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In an interview with City Paper last year, Silver Spring’s Jeff Barsky described his composing technique this way: “I usually have a point A that I start from, and a point B where I’d like to end up. I know that somewhere in between, I’m going to stop for some coffee. And then I’ll stop to have lunch. If I’ve hit those two stops en route, I’ve satisfied the compositional needs of the piece.”
He was being unnecessarily humble, so forget the earthly metaphor and focus on the gist: He’s all about travel—and he’s proving to be a memorable pilot. “Broadcast Rain,” the 34-minute “A side” of his free digital release under the moniker Insect Factory on D.C. label Zeromoon, is a blissful-but-intense trip of gradually building and carefully dissolving sounds. Some are identifiable as guitars and drums, but most aren’t. There’s a definite pulse and a tangible sense of time, but no official rhythm. Barsky never becomes too enamored with any cluster of wavelengths, but all of them stick around long enough to become familiar. It’s transportive and ultimately reassuring—-a reminder that noises can go on and on, remembered by the cosmos. (The B-side, “Rain Dream,” is less lush and slightly sinister, as if some of the A-side scattered into darker territory and decided to stick it out in the name of art.)