Quiet Village - Silent Movie

Presenter

Declan Doherty

Published

Thursday 29th May

For the first couple of listens the reviewer is left confused and frustrated at Quiet Village’s debut release “Silent Movie”. Is it Ambient? Chill Out? Easy Listening? Lounge? Electronica? Folk? Jazz? After a few more listens you realise that its all of these and much, much more, and that this genre defying album is something that becomes more infectious and seductive with every listen.

Previously known for remixing acts such as the Gorrillaz and Francois K and for releases on DJ Harvey’s ultra-cool Whatever We Want Records, Quiet Village is the partnership of Matt Edwards, well known as tech house act Radioslave, and Joel Martin, crate digger and vinyl junkie and the man behind the “Bite Hard” compilation of tracks from the De Wolfe Music library. Its perhaps because of this strange combination of tech-head and nerdy trainspotter that makes this album work and ensures that it isn’t confined to the Chill Out rack next to the Café Del Mar and Buddha Bar compilations. Silent Movie is a cocktail of acoustic and electric guitars, strings, wobbly broken baselines, slow funky beats, vocoded vocals, oboes, clarinets and a bit of blues all into one moody and sensual ride. By taking samples from obscure 70s soundtracks and pop numbers and turning them on their head, Quiet Village create a soundtrack of both uplifting and kitschy moments setting the perfect backdrop to sip a martini at sunset as well as quirkier and more tripped out sounds for those sprawled in the lounge room at 7am on a Sunday morning after the night before.