Rural Sprawl finds Jim DeJong, who goes under the stage name “The Infant Cycle” teaming up with Aidan Baker, a classically trained musician on an experimental album which is comprised of four, albeit, richly layered tracks. Baker’s instrument of choice is the electric guitar, which he uses on this album to create sounds that range from the drone of an electric wire to the eerie sound of hovering insects.
Judging from the cover art, and the even darker austere of the album’s cover, the record seems to expound on the isolation and lapses in time associated with rural landscapes. “Summer” begins with repetitive clicks and beeps amidst a manic whirring sound that continues on throughout the entirety of the track, the clicks and beeps growing louder, and finally subsiding at its conclusion.
“Temperature Drop” jettisons onwards with the same tracking beat, like a tape that has finished and needs to be flipped over onto the other side. The duo builds a calm aura around the beat with sliding bell sounds that sound ghostlike and fragile at the same time. The song continues onwards becoming a richer, more complex sound with haunting horns that allows the amalgam of sounds to crescendo near the end of the track, in a distressing array of organ and electric guitar samples.
“You Left Your Breath on My Window “ is another expansive effort that begins with sharp crackles which then die down and eventually give way to spurts of electronic beeps and whirrs that blossom in complexity and frequency. Here lies the essence of the concept of Rural Sprawl, a maniacal juxtaposition of silence, and clatters of repetitive sounds that justify the view one could imagine from looking through an isolated house, in the middle of nowhere.
“Rights Of Spring” ends the effort with livelier waves of electronic sound that emanate into sharp electronic pulses, which end in sweet sounding electronic influences, similar to that of chirping birds. Overall, Rural Sprawl is an engaging and at times, sophisticated mélange of electronic that draws from sparse and at often times, eerie influences. The abandoned manor overlooking a moody field, the sounds of birds heralding the first signs of spring, the loss of a loved one whose presence still lingers; all these concepts are captured faithfully on this effort. Furthermore, judging from the length of each track, the duo will soon helm another interpretation that will no doubt, enrich the experimental genre even further.
Rukshan Thenuwara – MuzikReviews.com Staff
August 14, 2009
