Su tutto però si erge imperiosa la voce e la espressività di Julia, una vocalist (che ricorda un po’ Tess Parks, la protetta di Anton Newcombe) che si potrebbe definire una versione al femminile di Jim Morrison e praticamente dedita a pratiche di ipnotismo che peraltro riescono perfettamente. Boh, che dire, sinceramente aspetto l’uscita del disco con grandi aspettative.
2024 RCKNRLL
2023 DECREATION FACTS
2022 DEVOUR
2021 DEAD ICONS
2019 AVALANCHE
2018 YELLOW SPIDER
2018 SULFUR
2017 THE BLACK HOLE
2023 DECREATION FACTS
2022 DEVOUR
2021 DEAD ICONS
2019 AVALANCHE
2018 YELLOW SPIDER
2018 SULFUR
2017 THE BLACK HOLE
