British artist Will Holland (aka Quantic) has absolutely awesome tastes in music. At least according to where my musical heart is at.
Those tastes are reflected in and are a part of, the absolutely awesome and innovative music he has created in each of his many musical projects over more than a decade.
Master Fusion Chef
Will Holland is a Master Chef of fusion music as I talk about it in Beaver World.
In his interchanging roles of musician, producer, song writer, arranger, band leader and DJ, he blends worldwide sounds and flavours to create unique, diverse, delicious musical cocktails.
The ingredients Will Holland uses for those musical cocktails are of the absolute best sort you see…
Sweet Vinyl
*Sweet sounding, old vinyl records of music from musically amazing parts of the world…Africa – the South & Central Americas – and the Caribbean (+ the UK & Europe too 🙂 )
…personally collected by Will Holland from those & other corners of the world.
The Finest of Genres
Music mixing up different combinations of…
*Funk – Soul – R&B – Afro Beat & other African styles – Jazz – Hip Hop – Indian – Reggae – Dub – Mento – Calypso – Latin in its every-so-many forms, especially the beloved Cumbia + Currulao, Chirimia, Rumba, Bossa Nova, Mambo, Fandango, Porro, Pachanga, Bugalu, and many more.
Awesome tastes in music, yes indeed.
Top Quality Artists
*So many different collaborations with always incredible (many of them legendary) music artists from around the world. Lots of them are Colombian, especially in recent years while Will Holland has been based in Colombia. Given my love for Colombian music in all its diverse forms, that’s an extra special element in this music for me.
Ondatrópica
*Sometimes the artists contributing to a song are recording their parts in different studios around the world. Exceptionally in these days of sound recording, Will Holland’s projects also often have all the musicians playing and recording together in the same room at the same time. The musicians, singers and engineers are more than enough skilled to do that – and the special essence of them creating music together in that moment, is captured as it should be.
*The artists are old school and new school ones, young and old.
*Will Holland is of course one of them – most often on guitar, and more recently on accordian too.
Sounds of the Good Ol’ Days
*Vintage instruments.
*Analogue recording equipment.
*Old school recording techniques and almost-forgotten engineering skills.
*Live recordings of vocals and instrumental parts by artists, instead of the use of samples.
The different combinations of all those ingredients in Will Holland’s many musical projects, equals a long discography of diverse, high quality, warm and textured sounding musical creations. Each one is a delight to listen and dance to.
Quantic Creations So Far
Here are just some of Will Holland’s musical creations to give you an idea of the goodness to be found in the entire collection…
*I’ve talked before about the Colombian fusion music treasure that is Ondatrópica (check it and sample Ondatrópica songs here).
*Collaborations with Alice Russell, including their soulful, bluesy album Look Around The Corner recorded with The Combo Barbaro.
*Los Miticos Del Ritmo – a 2013 album written by Will Holland and recorded with he and his studio band of Colombian cumbia & vallenato musicians.
*The Quantic Soul Orchestra with 60’s jazz-funk-soul diva Spanky Wilson on the album I’m Thankful.
*The Original Sound of Cumbia – a history collection of obscure, vintage Colombian cumbia & porro tracks from between 1948 to 1979 – divided between 2 discs by their status as either pre or post externally-influenced music.
*Quantic’s dub/tropical Latin albums Flowering Inferno (Death of the Revolution + Dog With a Rope).
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*Lots more fusions (and not) of rare funk, soul, jazz, breakbeat, hip hop, Latin, Afro, reggae, dub + more – on these & other albums and singles released as Quantic or The Quantic Soul Orchestra…
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- Off The Beaten Track-Quantic
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- Stampede-The Quantic Soul Orchestra
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- Hip Hop En Cumbia
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- The 5th Exotic-Quantic
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- Pushin On-The Quantic Soul Orchestra
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- Apricot Morning-Quantic
Finally for now, check out some sample tracks from two of my favourite albums in the Quantic collection – Tropidelico and Tradition In Transition. When you listen, please remember there’s not many original sounds of the music left in these here mp3 versions. Buy the real deal for the true sonic experience.
The Quantic Soul Orchestra – Tropidelico (2007)
‘Melodious Wayfarer (Soul Montuno)’ – Tropidelico (2007)
‘San Sebastian Strut (Cumbia Soul)’ – Tropidelico (2007)
Quantic And His Combo Barbaro – Tradition In Transition (2009)
This album features, amongst other great artists, legendary Peruvian born piano player Alfredo Linares; Panama’s beloved soul singer Kabir; a beautiful horn section that makes me smile with each note played (Cuban trumpet player Angel Hernandez and Colombian Lucho Blanco on sax); with Will Holland on guitar.
‘Mas Pan’ – Tradition In Transition (2009)
‘Linda Morena’ – Tradition In Transition (2009)
More Quantic Music Soon & For Forever
Will Holland’s musical creations can be yours to have and behold forever, on sweet vinyl and/or cd. If absolutely necessary (let’s hope it never is), on mp3 too. You can buy them through Tru Thoughts Recordings (along with music by the label’s other great artists) or the Quantic site.
Keep an ear out for whatever fusion (or other) music wonders Will Holland has in store for us next. I’m also still hoping for a live Ondatrópica experience somewhere in my future.
In the meantime who’s coming to WOMADelaide in March to dance some Quantic DJ sets away with me? Given all of the above, it’s pretty easy to believe that whatever musical cocktails Will Holland has in store for us at WOMAD will be absolutely awesome too. Less than 6 weeks to wait now!
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