Quiet Village, Silent Movie
Featured Album
Head-spinning sample-slaw exotica, courtesy of the artist also known as Radio Slave.
In dance music, the pseudonym reigns supreme. So it's not surprising to learn that half of the duo Quiet Village is Matt Edwards, the British DJ-producer who's worked under numerous monikers; he's best known for the frequently brilliant singles he's put out as Radio Slave. (He also issued a legendary Kylie/New Order mash-up under that name.) The attention to detail Edwards shows on Radio Slave tracks like "Bell Clap Dance" and "My Bleep" makes Silent Movie, the first album he's released with Quiet Village partner Joel Martin, less surprising than it might be — but only slightly. Martin is a former film editor who venerates cutout soundtrack and cheesy-listening vinyl as much as his partner does, and they fill Silent Movie with enough out-of-nowhere snippets to turn even obviously familiar elements on their head.
The album is an exercise in opulence. "Victoria's Secret" opens things with gulls and waves lapping ashore alongside serene strings and woodwinds. But it's also slightly seasick, befitting its despondent source material, the Chi-Lites '"Coldest Day of My Life." Similar strings underpin "Circus of Horror," but the main attraction there is a guttural guitar riff reminiscent equally of blaxploitation-soundtrack funk and hairy '70s sludge-rock. “Free Rider” crosses trip-hop atmospherica, stoned acoustic folk, wah-wah guitar that calls to mind the lonesome whistle from Ennio Morricone spaghetti western themes and oddly unsettling crowd noises. "Singing Sand" sounds like its title. Chimes, pitter-patting bongos, filtered whispered exhales, sideways strings and a ponderous piano line — on paper, it seems like treacle, but the elements are arranged to unsettle, and succeed.
Of course, flirting with cheese means you sometimes fall in — "Keep on Rolling" is a little too yacht-rock for its own good, for example, even if that's its explicit goal. But at its frequent best, Silent Movie is head-spinning, sample-slaw exotica, one of the best albums of its type this side of the Avalanches 'debut.
