The talented Will Holland aka Quantic made a successful debut with his 2001 album ”The 5th Exotic”. He uses crispy vinyl samples fused with live instruments and electronic manipulation in the style of artists like LTJ Bukem and Bonobo. With a Latin and jazz inspired sound, he mixes acoustic and electronic elements in a way that blurs out the difference between the two, creating a groovy and smooth sound. This album is so deep and warm that I can only agree with the title as a proposed description: Exotic.

From sounds that move you to sounds that sooth you, these songs have so many different qualities and details. For instance, the mashup between old crackling vinyl samples and an warm jazz guitar is such a great match, that it really contributes to the overall feeling of a conjoined whole. Everything is fitted in perfectly, thus making it sound very natural. Will Holland is a true master of blending things that match up with each other, which is clearly visible in his music.

He matches warp basses with salsa percussions, uses filtered hip-hop drums on top of bubbling synth sounds and inserts classy voice samples with strange sayings underlining a certain feeling. This music creates moods, feelings and thoughts, because it has a great overall flow combined with many details.

The track “Time is the Enemy” is a great example of Will Holland’s stunning work. It has a slow and grainy start, but when the hard-hitting drums kick in, everything is crystal clear. The gentle piano fading from side to side is emotive as anything can be; distant but so near. The heavy drums drive the song forward in a toned down style together with the hypnotic ride cymbal that pulses forward. It’s hard to describe the very feeling of this song, but one thing is easy to conclude: it’s definitely worth listening to again. This could be related to the clever title of the song that proposes time as an enemy, which certainly is the case with this track. It’s so haunting that it will steal your time, thus the time being the enemy. No matter what you make of the title, it’s truly an instant classic, just like many of the songs off this album.

“The 5th Exotic” will steal your time by painting a dreamy landscape of sounds around your head. The music floats and sweeps despite its massive beats and deeps. Just take the stairway down to that old basement, where everything is a bit grainy and dark, and listen to the dusty sound of old vinyls and tapes. There’s some jazz, some Latin music, an old movie and other stuff that resemble a nightly chilled out vibe. When listening to Quantic, it feels like a visit to this basement. This album captures the magic of old records combined with modern creativity; a dreamy universe made of sophisticated and beautiful sounds.

by Emil