Sometimes I can’t help but think that the recent popularity of the Café del Mar Volumes has provoked a reaction for other artists to jump on the bandwagon and start releasing compilations of chilled out music. So what? Does this mean that other releases under this genre won’t match up to the quality of the popular Café del Mar?



The Quiet Hours is another compilation CD. Manufactured and Distributed by the Australian Label Creative Vibes and compiled by French DJ Christian Dumas Solo. The CD plays host to well known artists such as St Germain as well as homegrown talent Soup the former Basket Ball player with the Sydney Kings. This is another CD that is likely to be heard inside trendy Cafés and quiet bars playing as ambient back ground music. Classic guitar sounds, sexy accents and flowing bass lines will mix together to have you nodding along whilst sipping on a café latte. There is a tribal edge mixed with some very funky 70’s sounds on one of the tracks ‘Arbore’ by Alexkid that could paint a picture of Tarzan & Cheetah partying down at Larry Levans Paradise Garage back in the early 80’s. Also try to ensure you haven’t got hidden snakes in any vases in your house whilst listening to EON’s ‘We’re All Insane’. The entrancing sound of what I would describe as a clarinet will surely lure them out but only to send them into a chilled out state where you could be sure to easily make them into a nice pair of boots for your missus.

The track by Kela called ‘Step Then’ stopped people talking at my house. The recent tracks before this one seemed to create a chatty atmosphere where the music was helping the flow of conversation. This track came on, everyone seemed to stop and look at the stereo as if it would be doing something, they listened to the music for a minute, then carried on talking, it was bizarre..



A lot of thought has gone into the selection of artists. Although a lot of them are not so well known commercially as guys like Moby, EBTG, Underworld & Massive Attack its easy to draw comparisons between the material found on this CD and the material that the Big Time Artists deliver to our ear drums. Whilst the sounds that the Big Boys and Girls are delivering to us are nothing to complain about its good to see other names being handed our way…although personally I think there’s room for Lisa Stansfield somewhere in the listing. If Rex Hunt caught this CD whilst out fishing he certainly wouldn’t be throwing it back for Neptune’s to add to his collection!!