Probably my most played album of last year. And quite possibly because I'd rather imagine myself on a boat off the coast of Scotland rather than the train outside of London Bridge every morning.
DIAMOND MINE is Mercury Prize nominated collaboration album by Scottish independent folk artist King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson) and electronic producer and Eno collaborator Jon Hopkins.
It's a seven track of Creosote's lilting folk interwoven with Hopkins field recording made in and around the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. What DIAMOND MINE gives you is a romanticised view of the life of a small fishing villages in this little nook of Scotland. Starting with the sound of the village shop, the sound of sea and wind. Hopkins said: "It's a bit like my dream version of life... like the way Paris appears in Amélie."
As on his own excellent solo album Hopkins makes extensive use of 'Musique Concrete' the technique of capturing real sounds, voices and abstracting them to create something altogether more hazy and atmospheric. Added to this backdrop Creosote's delicate vocals and understated lyrics about the joys and sadness of a small town and the record conveys a quietly powerful sense of time and place.
'John Taylor's Month Away' is a delicately told tale of the melancholy of men away at sea. You can almost smell the sea salt and sense of quiet despair: "A dozen men, thirty days, with 24 hours in each / of shattered boyhood dreams and not much sleep".
The last track 'Your Young Voice' is a beautifully sung acoustic lullaby where Creosote sings repeatedly "It's your young voice, thats keeping me holding on, to my dull life, to my dull life". Granted when written it sounds miserable, but it's beautiful to listen to. The other five tracks I'll let you discover for yourself. To quote some fellow on iTunes who I wholeheartedly agree with, this album is "about the most beautiful thing i have ever, ever heard. Amazing".
Creosote has released over forty albums in the last eighteen years, mostly on his own Fence Records label, so it's gratifying for him to have had some success with DIAMOND MINE. He said "It feels like this is the beginning of something. And to feel that so far down the line, after putting out forty effing albums... oh my God! It means, I can still do this, it's not over."
Though somehow I think that of you've already put out forty albums, there's nothing that could stop you. And thank goodness for that.
JOHN TAYLOR'S MONTH AWAY
BUBBLE
YOUR YOUNG VOICE
No comments:
Post a Comment