Diamond Mine

Diamond Mine is a collaboration between electronic producer Jon Hopkins and folk artist King Creosote. You can forget about the electronic part as this album is full of fragile folk songs. And these are very well composed and produced. Especially "Bats in the Attic" is a great one.

From the antique album cover to the sparse fragile tunes this is not meant for the heady heights of the MTV awards but to be treasured and played late at night with the lights low.

This felt like a very poor outing until it rolled into some of King Creosote’s other work. I guess this is as good as it gets. I did not like this and wish I hadn’t listened to it.

Such impactful voice and music. I felt like he was playing to my soul. Incredible writing, awesome performance

Scotland! Also really good, but the Scottish bonus point is what gets it full marks

What a stunningly beautiful album. I almost never do this for albums I'm hearing for the first time, but I'm going with 5 stars for this one. Simply sublime.

Hell yeah, love this record so much. Especially your young voice. Instant 5

so beautiful! I’m in love :D I only wish it was longer, I’ll be sure to check out the Jubilee Edition soon - 10/10

John Taylor’s Month Away // Bubble // Your Young Voice 3.5/5

4.3 I think this is a beautiful album. Slightly disappointed it hasn't attributes it to both King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - the latter an artist I greatly admire, and whose Immunity I almost chose as my contribution to the user list (it made it into the final three shortlisted). Though his contribution to this album isn't immediately obvious, diving deeper into his catalogue it carries the sensitivity and softeness of the asleep versions of Immunity, one of my favourite EPs. My one downside is that the latter half runs out of steam slightly, I don't love Bubble and Spell, but the closer is really nice.

I’m not familiar with King Creosote or Jon Hopkins, but man, I feel like I’ve been getting a ton of folky stuff lately. I don’t mind folk stuff from the sixties, but modern folk is mostly a miss for me. However, even if this album isn’t my jam, I see it’s fairly short, so that’s a win in my book. Man, this was a really solid album. Right off the bat, I loved the gentle piano and background conversation on “First Watch.” It did a great job of really sucking me into this album’s setting, and it set the stage wonderfully for “John Taylor’s Month Away.” I loved that slow build on “John Taylor’s Month Away,” especially when the bass and percussion pick up, and the background vocals start. It was such a beautiful and desolate song. “Bats In The Attic” was great too, with its gentle piano playing. I really enjoyed how the sound developed and evolved as it went on. The rest of the album was really good, although I felt like it didn’t ever reach the depth of emotion that those first three songs had. For an album with pretty sparse instrumentation, the sound still felt really rich, and I’m impressed in the way that KC and JH did so much with so little. Even though the album was short, the last bit of it dragged a bit for me, and I think that’s because the last few songs, while pleasant and well made, didn’t offer up anything new that wasn’t done on the first half of the album. This was really nice to listen to today, and I think it’s a solid addition to the user submission list.

Lovely folk-sounding album

What a weird and cool album. At times if feels like an Brian Eno ambient album, but then all of the sudden it will be a folk album. Really cool listen, and I want to check out more stuff from this dude or people (I don't remember how many constitute this band) 4/5

I listen to my records in the very early morning before the rest of my house wakes up. This is an experience before sunrise. It's a little same sounding throughout but it is hauntingly good at it.

This I enjoyed. I will explore more. I really liked the writing and the combination with other soundscapes.

That was lovely

Hauntingly beautiful vocals. I'd heard of King Creosote but didn't really know what to expect. The production from John Hopkins is really clear and complements the vocals really well. Don't be misled by the fact that he's got a background in electronic music, he clearly just knows his way around the equipment to make a good album.

Nice and pleasant. My personal rating: 3/5 My rating relative to the list: 4/5 Should this have been included on the original list? No.

Really enjoyed this, sucker for Scottish vocals so one I’ll come back to.

A great combo of musicians!

I found this to be an excellent neo-folk album. Very well written and unassuming but solid music. The electronica component honestly didn't particularly register while listening - which could charitably be seen as a result of a fully integrated sound. I'll take that view since I liked this a lot.

This was pretty nice to listen to. Didn’t jump out and become my immediate favorite but I did find myself easing into it more and more.

The tenderest Scotsman croons you to sleep. God imagine this man saying the word “creosote “. Either you or he would have an aneurism

Jon Hopkins is an electronic music producer who got his big break working with the likes of Imogen Heap, Brian Eno, and Coldplay. King Creosote is a folk singer-songwriter whose output prior to this album has been voluminous. Hopkins, having produced for Creosote before, decided to work together on a collaborative album when the two found time. Over the course of seven years, they worked on Diamond Mine. Creosote's sensitive songs combined with Hopkins' wide atmosphere makes for some intricate soundscapes. Combined with field recordings of everyday hustle and bustle, much of Diamond Mine feels like the transient thoughts of a sensitive man, lonely but not alone. Much of this album breezed past me, leaving not much of an impression on me. Unoffensive, unremarkable music. CONTENDER FOR THE LIST: Probably not.

I get what Diamond Mine is trying to do, it's quite nice in places if a bit underwhelming, when it gets it right it sounds beautiful and inspirational and melancholy at the same time. Bubble is the best example of that, it's a shame there's not more of that same quality throughout but if we're digging into this indie-folk love-in the user submissions list seems to have cultivated, this is better than most and probably therefore deserves a 3/5.

Folk isn’t usually my thing, but I can deal with folk that has more happening. (It’s hard to be interested when there is like two instruments and one is Bob Dylan on the harmonica.) Goddamn, this music is beautiful. Its beauty is because King Creosote is measured and throws a punch when they mean it. Sometimes the decibel the vocals were at bothered me, but I think I’m being picky.

