NEWS
EVENTS
Diamond Rings comes back with Free Dimensional
Thursday 1st November 2012 | Laura
He just released a brand new video for ‘Runaway Love’
When I first saw Diamond Rings in the video for ‘I’m Just Me’, I couldn’t help making comparisons with Lady Gaga. Not just because the transgressive aesthetics, the use of fashion as self- expression, or because of the diamond glasses - Gaga’s trademark since ‘Bad Romance’ clip. What made me think they are alike, were the song’s lyrics. They share a message, a position regarding society, which I think is reflected in this Diamond’s quote: “It’s okay to be yourself, to trust who you are and your own vision. We’re all unique, and the things that make us special from everyone else are often the things that we fear to address. Hopefully this record encourages people to celebrate those differences”. I don’t know if that’s commercial, everything that is successful ends up being commercial anyway. Madonna’s “Express Yourself” message got lost at some point after the 80’s, and those guys are trying to recover it. But apart from comparisons, he appears to me really talented, and who’s taking the risk to share a music that could be really commercial in his own personal –not everyone’s cup of tea-way.
Not even a year has passed after John O released his debut album, Special Affections, which got success with tracks such as ‘Something Else’ or ‘You and Me’. For this new album he maintains the lyrical sincerity and the melodicism, but he wanted to be more risky in the production of the songs. He explains: “A big part of being afraid of something is not understanding it,” […] “Once I became more comfortable with the medium of electronic music, it was only natural to want to improve.” He counted with the help of producer Damian Taylor (Björk, Austra, Robyn, The Prodigy) to build up Free Dimensions, who got into this project because thinks that Diamond’s music has “a strong element of a ‘classic’ songwriting approach, but was hooked by the fact that he went absolutely contrary to the regular strategy of trying to make his music sound classic, which to me is a recipe for making bland, uninteresting drivel”.
I leave you with a taste of his new album, two sides of the same coin.
By Laura Vila
@LaursTime
