Bumpin' bumpkins

>> The Rurals' house in the country

by KRISTA

"They speak quite a bit of French over where you are, don't they," queries the Rurals' Andy Compton on the telephone from his comfy cottage in Devon.

"Yes, but almost everyone here speaks English as well. Nothing for you to worry about," I assure him.

"Oh good, because we went to France not long ago and that didn't go so well." He sounds like an excited boy, all fast-talking and small laughing at the end of every question.

"You don't know how to speak any French?" I ask.

"Not really, no. At least not more than to say, 'That's a very small dog' or something like that."

I am now wondering if the incidence of small dogs is higher in France than it is in Quebec. Or in the "strange small village" near Devon, south of London, that the trio call home. It's there that they generate their spin on that most urban of musical styles, house. Member Pete Morris tends to hermit in the studio (which is why he'll be absent on this current little jaunt on this side of the pond), while Andy Compton and his girlfriend Marie (aka Tweek, the Rurals' vocalist) find time for more appropriately rural pursuits.

"Marie's a bit of a horsey person. She like to ride her horse around and the like. And I'm into BMX--but I'm not very good," he says abruptly. "I can't do tricks or anything. I just like to ride around the dirt lanes in our village."

Compton and Morris met many years ago when Compton was doing the club promotions thing. Soon after they started making tunes together, they got a call from Marie, who'd gotten their number from a local shop, and the trio have been a team ever since (although Andy and Marie are more of a team, if you know what I mean).

"We're just the three of us regularly," says Andy of the eclectic house-music ensemble, "but there are about six other musicians who come in the studio with us, and when we do a live PA. When we get in the studio to do a track with that many people we usually just hit record and hope for the best. We have a reputation for being a bit loose."

Those country types. They're so laid back that way.

At Therapy at Jello on Thursday, Jan. 18, $8