Where Friko were headed could be found on their EP, Whenever Forever. Their five-track slice of opportune tracks served as an exceptional taste of what was to come. Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here broadens its horizons and invites listeners along for a wonderfully laid-back experience. Throw your arms around those you hold dearest – Friko has commanded this action. Their slices of noise rock slowly grow and before you know it a warm bed of sounds which challenge the best of the noise rock genre. Demanding, powerful experiences rush through Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here as the cries of crazed fear are muffled and drowned out by the overwhelming hope, the optimism we hold to in times of panic.
Those fears are a core for this Friko debut – the duo has had plenty of time to hone their aggrievances and misunderstandings of social etiquette and it shows on Crimson to Chrome. Paralysed by fear or knocked back by bold attitudes, the out-of-step vocal range Niko Kapetan offers these lyrics is wonderful. He is both in touch with the percussion range of Bailey Minzenberger and actively working against it – a dialogue of instrumental bliss cracks open and vies for a listener’s attention. It is the making of a sound which will take Friko to new levels. For Ella feels like a mesmerising piece of enchanted fury, soothed by its strings and smooth piano work. Instrumental bliss and the comfort we can find in noisy moments come to life on Chemical, a guitar-led blowout before the calmer joys of Statues flow through.
Friko has an album of two halves on their hands. A bold first half of crazed wonders pointed straight at the frequently unpredictable state of the world while the other half has made its piece, it feels comfortable in the fragility. Get Numb To It! says it best of all. Those almost inaudible final moments as questions of what there is to do with life form an almost unifying experience, Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here captures its reasons and meanings. Had there been any doubt over the tranquil depth, Cardinals assures it. Softly spoken and slowly plucking at light guitar work makes for a reflective bed of reasonable notions. Compartmentalise your heartbreak. Get it out of your system and tuck it away with Friko’s first album. Their anxiety-riddled chamber pop is a stroke of the world around them.
Where We’ve Been, Where We Go from Here is an album for your personal crossroads. Where do you go, indeed? Spiralling through with a confident notion of not knowing what to do next, Friko has some subtle joys and heartbreaking ruminations. They all layer onto one another, piling on the grief and heartbreak as they try to overwhelm the senses. Friko clambers into the control seat of your mind and takes hold of all those horrifying, overlapping moments of reason and fear. Still, we try to pull those pieces apart and where Friko comes into play is in telling us those moments of paralysed fear and rage are not futile. They are genuine, all at play as the mind begins to drift from what you need to do into how to do it. We have the experience to make some charge into the distance, but Friko is insisting we do it.
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