Well this is my first post under the new ‘Fragmented Flaneur’ name. As you can see all the usual reviews, playlists, live reports and gig galleries are here, but I hope that this new site will also see me spreading my wings a bit more to an even more eclectic mix of music, as well as writings on other subjects too. Watch this space!
It’s massively appropriate that this first post is for the Premiere of a new track from the Brazilian band Firefriend who, on their Facebook page, list the artists they like as “John Coltrane, Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground, Spacemen3, W.Burroughs, Louis Ferdinand Céline, and Jean-Luc Godard”. This is exactly the sort of cultural mix that I want to cover on this new site. While much of the group’s music is definitely informed by psychedelic bands, there is a hinterland of influences here that is beyond that which you can limit through one term, such as ‘psych’, however inclusive that may be.
After having a quick email conversation with Yuri from the band, and from the great video that I’m properly proud to Premiere here, I can see that Firefriend think very deeply about their music and it’s relationship the their culture and social surroundings. As Yuri says:
All I can say is that reality over here at the third world – now online but always serving as a lab for the most outrageous attacks on democracy & humanity — is exploding at a pace of 40,000 bombs per year. Perhaps that’s happening in the whole world — violence is diverse. Anyway we’re bringing this new album to you because music & art can beautifully & disturbingly set new connections across this wave, the XXI century. We do love the psychedelic renascence and we’re trying to find our place — Earth is such a mad planet.
‘Avalanche’, the first track to be released from their new double album (out in Summer 2019 on Little Cloud Records and Cardinal Fuzz) is a great example of this, thinking how avalanches can occur in areas such as politics and culture too. It’s a brilliant slab of psychedelic music which builds on their previous release, ‘Yellow Spider’ (very limited numbers still available from the two record labels linked above at time of writing), and fairly blasts out of the speakers with venom and immediacy.
The accompanying video is a prime example of the sort of thing I am looking to cover on this site, drawing in many different elements and ideas to form a narrative… one that is very powerful especially when accompanied by the music.
On this evidence I can’t wait for the album to drop in the Summer… it’s going to be a heavy experience in all sorts of ways.
-o0o-
Hey,
Thanks very much for reading my blog, I really appreciate this. I write it as a labour of love to help me enjoy music, and to give something back to the many talented people who put out these incredible sounds.
To make it as enjoyable as possible for others I do pay extra so there are, for instance, no ads on these pages; but it would be great if the blog could pay for itself.
So, if you’ve really enjoyed your visit here and have found some music that you think is amazing, why not buy me a coffee (I write in independent cafés a lot) by clicking the “make a donation” button on the sidebar or footer depending on your device.
Cheers…
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