King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine 15 years ago
Posted in SHOFT on Friday 25th March 2011 at 11:03pm
I was in a desperate hurry, and didn't really have time to stop - but I couldn't resist swiftly transferring the newly arrived CD to my iPod before heading out. I'll confess a brief wince regarding King Creosote's professed dislike of "stolen, compressed tunes" but I'd been waiting for this for a long time - and I couldn't chance not taking the first opportunity to hear it. So, it's out into the warm and misty spring evening with a vague hint of wood smoke - but despite the tinkle of tea cups and cafe chatter I can hear, I'm a long way from the East Neuk haven immortalised in "First Watch", tramping through a post-industrial Somerset backwater in terminal decay. The smoke is probably the hotel burning down again. That this record has the ability to transport the listener is simply beyond doubt.
What is immediately striking about "Diamond Mine" is the sympathy and space which Jon Hopkins affords these songs. His touch is deft, considered and builds gently - assembling sounds off-camera which sweep through the compositions, sometimes leaving little more than an echo. The tracks don't so much end, as melt into each other - with a continuous summery haze of warm noise, or the crack of twigs underfoot. As much a journey as a record, Hopkins works to enhance the simple instrumentation rather than complicate things, using occasional dashes of harmonium or banjo - nothing which would be out of place on any King Creosote record perhaps, but arranged to create a particular mood - a sense maybe of rural East Fife which betrays this record's origins, and it's slow, seven year progress towards release.
It's a strange shock to hear a Bits of Strange song appearing brazenly in public, in the form of a wistful take on "Bats In The Attic" - still an uneasy catalogue of the signs of aging, but here sounding resigned and full of quiet regret rather than defiant. It cements the notion though, that those elusive songs are equally deserving of a wider audience and deserve a life on record - though perhaps to capture them would be to halt their evolution? In any case, this version is beautifully done with a sparse piano marking the melody while a distant crackle of static weaves in and out, King Creosote duetting with Lisa Lindley-Jones as gentle percussion punctuates the mix. Soon, "Bubble" arrives with an appropriate analogue popping and crackling, as King Creosote's forlorn falsetto spins a beautiful and gentle lament over the sparse electronics and muted piano. The lyrics are personal, often bittersweet, and always deeply affecting - King Creosote at his finest. Once again Lisa Lindley-Jones' vocals add a fine counterpoint, keeping the song from descending too deeply into melancholy as Hopkins wash of electronica ebbs and flows like the tide - the sounds of the Firth of Forth never seeming far from these pieces.
Things take an almost orchestral turn on "Your Own Spell", setting out with a spacious, piano backing before being joined by a shimmer of unashamedly Caledonian fiddle which eventually builds against a backdrop of apparently blustering winds, before twisting around its own echoes and forming a crescendo of strings - the pained implications in the line "arriving late in church/your dress is soaked" illustrating a classic King Creosote trick by elevating the tiniest of everyday observations to a pivotal event. The sense of a snatched photograph or hastily scribbled postcard, rather than an over-executed set-piece portrait. The record closes, far too soon, with "Your Young Voice" - a simple repeated, heartbreaking refrain of "It's your young voice that's keeping me holding on/to my dull life...". King Creosote's voice soaring above a gently plucked guitar, before the piano takes the song to it's quiet, near-broken ending amidst the crackle of burning logs or maybe the creaking of a boat - or perhaps with sinister implications, both?
Retracing my steps later, the night is still warm and smoky and I'm still listening to "Diamond Mine" - wondering at its understated, genuine beauty - and pondering how on earth I'm going to write anything sensible about it while avoiding hyperbole? This music is calm on the surface, with strong emotional undercurrents. It's also apparently capable of travel in both time and space. And with the laws of physics left as broken as my vow not to wax excessively lyrical, I commend "Diamond Mine" to you. You won't regret it.
