In live performances, Flexions exhibit an approach somewhat foreign to the landscape of typical underground musicians. Because the band lacks a traditional 'frontman' or perfomative focal point, attendees are confronted by the duo of Welch and Stein and their backing band of beat-making machines. Lyrics are mostly nonexistent, and sparse at best, leaving the audience with little to hold on to. Flexions straddle the division between directly engaging the audience and a more aloof presentation. By sometimes playing at lounges and galleries in place of a DJ, they at times find themselves filling the role of merely background or "mood" music.
In addition to some of the source material, Flexions draw parallels with the Exotica movement championed by composer Martin Denny and restaurateur Donn Beach. Leisure Time echoes the strength of Exotica's appeal to the mid-20th-century working class - it served as an easily consumable vacation. In contrast to the real spaces occupied by the suburban labor force, the faux-foreign records and performances of Exotica sonically transformed any space into a micro-resort. In the same way, Flexions utilize both implied exotic content, unorthodox live settings, and occasionally a visual component of found vintage slides, to re-create the pseudo experience of a nonnative adventure in a place that never existed. B.Kalet - February 21, 2009
Flexions is Robin Stein and Devin Welch
Tyler Swan Percussion on Fated Occupations and Over Tanned
Shannon Perry Vocals on Over Tanned
Production Flexions and Grippo
Engineering Grippo at Sauco
Mastering Cameron Nicklaus
Photography Kyle Johnson
Art direction Strath Shepard