Bats in the attic (music)

creosote diamond album

And I’ve gone so far in my travels,

growing silver in my sideburns,

I’m starting to unravel.

Heard my heartbeat on a downhill,

I counted eighteen on my pulse as Kilrenny Church struck three for three o’clock.

=

Bats in the Attic

<King Creasote>

—————

 

Well.

 

 

King CreosoteThe great thing about Pandora is they often throw in some random songs when you set up playlists … this one popped up the other day … a Scottish artist, King Creosote,  I have never heard of… with a song I am glad I heard.

 

 

Now.

 

I admit I am a sucker for a great pop hook … but this song doesn’t even come close to being pop, nor does it have a real hook  and it is not even close to mainstream radio.
It is just a good touching powerful, in a thoughtful way, song.

 

 

 

The song I am featuring today, Bats in the Attic, is a song that can be found on a cd called ‘Diamond Mine’ which is a collaboration of an electronic musician, Jon Hopkins, interprets songs by King Creosote.

 

 

King Creosote pretty much writes nothing I would enjoy listening to day in and day out … it is like William Fitzimmons without the interesting voice & variety.

 

 

His music is fragile feeling and simplistically black & white <but with some thoughtful words>.
But the addition of Jon Hopkins puts a little flavor into the music … particularly the song I am sharing.

 

king creosote alone

The result, through various means, captures the small village of Anstruther on Scotland’s east coast where King Creosote is based, from captured café noises to stories about local fishermen. It’s a dense and fascinating half an hour of music that has taken many years to create.

The result isn’t too perfect or polished. Instead, it’s real, and delicate, and quite beautiful.

In an interview King Creosote says a couple of really interesting things … he sounds focused on doing what he wants to do and gives a sense of a poet songwriter:

 

 

the pace of the album …

 

“fan of albums that take longer for you to hear everything, to have it click into place. Not all records should be played on the tube, with that background noise. What’s wrong with an album that only works at 2am, or in a living room with a decent pot of earl grey?”

 

 

Bats in the Attic:

 
The song collaboration is a little surprising in that I wouldn’t have imagined a songwriter like this would have collaborated with an electronic guy … but he gives a nice perspective on why it works:

 

 

Hopkins somehow manages to avoid giving the album a processed, digital feel – in fact, the very opposite. Was this your influence?

 

 

Jon and I laugh at this.

I’m very much of the modern-life-is-quite-rubbish school of thought, while he’s reassuring me that there are positive benefits to blah. And I can hear that in this record – my pulling back and trying to halt progress, while I can hear Jon taking it further. He’s tried to disguise progress.

 
I have included an additional song so you can hear what he sounds like solo … it isn’t really my type of music but the video is fantastic.

 

 

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Something to Believe In:

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Written by Bruce