Paper Diamond

The latest album from Alex Botwin's exploratory band Paper Diamond begins with "The Intro," a song that sets a suspenseful mood and builds delicately through trap and house beats, propelling an Obie Trice sample over a hard bass line on the refrain "They can't tell me nothin'." This bleeds into...

By Britt Chester

May 2, 2013

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The latest album from Alex Botwin's exploratory band Paper Diamond begins with "The Intro," a song that sets a suspenseful mood and builds delicately through trap and house beats, propelling an Obie Trice sample over a hard bass line on the refrain "They can't tell me nothin'." This bleeds into finely tuned hip-hop tracks that nod to "Like a Summer Breeze" and sound like Botwin's personal take on late-'90s Dr. Dre. From there, Botwin aims for melodies that sustain the album's pulse and emotion. The closing track, co-produced by Protohype and appropriately titled "PaperHype," is exactly what you'd expect, with a spitfire hi-hat rattling behind a precisely timed bass drop that brings the whole album to a monumental conclusion, topped by this cherry: "The Outro," which soothes the ears for the wind-down and leaves you reaching for the replay button.

Britt Chester is a writer and video producer living in Denver, Colorado. He's covered breaking news, music, arts and cannabis for Westword since 2010. His work has appeared in GQ Magazine, Village Voice, YES! Weekly, Inman News and the Winston-Salem Journal. He likes running, cycling, and interviewing people.

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