Diamond Mine is a collaborative studio album by Scottish singer-songwriter King Creosote

King Creosote

Kenny Anderson, known primarily by his stage name King Creosote, is an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. To date, Anderson has released over forty albums, with his latest, Thrawn, released in 2011. Anderson is also a member of Scottish-Canadian band, The Burns Unit...

 and English electronica

Electronica

Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...

 musician Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins is a London-based producer and musician who writes and performs his own melodic electronica and dance music. After starting his career performing keyboard for Imogen Heap, he's produced or contributed to albums by Brian Eno, Coldplay, David Holmes, and others...

, released on March 28, 2011 on Domino Records. Inspired by the East Neuk of Fife, the album combines Creosote's songs with field recordings by Hopkins. Upon release, Creosote stated: "I really don't know what to do next, because, in some ways, I'm at that peak. I don't know where to go from here." The album was subsequently followed by the EP, Honest Words

Honest Words

Honest Words is an EP by Scottish singer-songwriter King Creosote and English electronica musician Jon Hopkins, released on September 19, 2011 on Domino Records...

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Diamond Mine was nominated for the 2011 Mercury Prize

Mercury Prize

The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize and currently known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize for sponsorship reasons, is an annual music prize awarded for the best album from the United Kingdom and Ireland. It was established by the British Phonographic Industry and British...

, with Creosote noting, "I wasn't expecting it at all. [...] There's been a lot of people in the media nailing their colours to the mast with this record, and that's quite encouraging – to know that we've got supporters, and a lot of them. I'm not expecting to win, but just to be on that list. This is something I've been on the outside of forever, and now here we are. It's all good. It makes up for not selling records, anyway!"

Background and recording

The album took seven years to complete. It makes substantial use of Musique concrète

Musique concrète

Musique concrète is a form of electroacoustic music that utilises acousmatic sound as a compositional resource. The compositional material is not restricted to the inclusion of sounds derived from musical instruments or voices, nor to elements traditionally thought of as "musical"...

, with Jon Hopkins noting that Diamond Mine "is a romanticised version of Fife

Fife

Fife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...

. A lot of it's about my first experience of going there – about my first Homegame, when I fell totally in love with the place, and with Fence Records

Fence Records

Fence Records is a record label based in Fife, Scotland which is owned and run by musicians King Creosote and The Pictish Trail...

. It's a bit like my dream version of life. [...] It's like the way Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 appears in Amélie

Amélie

Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre...

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"Bats in the Attic" was initially included on Creosote's performance-only album, My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years

My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years

My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years is a performance-only album by Scottish singer-songwriter King Creosote, debuted in October 2009, at Fence Records' Hallowe'en Homegame Festival...

, with Hopkins noting, "You can hear the guitar part from his original version at the beginning, but I played it back through a mobile phone speaker simulation to decimate the quality, so that it retained its rhythm, but none of its notes, giving me freedom to change the chords of the song completely."

King Creosote recorded his vocals in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

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Reception

The album was released to favourable reviews, with Creosote noting, "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."

Track listing

1. "First Watch"
2. "John Taylor's Month Away"
3. "Bats in the Attic"
4. "Running on Fumes"
5. "Bubble"
6. "Your Own Spell"
7. "Your Young Voice"