Scratchy Buckles: My Brightest Diamond

Monday 9 March 2009

My Brightest Diamond

"String Players Wanted: If you like Pierre Boulez as much as PJ Harvey, call me!"

This was the ad posted by Shara Worden to bring together a motley crew of esoteric performers, that became My Brightest Diamond. It also perfectly sums up their music, which straddles the twin colossi of music genres; classical and rock.

Shara Worden was born into a house of diverse musical aesthetics and was something of a musical prodigy, starting to write songs from the age of three. She was the granddaughter of an epiphone playing travelling evangelist, her father was a National Accordion Champion and her mother was a pianist.

This background, immersed in diverse musical influences, coupled with formal music training via a degree in opera from the University of North Texas, has led to a song writing technique, that tippy toes through lush, orchestrated, dramatic and delicate fields of sounds. A move to New York City opened the door to various musical collaborations, most notably with Padma Newsome of The National and with Sufjan Steven's on his celebrated Illinois album and the 2003 Christmas E.P project.

My Brightest Diamond released their first record in 2006 called 'Bring Me The Workhorse' on Asthmatic Kitty Records This was followed up by 'A Thousand Shark's Teeth' in 2008 with an album of remixes entitled 'Tear It Down' sandwiched between these two full length albums. The following video accompanies the track 'Inside a Boy' taken from the most recent album. It is a cute, dreamy animation and is well executed in a style reminiscent of Jamie Hewlett (Monkey, Tank Girl, Gorillaz etc)

Any artist who uses 'crepuscular' in their promotional blurb (one of the finest words in the English language) is worthy of a Scratchy thumbs up.