Great Spans Of Muddy Time

William Doyle gained near-instant stature in artier-leaning music circles with his first album under the East India Youth moniker, Total Strife Forever (2014). Merging a strong Bowie and Eno influence with the cutting-edge sounds of London dance clubs, he followed the Mercury Prize nominee a year later with Culture of Volume before putting the project on hiatus. Beginning in 2016, Doyle re-emerged with a series of self-recorded ambient albums tied to themes including mental health, ecology, and the study of light. He eventually returned to the indie rock inspirations of his teen years with the more collaborative Your Wilderness Revisited in 2019. Two years later, the ambitious Great Spans of Muddy Time (a description of depression by BBC presenter Monty Don) switches gears yet again, with Doyle combining elements of multiple prior outings into an inspired, mostly home-recorded meld of art rock, dancy synth pop, textured instrumentals, and sound experiments. He starts the album with the poignant and lyrical I Need to Keep You in My Life, a spacy introduction that feels like exposition for what proves to be a distinctly immersive, cinematic 13-track set. Wistful songs like And Everything Changed (But I Feel Alright) and Nothing at All, with its Latin rhythmic center and murmuring background whispers, lean into a synth pop adjacent to acts like the Blue Nile and Absolute Beginners-era Bowie. Meanwhile, instrumentals such as New Uncertainties and A Forgotten Film mix whimsical and cautionary moods with their layered, unpredictable blurting and shimmering tones: some acoustic, some not, and nearly all manipulated. A track like Semi-bionic successfully combines tuneful song and conspicuous recording experiments when it shadows Doyles crisp, theatrical main melody with vocal delay, then surrounds them with buzzy, oversaturated noise, string-like synths, and a steady beat. Taken together, Great Spans of Muddy Time makes for an immersive, profound experience that will reward repeat listens. ~ Marcy Donelson