EP Review: Fast Friends – HI T LO IQ

Fast Friends (Tom Peyton, Ryan Spraker and Frederik Thaae) refer to themselves as being ‘very honoured and shocked’ that Dine Alone Records wanted to ‘put out their jams’, despite a musical pedigree (producers for Panic! At The Disco, X Ambassadors and Weezer amongst others) that suggests that they know how to craft a tune or two..that they hope will ‘make you feel uncomfortable’.  The Bay Area/Boston/Denmark trio, collectively based in LA, have been hanging out since 2015 and started making music together in early 2017 (all available through Bandcamp); though this self-produced EP is their first ‘official’ release.  

Downer anthem ‘Everybody Will Be Forgotten’ opens up the EP with immediacy and irresistibility. A wonderfully fuzzy chorus implores gang melodies and even bell chimes. It’s followed by the hazed out middle-aged lament of ‘Body’. “I’m feeling really fucking old” they grieve, only after a riotous chorus. The hip-shimmying rhythm certainly challenges the notion – while the corresponding ‘Young Hunkz’ embodies a pounding, sprightly, electronic-tinged clatter. As the band say: “Old dudes, loud sound blah blah blah”.

‘Fuck Ohio’, the new single, is a humour laden acoustic sketch wherein ‘everybody sucks’. Would they have worked their way around all the States if the song wasn’t cut short? Weirdly, the strained vocals give it a lighters in the air feel. Closer ‘We Broke The World’ has a crushing intro that gives way to alt-indie cool (hand claps, pulsing bass and choppy acoustic rhythms) that surmises the on-going collapse of society: ‘we fucked it up, we broke the world’  to strangely uplifting tones.

Like a bleak, realist outlook set (contrarily) against loud, poppy tunes? ‘HI T LO Q’ is available HERE. More about Fast Friends is on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.