The Quiet Temple - The Quiet Temple

Sometimes the names of the artists involved speak very much about what you are about to hear. The Quiet Temple and their debut are exactly one of those albums.

It is Rich Machin and Duke Garwood, quite known quantities, but so are the others involved (Ray Dickaty, Tim Lewis [aka Thighpaulsandra], Pete Marsh, Paul May, Doggen), who've played previously with the likes of Soulsavers, Spiritualized, Stereolab and Julian Cope.

One thing we don't get that might have been expected is Duke Garwood's vocals or any other for that matter. But it is still that nocturnal atmosphere all over, with his saxophone playing dominating, like on the "The Last Opium Den (on Earth)", which constantly tightens the atmosphere as it is going to turn into King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" at any second. And it doesn't.

What it does is keep on creating a psych/kraut/proto-prog atmosphere throughout the album, that dips into some electro Miles Davis, like on "The Bible Black" (another King Crimson reference?), without going into any prog excesses that genre is known for.

It seems that the loose team on hand wanted to create some loose improvisational themes. “One of the big things I wanted to achieve with this record was breaking away from things being super planned out,” Machin explains. “To actually just go into a studio without having everything mapped out in advance. And being comfortable enough to see what happens. It was incredibly stressful at first, but once you realize it works it’s actually a really nice way to work.”

Everything was recorded live in the studio, and what gives The Quiet Temple another angle is this Velvet Underground take on jazz the guys aimed for, most evident on "Shades of Gemini", referencing Marcus Belgrave's Gemini, one of the jazz albums Machin cites as inspiration here.

While everything on the surface seems to be loose and at the spur of the moment, we get music that is still structured, inspirational and not so easy to put your finger on, no matter how hard you try. Like one of those live concerts you always wanted to witness.