‘When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro…’ – that saying might well apply to this bizarre collaboration between Andrew Liles and Daniel Menche. Anyone up for a dark ambient concept album about the life-cycle of flies? Don’t all rush at once…
Andrew Liles is an esoteric production maestro based in Brighton, who has worked with the likes of Nurse With Wound and Current 93, and Daniel Menche is an established noise musician from Portland, and this is their first collaboration. Separately, Liles and Menche have released – well, a lot of albums – I gave up counting them actually… But this is no mere soulless foray into the avant-garde. This is 100% genuine, straight-up, satisfaction-guaranteed-or-your-money-back weirdness, with a real artistry to it. The Progeny of Flies plays like the best soundtrack to the best film of the best Murakami novel that hasn’t yet been written.
You want sensurround drones? Tick. You want ghostly piano notes? Tick. You want the odd buzzing fly sound? Uh, tick. It’s all here – and then some. This is a great record, bursting with oneiric strangeness and somnambulistic intent. Deserves to sell more copies than Coldplay.
Ewan Burke
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