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Bats In The Attic
Despite having all week to think about where to go today, managed to leave it until the last minute. The pressure of trying to find a little bit of brand new track to cover each week was clearly bearing heavily on me, but having hit on the plan of finishing up things I started years ago, I thought I had it sorted. To Shoeburyness to finish the former LTS line which I'd covered to Southend. As a bonus, all c2c services were departing Liverpool Street today, and going via Tilbury - another bit of track I'd missed.
Set off early on a somewhat spring-like morning, and everything seemed to be going well enough. The day promised reasonable weather as I sped from Bristol to Paddington on the 08:00. The only potential problem with this journey is the tube leg to Liverpool Street. It's tripped me up before, but then again I've been unlucky here before. However, the tube ran pretty well and delivered me onto the concourse at Liverpool Street for an earlier departure to Shoeburyness than I was expecting... Which was soon cancelled.
After two more services, including my planned train were either cancelled, or marked delayed until they disappeared from the departure board, I got a little concerned. A chat with One customer services didn't get me far: There were OHLE problems. They didn't know how long things would take to get fixed. They wouldn't accept tickets to Southend Victoria.
Found something to eat and purchased a Mother's Day card, while watching more trains disappear from the board. Noted a message telling customers to go to Fenchurch Street - apparently closed due to engineering works - but National Rail Enquiries were unaware of any services running. With time running out fast, and not much chance of help from the staff at Liverpool Street who simply repeated their "it's not one of our services" mantra, I decided to head for Fenchurch Street.
Arrived at Tower Hill and walked the short distance to the station, noting a film crew in a local pub under the arches. The back entrance to the station was closed, and there was no obvious sign of trains or people on the viaduct. Wandered around to the front - all closed up except for one door, guarded by a couple of shaven-headed security goons. "No trains today mate" he offered as I lurked about outside. My face must have betrayed my confusion as his coworker helpfully added "try Liverpool Street". Checked National Rail Enquiries. Still no departures listed from Fenchurch Street. Headed back to Tower Hill with no clear idea of what to do next.
With no hope of new track now, and being the wrong part of the month to lash out more cash on a new plan, I decided to call it quits. I'd had a decent run up to London and enjoyed a wander around Liverpool Street. I would of course be trying to get my money back on the ticket. So, feeling a bit deflated I headed back to Paddington and the 12:30 back to a very wet and windy Bristol. I have to confess I'm almost relieved I broke the 'new track every week' record for the year, because it was becoming unsustainable. Now I can seriously think about how to do those 57 hauled Holyhead trains!
Daylog Entry for Monday 25/03/2002 24 years ago
Posted in Updates on Monday 25th March 2002 at 12:00am
In a bleary-eyed, early morning effort to clean up the GConf schema conflicts after upgrading the gnome-panel, I managed to trash enough of my system here to make a reinstall practically the only option. Restored bits from backups, but needed to rebuild GNOME2, which was a good chance to clean up and shed some cruft along the way. Managed to fall prey to my usual error of not letting SMTP through tcpwrappers, losing a good 90 or so messages (and angering several mailing list admins) in the process.
Daylog Entry for Sunday 25/03/2001 25 years ago
Posted in Updates on Sunday 25th March 2001 at 12:00am
Caught up on a great deal of e-mail which has accumulated over the past few days. Another delivery of records and tapes due to my parents house move reveals a few treasures. Goodness knows where it's all going to be stowed however. Spent much of the day online upgrading various bits and bobs and chattering away. Need to pull my finger out this coming week and sort out DKK for GUADEC, and whether we have now synched with Euro time by moving into BST?
Lost::MikeGTN
I've had a home on the web for more years than I care to remember, and a few kind souls persuade me it's worth persisting with keeping it updated. This current incarnation of the site is centred around the blog posts which began back in 1999 as 'the daylog' and continued through my travels and tribulations during the following years.
I don't get out and about nearly as much these days, but I do try to record significant events and trips for posterity. You may also have arrived here by following the trail to my former music blog Songs Heard On Fast Trains. That content is preserved here too.
