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Black Diamond Bay – Worship The Sun.
The debut single. OUT NOW
iTunes – http://tinyurl.com/y93n7sg
Beatport – http://tinyurl.com/ya7ke3x
Visit www.blackdiamondbay.co.uk for more.
Black Diamond Bay are a Leeds based 7 piece playing what has been described as a seething, strutting motorik funk charge by one eloquent journalist. Allying the drums and synths of electro with punishing bass and guitar riffs to compliment classical violins and sweet female harmonies, their music crosses many genres and yet despite defying easy definition, remains coherent, bold and accessible.
Black Diamond Bay were born when attic based production duo Tarentum (Tom Sidebottom/Jesse OMahoney) hand picked musicians from Leeds College of Music to form a band to play their songs live. Lithuanian ingénue Agne Motieciute was the first to join, her beautiful voice and subtly threatening early Bardot persona making the decision easy. Then followed the blissful harmonies of Holly Thomas. The line up expanded further to include Colin Sutton, the fastest bass player in Yorkshire and Ben Ziapour, the heaviest Anglo-Iranian guitarist of all time. Their dance moves and capacity for abstract thought also helped to ease them through the selection process. Ben Wilson a protégé of Colins, became the drummer, not only for his unerring ability to keep time under pressure but also due to his status as resident dark horse. His musical genius spans several genres and a multitude of instruments too numerous for inclusion in this dispatch (a list will be provided on request).
The debut release Worship The Sun is a call to arms to wrest spirituality from the clutches of religion – a fitting statement for a band who take their name from Bob Dylans eponymous song about empathy. Lyrically they consider the relationship between science and religion, and how different things might have been had we discovered photosynthesis whilst still praying to the mighty orb in the sky. Musically they echo this ethos, combining the organic with the artificial. Worship the Sun skews an electro beat to a Bluegrass rhythm, eschewing the drum and bass feel more commonly used on fast electronica. Ben and Colin provide gritty guitar and bass riffs and with the girls harmonies floating over the seething fusion this track captures the essence of the band.
Cold came about when Tom, struggling with an archaic music programme which had no bars and beats to aid production, jammed with housemate Rob McVey using Spanish guitars and violins. When Jesse first heard the beautifully melancholy track the lyrics and melody quickly fell into place for a classic macabre end of relationship as death song.
Black Diamond Bay have a colourful history that includes a childhood Eurovision experience, broadcast script writing, being the number one act on a popular Lithuanian website for 2009 and playing the main stage to great acclaim at Kendal Calling. They enjoyed further support from BBC Radio Leeds, Kiss, 6 Music and XFM prior to formally releasing any music. However beyond what might seem immediately obvious about the band there is that other intangible element that all great bands have in common, a sense of poetry and mystery. Black Diamond Bay are there to unfold, it begins with Worship The Sun and the debut album I dreamt we were bank robbers that follows later in 2010.
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