First off, let me just say that I find the artist name "King Creosote" to be so badass. Second, I wasn't quite sure where to land with this album. It is beautifully sung and played, ESPECIALLY "Bats in the Attic" -- this is the album's gem in my opinion. But that said, the album was not really my thing and I had trouble staying interested. Even still, this album is no slouch.

Favourite songs: Bats in the Attic, John Taylor's Month Away Least favourite songs: First Watch 3/5

Indie, folk, instrumental for much of it. Pretty stuff.

This was a whole rollercoaster before I even started it - Looks like some old country album from the album cover - wait, nope, it was released in 2011. Wait a second, the site says this will be an Electronic Downtempo album. Then I played it and it was a mellow indie folk album, okay then. A pleasant, short listen. Not much wrong with it. I like the guy's vocals and accent. Not sure if it's something I'll ever want to return to though. 3/5.

Kind of a gentle and pleasant album to fall asleep to - definitely meaning this as a compliment. The drawback was that the vocals are too prominent for me; I'd have liked the lovely music to shine a little more or at least on parallel with the vocals which for me keeps this from being a repeat listen. Definite talent and care here, though, which I appreciate. 6/10 3 stars IMO: Belonged in the book? No.

It's not exactly what I expect when I think of electronic music (of any kind), and it's not particularly bad or great. Since it was short, I think I can classify it as an enjoyable experience overall.

Sweet

Rating: 6/10 Best songs: Bubble

Fine enough rainy morning music. Unclear what "English electronica musician Jon Hopkins" was bringing to the table, since this was entirely a folky production

Nice

This quiet alt played while I listened

Not unpleasant overall, but with such a short album (only seven tracks in the original LP, for a duration of around 32 minutes) you simply can't afford to have half of the songs verging on rather bland and innocuous music. Mad respect for King Creosote for toiling his way to a Mercury prize nomination after having released so many DIY records, but it seems to me that the relative critical rave for this one release was a bit of an exaggeration. Maybe I can't fully appreciate *Diamond Mine* because I now personally enjoy modern folk music displaying far stronger flavors and more daring intents, generally speaking -- I'd rather have Richard Dawson use his strange expressive voice over off-kilter chord successions on a broken guitar, for instance, or listen to the the Irish extended gang of Lankum / ØXN (that Ian Lynch - Radie Peat connection, also once considered for a Mercury prize) inserting post-rock and ambient "doom folk" drone tones in their covers of centuries-old ballads, or even Milkweed using broken beats on their weird artisanal tunes... All sorts of musical adventures propelling you into unchartered territories, where folk traditions may feel as extravagant in their presentation as they are deeply human on the inside. In comparison, this collaboration between King Creosote and Jon Hopkins feels like a visit to a Starbucks Coffee joint. Sure it's one located on the wonderful seaside of the Fife area in Scotland, and you can behold gorgeous vistas out of the windowpanes of said joint. Yet you still feel confined in a very "safe" environment here, as evocative as the distant landscapes are... That being said, there are three standout tracks for me in *Diamond Mine* that can make me enjoy the view a little more: opener "First Watch", Running On Fumes" and "Your Young Voice". Very pretty ballads here, I readily admit it. Conversely, I don't see what the fuss about single "Bats In The Attic" is. That song sounds pretty generic to me, and sadly fitting to my Starbucks Coffee metaphor. And as I said, the rest is even less memorable... Maybe the longer "Jubilee version" of this record (adding the contents of subsequent EPs...) gives some extra meaning to the endeavor... But to be honest, I wasn't thrilled enough by the original version of this LP to give it a spin today, so busy that I was today. As for Jon Hopkins, his arrangements and intents seem even more unfocused than usual. I have never been excited by the man's music, to be perfectly honest. In the field of soft electronica, it verges dangerously close to "illustrative" drivel for my ears, instead of truly transporting you into another world. I quite liked that collaborative LP he made with Brian Eno and Leo Abrahams -- probably because of the input of his collaborators -- but the rest never struck me as pivotal compared to the masters of the "electronic ambient" genre found in the last six decades of music history. Sure, Hopkins's field recordings -- conversations and various noises -- can sometimes bring a very nice "mood" *around* King Creosote's compositions, but it's nothing pivotal -- nothing that can change the "hit or miss" nature of the songs. At some point, you have the very nice impressionistic rendition of an ethereal choir -- that part works well, and is evidence enough of Hopkins's skillful musicianship and competent composers chops. But apart from that particular moment, nothing really stood out the way music selected for this list should. Call me underwhelmed on this one. Oh, I'll still have a vanilla macchiato while I'm in here, but don't expect me to say in this place for long. I think I have more impressive locales to visit in the coming days... 2/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums. 7/10 for more general purposes (5 for the musicianship and production values + 2 for the artistry) ---- Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465 Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288 Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336 ---- Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 122 Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 140 Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 313 (including this one) ---- Salut Émile, Tu pourras lire ma dernière réponse sous le *Little Criminals* de Randy Newman. A+.

Folk, folktronica. Un tanto rollo para mi gusto. Un 2.

I shouldn’t have read about the controversy before listening as it really spoiled the experience. Didn’t mind the music, don’t think I like the artist.

Folk, folktronica. Un tanto rollo para mi gusto. Un 2.

This was definitely very peaceful, but it felt like the friend where the only thing you have to say about them is that they're nice.... yeah I had nothing and it got pretty boring.

Nothing much to say about this one other than it being another bland singer-songwriter outing. Disappointed the instrumentals were so subdued and forgettable, I enjoy Hopkins’ moody house music and thought that would be more prominent here.