D/B Artist Feature: Quiet Village

Posted on | May 14, 2009 | No Comments

After three sought-after singles plus remixes for the likes of Gorillaz, François K, Cosmo Vitelli and, um, The Osmonds – Quiet Village step out of the shadows to present their first full-length album, ‘Silent Movie’.

Comprised of master crate-digger Joel Martin and rising dance-music star Matt Edwards (aka Radio Slave), and borrowing their name from Martin Denny’s exotica masterpiece, Quiet Village make the old sound new (and vice versa). Influenced by Italian film soundtracks, BBC library music, disco edits, acid rock, vintage soul and easy listening, they smear the unlikeliest elements-bluesy guitar, chamber strings, air-raid sirens, shuffling breakbeats, even flutes and seagull cries-into an hour-long reverie with Vaseline on its lens.

Quiet Village – Pacific rhythm

Silent Movie isn’t a “dance album,” not by a long shot, but it’s as hypnotic as the rotation of a disco ball, chock full of long phrases, gentle repetitions and subtle shifts that slyly pull the rug out from under you. For head music, this is pretty body-conscious stuff. Chalk it up to Matt and Joel’s long history as DJs, inciting crowds at classic parties like New York’s Deep Space with a canny blend of dub, slow disco and vintage house, with plenty of surprises thrown in for good measure. With the lights down low, the whole album takes on the quality of a dream state. Credit Quiet Village’s love of the chillout classics of the late ’80s and early ’90s, from Slowdive’s shoegazing to the Orb’s stargazing. Excessive noodling gave the comedown record a bad rep, but everybody’s got to calm down sometime, and Quiet Village have a secret recipe for relaxation. Again, the duo’s experience as selectors informs the album’s sequencing, resulting in a flow that’s as natural as the grooming in a Swedish ’70s flick. From the great exhalation of the opening track to the blissed-out drift of the closing “Keep On Rolling,” ‘Silent Movie’ flows in a long, emotive arc.

http://www.myspace.com/quietvillage |  http://www.quietvillage-silentmovie.com

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