Spun: The Famines

By Jordan Fritz

Edmonton isn’t just an ugly town full of stuck-up hipsters that like dance music too much. Sometimes they make good music too. This is where the Famines come in. Made up of artist and ex-Vertical Struts member Raymond Biesinger and Garrett Kruger, formerly of Wolfnote, the Famines throw down a sonic assault usually only found on a Shellac LP. This double seven-inch makes up for the fact it’s only four songs long by packing more ear sex into 12 minutes than your favorite indie rock band can with cuteness. Their decision to release two singles instead of a CD means that each song has to be strong enough to stand by itself and they definitely succeeded at this task. Ranging musically from raucous post-punk to wandering minimalist rock, the variety is enough to keep these records fresh from A to D.


Included in the packaging is a fairly thick booklet with almost no connection to the music, besides strange photocopied images of the records themselves. With a map of Turkey, a street map of Cairo, fake newspaper ads concerning the Famines and confusing images of cats and inanimate objects, these chaps certainly went for the entire post-modern experience.


That doesn’t matter though. Do yourself a favour: pick this up and play it as loud as your speakers/landlord permits.