All The Quiet (Part II)

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“I’ve been thinking about the end of music,” Joe Armon-Jones tells Apple Music. “I’ve called my two-part album <i>All the Quiet</i> because it’s about a world thousands of years in the future when music has been pushed out of existence because it hasn’t been taken care of properly. We’re the last people listening and playing.” Lynchpin of the London jazz circuit and member of Mercury Prize-winning group Ezra Collective, Armon-Jones released the first part of his 20-track opus <i>All the Quiet</i> in March, establishing his dystopian vision through dub fanfares and breakbeat rhythms. Now returning with <i>Part II</i>, Armon-Jones links up with frequent collaborators such as singers Hak Baker and Greentea Peng to produce 10 propulsive tracks spanning the head-nodding synth-funk of “Lavender” to the washed-out, eerie dub of “505 Standby” and raucous horn melodies of “Journey South.” “<i>Part I</i> is the calm before the storm and <i>Part II</i> is the battle for music,” Armon-Jones says. “It’s all about how this art is essential to life.” Read on for Armon-Jones’ in-depth thoughts on the album, track by track. <b>“Acknowledgement Is Key” (feat. Hak Baker)</b> “I write a lot with Hak and we have a great relationship. He came through to record another tune we haven’t put out yet and, at the end of the session, I showed him an idea for this instrumental that I thought could work with spoken word. He had a cab coming in seven minutes and wrote these really beautiful and heartfelt words during that time! It makes me cry when I listen to it, since he lets the emotion just come through.” <b>“Lavender”</b> “‘Lavender’ is a chance moment we captured after we finished recording something else. Someone kicked off a new idea, since we were in the zone and the energy was already built up, which is usually when really special things come out. I was playing a random chord sequence, just hearing things and going for it, feeling on the edge of my seat. We ended up with a tune I never would have written otherwise.” <b>“Westmoreland” (feat. Asheber)</b> “This tune comes from the jam session at North Sea Jazz Festival that produced the track ‘Kingfisher’ on <i>Part I</i>. We went straight into this idea after jamming ‘Kingfisher’ for 20 minutes—our drummer Eddie [Hick] played the groove, I put on two chords and then it turned into what it is. Asheber came up with all the lyrics on stage, which is completely mad.” <b>“Psr Orchestra”</b> “I wanted to pay homage to my favorite Yamaha FM synth, the PSR, on this tune. It has a limited selection of sounds that you can edit and, as I was making the album, I got very attached to these keyboards and the soundworld they create. The track is just layers of Rhodes and PSR that are all improvised—it would be a difficult one to play back perfectly!” <b>“Paladin of Sound & Circumstance”</b> “I had no idea what this track would sound like or how it would develop before I put it in front of the band at the studio. It’s ultimately a real testament to the people I play with, since Eddie switches the groove instinctually halfway through, which sounds like an edit but was all a feeling in the moment that we went with together. In the universe of the record, the Paladins are the main defenders of the music.” <b>“Another Place” (feat. Greentea Peng & Wu-Lu)</b> “I’ve worked with both Greentea Peng and Wu-Lu lots before and I love their similar soundworlds. I was trying to capture the feeling of Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald or an old-school duo record where vocalists are responding to each other on the track. Greentea recorded her part first, and then I had Wu-Lu fill in the gaps and respond.” <b>“War Transmission”</b> “‘War Transmission’ has some of my favorite bass playing on the album and it’s a centerpiece of both records. You don’t often hear bass players doing what they want and roaming free on jazz tunes but our bassist Mutale Chashi never loses the foundation while he’s soloing whatever he feels. It’s an incredible testament to his musicianship.” <b>“505 Standby”</b> “This has the same process as the track ‘Show Me’ on <i>Part I</i>, where I recorded with the band and then ran the parts through the tape machine to play it back on a slower speed, which does something incredible to the textures of the horns and makes them sound like different instruments. I love the feeling of it.” <b>“Journey South”</b> “Of all the songs on both albums, I think this gave me the most grief when it came to mixing because it has so many different sounds fitting into one track. It’s an ode to Nubya Garcia’s soloing, and the way the song builds is based on her solo getting bigger and then creating the feeling that the arrangement is trying to swallow her saxophone as she expands. I’m adding more and more layers but she always soars above it.” <b>“One Way Traffic” (feat. Yazmin Lacey)</b> “No one sounds like Yazmin, she is exactly herself. She came to the studio, wrote the lyrics and sat down to do a perfect take in one, which had all the feeling of discovering the song in the moment. The ending of the track is me trying to dub out a soul tune and falling apart to end the album. I was so happy with the instrumental sound on this that I was a bit scared to touch it on the mixing desk because I didn’t want to spoil it.”

via Apple Music