Kathy Diamond

Kathy Diamond's elegant, faithful updatings of 1970s funk, disco, and soulful diva house are informed by a lifelong love for the music, beginning with a childhood of dancing around the house to her mother's <a href="spotify:artist:2eogQKWWoohI3BSnoG7E2U">Donna Summer</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:3IKV7o6WPphDB7cCWXaG3E">Isaac Hayes</a> records. Hailing from Sheffield, England, Diamond grew up as a creative writer and natural performer, but not initially as a musician; in 1993 she started writing songs and engaging in a series of collaborations, but it would take a decade before her career as a performer began in earnest. Her 2003 debut single, "Miracles Just Might," was a collaboration with the house duo <a href="spotify:artist:1Ks4925m2UByd5gTTpudWJ">Swag</a> that was originally intended for inclusion on their No Such Thing album; when that didn't pan out, she decided to release the track herself as a white label. Through a mutual friend, singer Nesreen Shah, it caught the attention of independent left-field house producer <a href="spotify:artist:4T6l995AHz8HCY7TCfQorD">Maurice Fulton</a>, who contributed production and instrumental work to Diamond's next single, "Sunshine," issued later that year on <a href="spotify:artist:0tEu1R96F6E2aMVAm8dW0T">the Idjut Boys</a>' Cottage label. The pair continued their collaboration, eventually resulting in the full-length Miss Diamond to You, which came out in 2007 to considerable critical acclaim, accompanied by the singles "All Woman" and "Over." Although <a href="spotify:artist:4T6l995AHz8HCY7TCfQorD">Fulton</a>, who produced and performed (under his Finnish jazz-funk alias <a href="spotify:artist:1DoyIKYcf1Pw2tMFFy0oEi">Syclops</a>) the entirety of the music, got much of the credit for the album's laid-back organic disco-funk vibe, Diamond's sultry vocals (which garnered comparisons to <a href="spotify:artist:6mQfAAqZGBzIfrmlZCeaYT">Chaka Khan</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:4RVnAU35WRWra6OZ3CbbMA">Kylie Minogue</a>) and stylistically well-suited lyrics were integral to the album's success. The following year saw a flurry of activity, with Diamond contributing vocals (and lyrics) to house and neo-disco tracks by <a href="spotify:artist:48dmZCctXy4NGqWSDFDQev">Toby Tobias</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:31CtLHmSL7Oa7TPU9YyBEu">Aeroplane</a>, Maxi Skiba, <a href="spotify:artist:5BHCakmidAsgVnB9UOE7eu">Codebreaker</a>, Lo-Motion Disco, and Soft Rocks, and beginning work on her second album with Keeling Lee and Soul Mekaniks. ~ K. Ross Hoffman, Rovi