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Andrew Liles and Daniel Menche
The Progeny of Flies

Beta-lactam Ring Records

Posted: Tuesday, July 08, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Subtitled "Tres Muscae Consummunt Cadaver Equi Aeque Cito ac Leo," a Latin quotation by Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus that translates to "The progeny of three flies can consume a dead horse more quickly than a lion can," this collaboration between experimental composers Andrew Liles and Daniel Menche is about as gruesome and morbid as its title suggests. With four tracks mirroring the four stages of the titular insect's life cycle, The Progeny of Flies begins appropriately enough with "Eggs," a minimalist ambient arrangement of drones in minor key harmonies; as the subtle drones are gradually overtaken by buzzing and distortion, there's a feeling of ominous potential, a growing sense of imminent activity that represents the hatching of the maggots that take center stage on "1st to 3rd Instar" ("instar" being the scientific term for the developmental stages of arthropod larvae between moults and prior to sexual maturity). This track is perhaps the album's most abstract, and the most difficult to connect with its subject matter; it's not immediately obvious how the soft ambience and admittedly morbid piano keys tie directly with the image of soft-bodied fly larvae, though the muffled thuds do seem to make something of a parallel with the blind hungry motion of maggots. Conversely, "Pupa" begins with a frantic neighing that serves as an unexpectedly literal reminder of the album's subtitle, though it quickly returns to quieter atmospheres. Like "Eggs," this track represents a more quiescent stage of insect life, when the maggots cocoon themselves before emerging as fully-grown flies, but the potential for pestilence seems even stronger here, with loud hollow-sounding dulcimer plucking that serves as a jarring reminder of the intense biological activity taking place within the seemingly placid pupal form. "Metamorphosis" deals with that biological activity directly, with buzzing, string drones, and muffled percussion coming together in concert like the biological systems of an animal, ending with another literal parallel to the album's title in the form of amplified buzzing wings. Alternating back and forth between ambient symbolism and more obvious sonic synecdoche, The Progeny of Flies is an effective portrait of nature at its most unapologetically grisly, but fans of Liles and Menche's other dark experimental compositions are sure to appreciate this one as well.