Diamond Mine

(Domino)

In the two years since Flick The Vs, new material from King Creosote has appeared only in collaborative or hard-to-get formats: with The Burns Unit and Meursault & Animal Magic Tricks on one hand; as a Fence label vinyl collection or the Bit Of Strange live performance at the Homegame Festival on the other. Diamond Mine, the result of years of “spare time” work between KC’s Kenny Anderson and electronica maestro Jon Hopkins, is a startlingly beautiful suite that places Anderson’s heartbreaking tenor centre stage, supported by guitar, piano, accordion and fiddle. Hopkins’s contribution is subtle but key: his soundscapes act as codas to certain songs, or perhaps pillows between them, conjuring up a portrait in sound of the Fife coastline King Creosote calls home. Despite its long gestation, this is as perfectly complete an album as you’re likely to hear.

Alan Morrison