This cross-continent collaboration between two veterans of far out sound doesn't feature the extremes of either man's aesthetic, opting instead for something more sedate. Ostensibly dedicated to the life of the ubiquitous insect, The Progeny of Flies is divided into four tracks, one for each stage of the fly's life cycle. Rather than harp on the insistent, annoying buzzing that characterizes the housefly in the minds of most, Liles and Menche work with sullen simplicity, creating what sounds more like a funeral dirge for the insect than a celebration of its growth.
At the heart of The Progeny of Flies is an ominous darkness. On "Eggs" and "Metamorphosis," which open and close the proceedings, things are more direct in the form of dense, sometimes heavy tonal clusters, but the intervening tracks, "1st to 3rd Instar" and "Pupa," Liles and Menche opt for a sparse pairing of acoustic instruments (piano, strings, and drums) over far more subtly rumbling tones and drones. The latter approach may be the less immediately forceful, but its foreboding effect lingers longer in the mind. Liles and Menche are a touch melodramatic at times, though an emotional component is a welcome addition amongst what might could have been sterile sonic experiments. The somber mood of "1st the 3rd Instar," provided by the piano, is an odd choice to represent a stage of great metamorphosis in the life of a fly, though one gets the feeling that either Liles and Menche view this assumption of a new form as a decidedly forlorn time, or, more likely, that there's little to be gained in attempting any sort of literal reading of the sounds on the album in concert with the stages they represent.
"Metamorphosis" is the disc's most striking track, taking its name to heart in a slowly shifting progression that builds from sparseness into a claustrophobic cacophony of interwoven drones before coming to a close with the sound of the album's namesakes, the fly finally reaching its mature adult form. The buzz of the fly takes on an threatening tone, and that Liles and Menche are able to imbue the appearance of an animal little more than a pest with such foreboding is a testament to the atmosphere they spend the whole album constructing. The Progeny of Flies isn't the flashiest of releases, but its impact is one that relies on more understated entreaties. Like a persistent fly flying about the plate of a diner, The Progeny of Flies doesn't behave with any undue bravado, but once enters the consciousness, the listener will have a hard time ignoring its persistent effect.
