Folx
studio
Artistfriends&
CoverFolx2026.png
ReleasedFebruary 17, 2026
Genre
Labeldawk26
Producerfriends&
Prev year2024

Folx (stylized in lowercase) is the second studio album by the Canadian music collective friends&, released independently through Bandcamp on February 17, 2026. It is a 112-track maximalist concept album, with lead member JC grame as well as journalists and critics identifying themes of the history of folk music, shitpost culture, anti-capitalism, Marxism, family, the Internet, copyright law and sampling, the autism spectrum, corporate labor, the economy of the United States, accelerationism, the life and work of Mark Fisher, and the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom in it. The album began conceptualization, composition, recording and production circa 2017 according to grame, and makes use of artificial intelligence along with a multitude of samples, with sources including dialogue and music from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, vocals from songs by the Beatles and dialogue and music from O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

Background

JC grame is a Canadian electronic musician and blogger based in Toronto.[3] Grame initially independently released the album Shadowdog under the name tirestires in 2015, which was met with a cult following owing to its mysterious presentation, dense production and explicit lyrics concerning experiences in the furry fandom.[1][3] In 2024, grame released the first friends& album, The Rock Band: Stem Fragmentation and Syncopation Exercises #1-7 w/ Supplemental Materials, through the independent music label Retrac Recordings. He also coined the microgenre term "laptop twee";[1][4] it has been used in contemporary indie music journalism to describe acts such as Frost Children, Bassvictim, 300skullsandcounting, Worldpeace DMT, ASC, MASSI, and Rowan Please.[1][4][5]

According to the Guardian and Pitchfork, "friends&" is a Discord server of Canadian members, with grame at its core performing as "a semi-anonymous sampledelia band".[1][2] The album was credited to them and released on Bandcamp on February 17, 2026, accompanied by liner notes and a manifesto written and published on Google Docs, which was later made unavailable.[1] With no clarification being given as to if it was genuine or sardonic, the first line of the manifesto stated that the album was "written after bumping AJR and reading Capitalist Realism 300 times".[1] The album is dedicated to grame's father, "an autistic rateyourmusic user who died before he could retire from his job at td bank"; his username on the website is named in the album's Bandcamp description.[1]

Music and production

According to grame, Folx began as a Facebook message "sent at 11:55am on june 16th 2017", and took "8 years, 8 months, and 1 day to complete".[3] grame stated the record was conceived as "an attempt to reinvent pop music production"; Stereogum described it as a maximalist album.[1][3] The album makes use of several musical samples from the Beatles, O Brother, Where Art Thou?,[2] and My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, to motifs lifted from songs such as the Knack's 1979 single "My Sharona",[1] with references to folk and classic rock artists Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, John Prine, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, Johnny Cash, and the Grateful Dead.[1] The album uses artificial intelligence to clone the voices of several individuals; one notable example is the singing voice of Jeff Mangum of American indie folk band Neutral Milk Hotel.[1][2] Pitchfork described the album as blending "hyperpop's futurism" with "millennial optimism".[1] While Stereogum cited tracks referencing philosophical and political theory, including the works of Marx and Engels, Deleuze and Guattari and Mark Fisher.[3]

Critical reception

Stereogum reviewed the album on February 23, 2026; writer Chris DeVille stated that "folx is an album with a manifesto and a bibliography. [...] Because grame was forged in the fires of RYM, folx is the kind of album where a Burial melody or the whistling from "Young Folks" might appear out of nowhere — and with that in mind, Girl Talk also feels like a relevant forebear. But Gregg Gillis never built anything quite so thematically dense. I don't know how often I will listen to folx — it does not lend itself to casually kicking back — but every time I've pressed play, I've been impressed."[3]

Pitchfork reviewed the album on February 26, 2026, rating it a 5.7/10, with the publication's writer Samuel Hyland concluding that there was affirmatively "a compelling statement" in, polemically speaking, "a clusterfuck weighed down by conflicting ambitions [...] a desperate, brute-force attempt".[1]

Track listing

Notable samples and interpolations

  • "Man of Constant Sorrow ([android] w [autism] [phishes] to [network] @ [the city upon a hill]) ([bOyFrIeNd_qUeSt_bEgInS])" – "Sleepless in Ponyville"; O Brother, Where Art Thou?[2]
  • "Hang Me, Oh Hang Me ([golem] w [dysmorphia] [attempts suicide] to [influence] @ [the vintage clothing store]) ([eLiMiNaTiNg_tHe_pArTs_oF_MySeLf_tHaT_ArEnT_CoNtRiBuTiNg_tO_SuCcEsS] [identity#02])" – "Ponyboy" by SOPHIE; "Ian Curtis Wishlist" by Xiu Xiu[1]
  • "Catch the Wind ([fairy] w [bipolar mania] [indecently exposes] to [impress] @ [the coworking space]) ([cAsUaLlY_DaTiNg_iN_SeArCh_oF_SoMeThInG_SeRiOuS])" – "My Sharona" by the Knack; "Sleepless in Ponyville"[1][a]

Personnel

According to Bandcamp release; all additional performer names are deliberately provided mononymically.[6]

Friends&

  • BC Power
  • CT Pond
  • JC Grame
  • JC Sims

Additional performers

  • Paul – writer, performer
  • Audie – vocals
  • Brock – vocals
  • Cam – vocals
  • David – vocals
  • Effy – vocals
  • Ely – vocals, performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Goldwag – vocals
  • Katherine – vocals
  • Kian – vocals
  • Lavender – vocals
  • Lea – vocals
  • Lily – vocals
  • Maddy – vocals
  • Maebh – vocals
  • Mason – vocals
  • Matthew – vocals
  • Micha – vocals
  • Mills – vocals
  • Montecanis – vocals
  • Mp3 – vocals
  • Octavia – vocals
  • Owen – vocals
  • River – vocals
  • Shahzad – vocals
  • Stan – vocals
  • Todd – vocals
  • Viv – vocals
  • Whiskers – vocals

Production

  • Aaron – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Daniel – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Derek – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Liam – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Nick – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Peter – performer, arranger, additional producer
  • Steve – performer, arranger, additional producer

Art

  • Katie – cover art

See also

Notes

  1. ^ For a full list of sample and interpolation credits, see the album's Bandcamp page, where it is given as a list of "citations"

References

  1. ^ Hyland, Samuel. "friends&: folx". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  2. ^ Morris, Hugh & Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (2026-02-27). "Add to playlist: the cliche-correcting medieval music of Idrîsî Ensemble and the week’s best new tracks". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
  3. ^ "friends&'s 'folx' Is A Maximalist Manifesto About Folk Music, Capitalism, Family, Labor, The Internet, And More". Stereogum. 2026-02-23. Retrieved 2026-02-26.
  4. ^ Press-Reynolds, Kieran (2025-12-17). "The Top Five Musical Rabbit Holes of 2025". Pitchfork. Retrieved 2026-02-06.
  5. ^ Enis, Eli (2025-10-17). "Chasing Fridays: Bassvictim, laptop twee, Empty Shell Casing Q&A, more". Chasing Sundays. Retrieved 2026-02-06.
  6. ^ "folx, by friends&". dawk26. Retrieved 2026-03-01.