Blood Diamonds - Phone Sex (12" vinyl)

Love the hideous artwork for the new Blood Diamonds 12”! It’s pretty out there...like a Ferraro concept gone totally wrong-o. Hyper real!!!

Blood Diamonds is the work of Los Angeles based producer Michael Diamond (not Mike D I assume) who, on this occasion, has teamed up with Claire Boucher (a.k.a Grimes) to attempt a perfect pop single. They do this by taking the current dance-floor blueprint and jazzin’ it up with an infectious, if slightly cheesy, vocal melody. It works but I can’t decide weather I like it. They redeem themselves a little with ‘Ritual’, a tune that takes the kinda themes the Four Tet and Burial collaborations have been banding about combining them  with a Lone ‘Galaxy Garden’ feel with lush house-y chords and bouncy percussive programming giving the track a super lush feel. It’s a blissful washed out floor-filler.

Flip it and you get a couple of remixes. First up it’s Edinburgh’s Unicorn Kid, who takes this already outrageous tune and makes it even more bombastic and Gatecrasher friendly with bold chords and those little Ibiza synth bends...you know the ones I’m talking about. Nashville’s Jensen Sportag takes a more tasteful, restrained and all together more soulful approach which is fully appreciated...after all it is 9am! Liking the Afro feel of the beat on this one.