Small Town

When I was little I used to go to the shop along the road to buy the newspapers in the morning. Outside it would be blowing a gale, with the waves threatening the road, or the sea would be flat calm, and the sun would be out. The fishing boats would have long come back in, and be bobbing around on their ropes at the pier. In this unusual place, everyone would just be going about their usual business, and I would just wander home with the papers.

It is the usual ways of a Scottish fishing village that King Creosote and Jon Hopkins have sought to capture in their recent album, Diamond Mine. I'm completely taken by it, and, although I have never blogged about music, I am making an exception for this. The album is melancholic and atmospheric, and I find it endlessly fascinating.

It is based on a way of life that exists mainly in fishing villages in the north and east coasts of Scotland, places that don't generally have an easy time of it, and that won't survive in their current form for much longer. As luck would have it, the Guardian are streaming the whole album here. I would thoroughly recommend that you have a listen if you have a chance.

All of the images above are screengrabs from the video for 'Bubble', which, as it happens was directed by a friend of Ben's, Elliot Dear, who does beautiful and amazing things with very little - watching it is a beautiful way to spend 4 minutes, so I have posted it below.