The Quiet Temple - The Quiet Temple (2019)

The Quiet Temple have announced details of the release of their self-titled debut album on Friday June 28th 2019. An amorphous musical collective put together by Rich Machin and Duke Garwood, with a rolling cast of players assembled from the likes of Soulsavers, Spiritualized, Stereolab and Julian Cope. Recorded live over the course of a week, there was no splicing of takes, as that would have defeated the concept. On occasion the group performed a live edit where they would take sections from different takes, but the original intention of creating a record where everything was recorded live was maintained. The result is a potent and nuanced record that beguiles as much as it charms. Across six tracks the album moves from the languorous lysergic shuffle of the opening The Last Opium Den (On Earth) to the beatific - almost Balearic - lazy grooves of The Bible Black. Elsewhere, the opening cinematic vistas of Shades of Gemini soon gives way to something far more menacing and whisky-sodden. Finally, the closing Utopia & Visions takes the electronic post-punk visions of Talk Talk into unapologetic cosmic dub territory. So while jazzs spirit of wanderlust underpins the record, Machin is defiant that The Quiet Temple is not a jazz album. I dont think its a jazz record, he states. Its got a lot of Krautrocky stuff going on in it as well. For me, as well as the Alice Coltrane influence, its equal parts Velvet Underground and Harmonia. Theres lots of psyche rock and other elements in there too.