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), The Avulsions’ Expanding Program launches their gothic post-punk into a sci-fi dystopian future that may not be far off. The songs uncoil slowly, patiently working through hypnotic passages filled with shards of spindly guitar and synth work alternating 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.
