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A Topographic Tide (Double EP)

by Expwy

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Connor Novotny
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1.
We climbed to play 02:49
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Down on plymouth grove Down on plymouth grove Down on Plymouth Grove the old west end Up the chain link fence Up the chain link fence Up the chain link fence we climbed to play Then the machines came Wrecking ball and chains Out on St. Antoine we stood to watch Baldy’s closed their doors Shut up angel hordes Cried that their old homes were coming down today The hockey game was stopped Look up at the clock Up the chain link fence we climbed to watch
2.
Shivering in topcoats 02:11
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Milk man splendidly white in black shoes Traipses up concrete stairs Father already reading the news Laughing at silver bars Drapeau in his motor car Selects sites deemed lootable, lootable I built a paper plane out of glue And discarded egg crates Took it out to the street and it flew Over a black coach car Moses Men invited up Drank deep from their coffee cups, coffee cups Shivering in topcoats Men surveyed telescopes Crowded caved and bleeding Laughing talking singing Dicing onions kitchen Running errands behind Sun is shining, belies Neighborhood paradise
3.
Trilateration tide 01:52
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Backshore boundary monument cadastral map Countour longitude and orthophotograph Neatline overedge trilateration tide Spheroid section subsidence quadrangle scale Rectification mean high water line Rectification a planimetric photograph A topographic tide Land use hypsometric isopleth series Engineer a magnetic and leveling Latitude isogonic hypsographic line Graticule geodesic estuary curve Rectification mean high water line Rectification a planimetric photograph A topographic tide
4.
Everyday, anyday 01:50
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Everyday through the window I see Mrs. Nadeau weed Everyday when the train goes by the windows rattle Everyday, everyday, everyday it stays the same In between Canning Street and Gaudry Avenue there is Mr. Naughton in his little house up against the Railroad tracks, railroad tracks, railroad tracks on plymouth grove Mme. Belanger heard that men in black were coming round Checking benchmarks and declinations, a first station Any day, any day, any day we’ll be put out
5.
Modern campaign 03:56
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Got letter city stamp old hat Tore it open decrease buzz half-dream Out by sunday 65 in June Howling north winds increase muttered loom Been kicked out Squeezed in drought mMonuments Whispered loud Ville-Marie Coming through Rustle leaves his teeth were clenched in air Modern campaign highway handed heir Dominate the working classes fair Big interests a Drapeau plan feel prayer
6.
Dust will settle into cracks 04:06
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The McGowan’s left tonight Shuddered plumb and buzzing truck Brick by brick the wall tipped down Cascades scrollwork without fight Mortar labored absurd task Noises crazy spreading fast Dust will settle into cracks Darken eyes like river glass Trunks of heirlooms basement flack Spreading memories askance Withered walls and paper wreck St. Anthony steamboat flecked with paint Every bump shakes ground Rising mystical Sits an old man with a hat and tumor six years old He shakes his head and wonders out loud what happened to penny Mournful darkness wilderness in oxcart days How much better is the dirt Than 50 familys cold meals? Rotting poor lost plodded sad Streetlamps torn from concrete feet Tearing hearts from beating chests Cities struggle with the mess Cold grey pillars laid in wood Strike towards the common arms Elevated hardened steel Driven up to meet the cloud And in time the cars will ply Asphalt smog induce demand and grime
7.
Authenticity, gone 02:49
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In and out in and out side Down and out down and out slide In and out in and out side Down and out down and out slide All ran to see Destruction of means Up and down up and down town Shop and home shop and home crown Up and down up and down town All ran to see Our homes, shops and trees The authenticity Gone
8.
A militia of anxious eyes 02:11
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Take me down to St. Remi and leave me there Hands skid over milky white cobble stair In lofts we will expand our artistic lives Private, a militia of anxious eyes Dead tired, eyes are red Beau Soir, grab a six pack fight meager plows Ruffled, sharp and brisk no time to go out Winter, suck a beatle warm contractor He came to warn of a plan to move us all Dead tired eyes are red Tired, go to bed
9.
Zenith riser 01:52
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Chain arpent square Ground furlong link League aliquot Pole Rathbone’s Chain perch Azimuth corner and mete open Line monument condition bearing Plot tangent line township strip traverse Zenith riser witness tree Bullseye Burn one and blue topping cut line a Spike
10.
Conversation death 01:50
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Get up brush my teeth Get up brush my teeth and comb my hair Heat a frying pan Heat a frying pan and crack an egg A day, a day, a day beginning Conversation death Conversation dead and gone away Protest Notre Dame Protest Notre Dame futile decay Expro, expro, expro-priation
11.
Thunderclouds separated 03:56
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When she got home a letter waited there Outside food sizzled warm it’s dinner time Children recklessly kick at dirty cans Thunderclouds separated brass hat chimes Getting kicked out St. Remi’s gone Getting kicked out She walked in and sat at a kitchen chair Ran her fingers to shots and through her hair Dropped beside her a used up canvas bag Getting kicked out St. Remi’s gone Getting kicked out
12.
Tumble to the grass below 04:06
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Red brick lofts a bony skull Notice streetlamp characters Watching metal turn to dust Homes and business drawn as slums Every day brick mortar shrapnel rend Every day homes disappear in whipped dense air Tumble to the grass below Total decay telephone Future manuals written Corruption planning will win Every day brick mortar shrapnel rend Long thickets of lives are torn by trend Highway building ends a city’s life Every day homes disappear in whipped dense air

about

Tracks 1-6 can be played simultaneously with tracks 7-12.



"A Topographic Tide" is a series of 12 vignettes of lives lived in the shadows of highways, neighborhoods destroyed by expropriations and the toll all of it takes on the modern city.

Tracks 1 through 6 tell the story of Plymouth Grove, a neighbourhood torn down to build Montreal's Ville-Marie Expressway and tracks 7 through 12 of expropriations for the new Turcot Interchange project. Both halves of "Expwy in the sky" can be played simultaneously for a layered view of history.

LeGroulx’s modus operandi so far has been releasing lo-fi mini wall-of-sound symphonies and he keeps to that formula here while managing to refine and expand his sound. His sonic explorations never cease to amaze me.

- www.quickbeforeitmelts.com

For those wondering, the reason "A Topographic Tide" is called a double EP and not simply an LP is because tracks 1-6 and tracks 7-12 can be played at the same time. Although this exercise initially sounds like a cacophony of wild instrumentation and melody, eventually the fuzz-coated clouds of melody and noise swell to send the listener to a distant dreamlike place.

- ufvcascade.ca

Individually, the songs shine with some really great lyrics as well. “Everyday, anyday” starts to build up the tension in Plymouth Grove as it talks of railway tracks, and “Dust will settle into the cracks,” a musically dense song, talks of the inevitable: “Elevated hardened steel driven up to meet the cloud/And in time cars will fly.”

- grayowlpoint.com

Last month, experimentalists Expwy let loose a double EP called "A Topographic Tide". Why a double EP and not just an “album” you may ask. Well the reasoning is that both parts can be played simultaneously. Tracks 1-6 going along well with 7-12. It results in this kind of intentional sounding cacophony that can only be described if you listen for yourself.

- ridethetempo.com

credits

released November 20, 2012

Matt LeGroulx - guitars, bass, drums, violin
Ian Jarvis - vocals
Elliot Kerr - vocals

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Expwy Montréal, Québec

J'ai les maus d'amours.

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