chrisbangs.com: RECORDING THE QUIET BOYS LP

By 1993 Chris Bangs had been producing, writing and remixing in studios as diverse as the 108 channel Neve Flying Faders mixing desk at London's Hit Factory , while some of his tracks were laid down in a cheap 8 track studio next to a graveyard in South London. Spending long working days travelling to and from Studios all over London, Bangs decided it was time to set up his own studio for recording and mixing the Quiet Boys Acid Jazz records album " Bosh" Jazid CD 121.

The idea was to spend more time making music but it took 4 months for the bare concrete walls of the studio to get flooring and electrics installed, building a live room for recording and hours spent reading books and manuals and trying to figure out how to work tape machines and how to record a Fender Rhodes piano or Gibson guitar. Bangs never had any studio training but he was able to work with a fine mix engineer Fraser Henry who managed to pull the whole random mess together somehow just using mutes and pushing levels , Bangs had no automation in the studio at that time, bit of a loss to not have the SSL's to play around with any more !

First thing was to get Bangs rough structures laid down as proper songs on 16 track tape. Former Inversions keyboardist Stephen Jeffries was the man for the job. Bangs had just worked with him on the Quiet Boys track " Astral Space " especially recorded for the Totally Wired compilation series on Acid Jazz Records. Keys were recorded on Rhodes , Roland Mks-50 Synth, Piano and a vintage Sequential Circuits Pro One.

Percussionist Paul Gunter came in next and laid down some superb conga tracks. The live room and soundproofing had not yet been installed and the sound of skins being hit really hard, as Paul likes to do, came bouncing back off the stone walls , got recoded on bangs' 1 microphone in mono sounded really old and crusty !! Great. Bangs also got to record timbales, rainmakers, bata drums and all frankly without a clue what he was doing.

Further musical contributions came from guitarist Nigel Price , trumpet man Dave Priseman and Sax and Flute from Gary Spacey - Foote plus vocalist Greg Franks also features on 2 songs and the extra track " Live and Love " which is only found on the Japanese release or on the Hed Kandi Nu Cool compilation series.

All Music Guide Review

Working a mellow, funk-laced acid jazz groove, the Quiet Boys manage to keep the whole of their debut Bosh moving without getting repetitive. Although they're still searching for their creative voice, they have plenty of fine moments throughout the album, thanks in no small part to the stylish direction of DJ Chris Bangs, as well as the endlessly listenable guitars, which demonstrate a debt to Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, and George Benson. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

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