New Music
Premiere: Blood Diamonds - Ritual Grimes’s right-hand man serves up a slice of perfect trance-pop and tells us how the Skrillex/Diplo/Grimes tour is going.
Blood Diamonds is the alias of Vancouver-via-Kansas City producer Mike Diamond. He makes shiny, trance-spliced pop with a hyperactive, let-it-all-out spirit. Having previously released on London’s Transparent label and New York’s Pop Manifesto Records, for his latest musical turn he collaborated with close friend Grimes on the K-pop influenced single Phone Sex which came out on 4AD on Monday. It’s backed by Ritual, which Dummy is chuffed to share with you today. Ritual [listen below] is a big trance-pop number that smells like summer abandon, or maybe a thousand cartoon ice-cream cones doing the can-can. Blood Diamonds is currently on tour with Grimes, Skrillex and Diplo crossing Canada by train but kindly took time out to answer a couple of quick questions about Rituals, touring and his upcoming album.
Could you tell me a bit the making of Rituals?
Blood Diamonds: “After such an upfront track like Phone Sex, there needed to be a reply to the notion of dancing all night. A cyborg-ish desire to be human is quite a contrast to being in that perfect moment. The vocals are all sang by myself and some of the lyrics are the same as a track from last year, Dreams. The same lyrics in another production can take on a whole new meaning, a nod to what can happen in one year.
So how’s the Grimes/Skrillex/Diplo tour going right now?
Blood Diamonds: “Yeah, I’m on a crazy train right now, super positive vibes, I can honestly say every artist, and crew on the train are extremely positive and a lot of good vibes and music happening. We DJ and dance for hours every night on the baggage car in rural Canada suspended in reality without cellphone service. It’s been a life changing in a lot of ways in regards to how I think about dance music, people, and preforming. Happy Hardcore and R&B DJ sets are a hell of a thing.”
And what is next for Blood Diamonds – are you working on an album and can you tell me more?
Blood Diamonds: “I am currently working on the Blood Diamonds full length right now. The majority of the album is song-centric but with heavy influence by pop, EDM, and R&B. I can’t wait to share it with the world but I want to make sure it’s done right first. I am tracking in Vancouver next week for several instruments in the historic Waldorf Hotels new studio, and from there I will be playing a show in NYC at Glasslands Aug 3rd.”
4AD released Blood Diamonds Phone Sex/Ritual on 16th July 2012
- 19.07.12
