Aurganic - Deviations

Aurganic 

Deviations
self-released; 2013

3.8 out of 5

By Jerrica Tisdale

Aurganic consists of high school classmates, turned life-long friends, Mike and Leo. Before forming the band in 2010, they were part of local punk rock bands until they drifted apart. They reunited musically when Aurganic formed. Deviations is their sophomore album. 

Deviations borrows sounds from different decades of rock music. This idea translates in the album’s mood. With Deviations, Mike and Leo mainly work on the production and composition elements of their music, while collaborating with local Toronto, ON artists. Mike and Leo, along with others, created Deviations exclusively online through the sharing of files. Additionally, in producing this album, they intended to create a mood. The main mood in Deviations takes on dreamy rock music soundscapes that are reminiscent of broken hearts. 

Many songs on Deviations have admirable traits. However some songs really leave a lasting impression.  The song “Lucid” blends soft and aggressive vocals with minimalistic instruments. The stretching out of notes gives it an echo tone.  Because of Joe Goguen’s old-school style vocals featured on the songs “Paradigm” and “Choices” the songs create classic rock nostalgia. Also Goguen’s voice is not masked by instruments, a problem some of the album’s other singers face.  “Easy,” sung by Jessica Stuart, surprises with a jazzy style unheard on other Deviations tracks.  The reflective story of “The Lost and The Found” works well with the accompanying music. It is one of the more emotionally driven songs. 

Most of the songs on Deviations have similar themes of lost, such as external loses like broken relationships, or internal loses like shattered identity. In multiple ways, the whole album is a complicated love letter to rock. Every song could easily fit into different areas of a rock history timeline. Deviations gives the cool, easy but throttling intensity of rock music.  

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