SPILL NEWS: FLEMISH EYE ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM BY SASKATOON’S THE AVULSIONS

FLEMISH EYE ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM BY SASKATOON’S THE AVULSIONS

Expanding Program launches the Saskatoon group’s gothic post-punk into a sci-fi dystopian future that may not be far off. Painstakingly completed in a synth-filled home studio over 12 months and mastered by Montreal’s Harris Newman (Wolf Parade, Ought, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), its songs uncoil slowly while patiently working through hypnotic passages. Shards of spindly guitar and synth work alternate between chilly, dread-inducing backdrops and regal orchestral-style arrangements, all pinned down by distinctive percussion that rarely relies on a familiar beat. The album’s morbid lyrics conjure a society of “Mars” under military control, lingering evil in the Twin Peaks referencing “BOB”, and the scorched earth of “The End” eliminating all suffering forever. On these slow-burning mini-epics, spectral ambience inspired by The Cure is fused with the chiming dissonance of early Sonic Youth, the deadpan drama of Nico’s The Marble Index, and the nuclear war paranoia of This Heat’s Deceit.

Expanding Program will be available in a gorgeous package on vinyl, and is ready for pre-order on the Flemish Eye shop.

n the past three years, The Avulsions have emerged from Saskatoon as one of the most captivating new bands in Western Canada. Originally formed by Samantha Renner, Joanna Graves, and Brianna Whitmore, the trio expanded to a quartet with the addition of Josh Rohs for their highly anticipated debut album. Painstakingly completed in Rohs’ synth-filled home studio over 12 months and mastered by Montreal’s Harris Newman (Wolf Parade, Ought, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), The Avulsions’ Expanding Program launches their gothic post-punk into a sci-fi dystopian future that may not be far off.

Thus far, The Avulsions have traveled from Calgary’s Sled Island festival to the Halifax Pop Explosion and over to Europe for The Great Escape. Expanding Program sharpens the focus of their live performances with shiver-inducing melodies powerful enough to open portals to deep space. The songs uncoil slowly, patiently working through hypnotic passages filled with shards of spindly guitar and synth work that alternates between chilly, dread-inducing backdrops and regal orchestral-style arrangements, all pinned down by distinctive percussion that rarely relies on a familiar beat. On these slow-burning mini-epics, spectral ambience inspired by The Cure is fused with the chiming dissonance of early Sonic Youth, the deadpan drama of Nico’s The Marble Index, and the nuclear war paranoia of This Heat’s Deceit.

The Avulsions’ singer and multi-instrumentalist Samantha Renner’s songwriting owes as much to her classical music education as it does to her taste for goth, post-punk and art-rock honed while hosting her weekly radio show. Throughout Expanding Program, Renner’s morbid lyrics conjure a society of “Mars” under military control, lingering evil in the Twin Peaks referencing “BOB”, and the scorched earth of “The End” eliminating all suffering forever.

Describing themselves as “depressing kinds of people obsessed with the world ending,” the band members say “all of our songs are future-focused in a mostly negative way. The only things we know how to write about are the different ways that we’re all going to die. Now that we’re waking up to the fucked up reality of politics, it’s much more central in the average person’s mind.”

The 12-minute “Clone” has provided the sprawling finale to countless Avulsions live shows, and fittingly serves as Expanding Program’s final act. Glistening guitars, martial snare rolls, and Mellotron samples begin a steady march before an extended instrumental passage ramps up in tempo, reaching explosive intensity before the album’s final moment of uncertain calm.

“That song is a bit of an outlier thematically,” The Avulsions explain. “We wrote it from a place of feeling really lonely and not being able to relate to other people. The instrumental section is meant to represent frustration and a buildup of aggression, which always happens when something bothers you for a long time.” As Renner concludes: “If I were able to clone myself, I would finally have someone who could understand my weird brain.”

Expanding Program Track Listing

SIDE A

1 Control
2 Mars
3 Generate
4 The End

SIDE B

5 Motherless
6 BOB
7 Clone

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