The Daily Growl

It’s funny how music can creep up on you totally unawares, and before you know it, very quickly become a bit of an obsession. The other day I was having a chat with my record collecting colleague about Map of Africa and their super limited and in-demand self-titled album. I had a listen, but didn’t care that much for their sludgy psychedelic rock groove thing. I guess a lot of the clamour around them at the moment has to do with the whole exclusivity of the vinyl copies of the album.

But then, whilst surfing around the Guardian’s music blogs, I came across this article by Alan McGee (no less) about just how cool the NYC label Whatever We Want Records is. Of course, Map of Africa is on that label. But so too is another artist called Quiet Village. Then I remembered there’s a remix by said artist on the lovely double 12 inch remix set of James Yorkston’s Woozy With Cider, sitting back in my house.

One thing led to another and I found myself repeatedly listening to a load of Quiet Village tunes, and really liking what I heard. They seem to have a couple of different things going on. The tracks under their own name have a sort of loose, toned down disco vibe. Their remixes are more dense, dubby and sparse. But both are very good.

I’ve also been searching for info on Quiet Village. There’s not really much out there, but I can discern two main facts:

1. Quiet Village is essentially Matt ‘Radioslave’ Edwards and Joel Martin.

2. They also have the same exclusive vinyl reputation as their labelmates. A quick internet search for their records, turns up lots of ‘out of stock’ notes. So that’s high crate-diggers’ prices on ebay then? Thankfully, they’ve made a couple of tracks available for download on their myspace, which I’ve posted below.

Quiet Village’s own tunes

Download: Quiet Village – Circus of Horror
Download: Quiet Village – Too High to Move

Quiet Village remixes

Download: Gorillaz – Kids With Guns (Quiet Village Remix)
Download: James Yorkston – Woozy With Cider (Quiet Village Remix)
Download: Black Devil with Quiet Village – I Regret the Flower Power (Fragments of Fear)

You can download more remixes at Bleep.com. If anyone has access to more mp3s of the rare-as-hen’s-teeth Quiet Village tracks, I’d love to know.

PS. Sorry for the low quality bitrate on the Quiet Village tracks and the Gorillaz remix - that’s MurdochSpace for you. The other two are fine.