NOONDAY UNDERGROUND

‘On A Quiet Night’

New album released 21/07/2018 on Hands Full Recordings

A soul pop sonic collage coupled with the utterly brilliant voice of London-based vocalist Daisy Martey

The theme for ‘On A Quiet Night’ is life today in a small British town. A perfectly ordinary scene from afar but look a little closer and there are kids hanging around on the streets with nothing to do, their parents sit at home fighting temptation behind closed doors, first impressions are formed, some are leaving town and those left behind worry about the future….and the bank gets robbed….

A brief intro kicks the album off – a rhythmic mechanical bass line washed with clouds of sound like a late summer sunset. Then the title track leaps into view with a tale of small town boredom set to bustling breakbeat funk. ‘See That Boy’ is a cheeky homage to Sandie, Dusty and other great female artists from the 60’s beat boom. ‘I’ll Never Know’ is a rockin’ romp Vegas Elvis style. The album keeps its foot on the gas until the pace slows with the eerie ‘Everything I Want’ and the tripped out soul of ‘Stay Down’. The beats kick back in for a quick spin on the dance floor with ‘A Little Just Ain’t Enough’ and the album drives to the horizon with the modernist stomp of ‘Don’t Leave Me Behind’.

Noonday Underground was formed in London in 2000 by producer Simon Dine in collaboration with vocalist Daisy Martey. This 5th Noonday Underground album was written and the backing tracks recorded at Dine’s studio in an old mill just outside of Manchester. Daisy’s soulful and powerful voice was recorded at Hackney Road Studios in East London. Daisy has often been compared to Julie Driscoll and Grace Slick and is blessed with a voice full of character, power and soul. It had been 10 years since Daisy and Simon had recorded together.

“Daisy’s voice was as wonderful as ever from the first take. Also her patience with my fussing over how certain words should sound never wavered. It was really exciting to scrub my guide vocals and hear the songs as they should be.” says Dine. “We’ve stayed in touch over the years but this was the first time we have hung out in a long while. It was a hoot!” he adds.

This new Noonday Underground material was written by Simon in between a host of recent song writing collaborations. He has contributed to the two Raf Rundell releases to date on 1965 Records, collaborated with Trashcan Sinatras on their most recent album ‘Wild Pendulum’. He is currently working with Mike Scott, Willy Moon, Abi Harding and newcomers Josh Goddard and Charlotte Cannon.

Noonday Underground’s 2001 debut ‘Self Assembly’ garnered a lot of love from vinyl obsessives and drew Sixties-centric comparisons with “Wigan Casino soul”, “West Coast Psychedelia” and “kinky-booted exotica”. For the follow-up ‘Surface Noise’ and subsequent albums Noonday Underground created a world focused on late 60’s studio music but kept their beat firmly 21st Century.

‘On A Quiet Night’ is the sound of 60’s beat music with a modernist twist – the most melodic, fun & focused Noonday Underground album to date.