Expwy is a very little know name thus far, but I assure you, this is bound to change. Take the beautiful instrumentation, catchy rhythms, gentle vocals of bands like The Shins and Simon and Garfunkel, and now add in the ability to learn something historical from a good listen, and here you have EXPWY, and their fantastic new album "Total Gold".

Each track is extremely unique, yet they fall into this same dusty, old worldly vibe. Styles bounce and swim all over the place, as obtuse time signatures accompany jazz-like sounds and fast-finger picking hums the stories untold through well balanced, complimentary vocal patterns and lyrics. Additionally, there is something sloppy and scattered about the mixes, making it ultimately feel that much more intimate and in some ways informative. You'd be a Grinch not to scope and scoop this album for free while you still can.

-Kyle Patrick (GroopEase.com)


LeGroulx’s songs can be challenging, for sure, but isn’t that what music and art should do? Sometimes I think we as cultural consumers don’t know what we want. We moan that populist pap is indistinguishable from one artist to another, and we complain when an artist tries to do something out-of-the-box for being too much work for our mushy brains to process. the charm of Expwy for me, is that LeGroulx is not intentionally trying to be difficult, nor is he trying to hit the pole position on the Hype Machine top 100. He’s exploring intellectual and artistic themes, being influenced by Italian Renaissance madrigal composers and The Flaming Lips alike, and he’s not precious or pretentious about it. He’s a unique artist, with a unique take on pop music, and any music buff worth the weight of their vinyl collection would be foolish not to give Expwy a thorough listen.

- Quick Before it Melts

For a record with such an eclectic list of influences Total Gold sounds remarkably of a piece. But that should be no surprise coming from someone who's been mixing Brazilian music, drum machines, 60s pop, 70s rock, Steve Reich-ian minimalism, Neu-ian motorik krautrock, complex vocal harmonies, Beefheart-ian guitar arrangements, 12-tone composition, epic extended guitar solos, multiple pieces of music played simultaneously in the spirit of Charles Ives and the Flaming Lips and thoroughly researched historical context on his last four albums. On this newest Expwy set, which was written and recorded in only two months, no less, we get an extension of the ideas and techniques used tentatively on Dance Maul which happen to include, well, most of the ideas and techniques listed above only pared down to their essences, used sparingly or written off completely. No longer a gumbo, Expwy is now a simple, expertly-prepared and delicious tomato sauce. The biggest change is in the vocal department. Where LeGroulx once came off as hesitant and shy singing alone, he now sounds like 10cc's "I'm Not In Love" on HGH, the stacked harmonies giving the music a Technicolor sheen. The next big difference is the lack of guitar solos. The only one is placed smack dab in the middle of the record, putting it in stark relief and making it that much more powerful. The consequence of all this editing is that the songs are shorter, tighter and catchier. There's no filler here, just pure, distilled Expwy. And as usual, it's available as a free download, though the band will be making packaging by hand for sale at shows and online.

I may be going a little overboard but I think this is the best album to come out of Montreal all year. Get it NOW!

- Stanley Krytzyk