Temposhark

Temposhark was an English electronic rock band, formed in London and Brighton by singer-songwriter Robert Diament and one-time music producer Luke Busby.

Other notable artist collaborations include Guy Sigsworth, Sean McGhee, Youth from Killing Joke, Kate Havnevik, Melnyk, Camille, MaJiKer, Morgan Page, Avril and the virtuoso violinist Sophie Solomon.

Temposhark's music has been featured in numerous television programmes, including the US advertising campaign for British TV series Downton Abbey in 2011.

Listening to the clip just now brought back so many hilarious memories of us running riot around Brighton with our friend Tasha (who went on to become the very wonderful Bat For Lashes).

[2]Diament set up his own UK record label in December 2004 called Paper and Glue, releasing a series of limited-edition Temposhark singles, the first of which was their EP Neon Question Mark.

[3] Temposhark quickly collaborated with singer Imogen Heap (Frou Frou), received club remixes from electro pioneers including Cursor Miner, Mark Moore (S'Express), Melnyk, Metronomy, Avril (FCommunications), Carmen Rizzo and Crispin J Glover as well as hip-hop crew Border Crossing, Masashi Naka (Escalator Records, Japan), Akira the Don and electropunk duo Noblesse Oblige.

[4] A second EP, Invisible Ink/Little White Lie came out in May 2005, which attracted many new admirers, including producer Guy Sigsworth, best known for his work with Madonna, Björk and Britney Spears.

All of these early Temposhark limited-edition EPs came in deluxe packaging helping to create a buzz around the band in creative circles and with their fan base.

[citation needed] On 15 March 2007 at the South by Southwest 2007 festival, Temposhark announced on stage that their debut album was to be called The Invisible Line.

Singer Robert Diament has said that the album title was inspired by controversial British artist Tracey Emin from passages in her books Exploration of the Soul (1994) and Strangeland (2005).

[citation needed] In October 2007, Temposhark's song "Blame" was nominated in the Best International category at the Ontario Independent Music Awards, which take place in Toronto, Canada on 15 November 2007.

[11] "Blame" was chosen by a board of respected judges including Nelly Furtado, Macy Gray, DJ Tiesto, Robert Smith of The Cure and Julian Casablancas of The Strokes.

[11] In the same month, The Invisible Line was highlighted in The Guardian as a new band to watch article, described as "What if Kate Bush had shagged Marc Almond and spawned a monster that grew up listening to Violator?

"[13] In March 2008, the NME praised Temposhark's debut album with a positive review, "What if Trent Reznor was raised on the Pet Shop Boys rather than Einsturzende Neubauten?

[24] The digital version of the album includes two bonus remixes of the title track by Morgan Page and MaJiKer and PDF downloadable artwork.

[25] Songs from Temposhark's two albums, including "The World Does Not Revolve Around You", "Bye Bye Baby", "Frames", "Green Lights", "Not That Big", "Knock Me Out", "Blame" and "Irresistible", were featured in US television programmes such as Keeping Up with the Kardashians,[28] Paris Hilton's My New BFF,[29] People's Choice Awards (CBS),[30] The Bad Girls Club, Road Rules, Love Games[31] and numerous MTV shows, including The Real World,[32] 2008 MTV Video Music Awards, and Styl'D.

[34] In October 2011, it was announced that US television network PBS had licensed Temposhark's song Irresistible[1] for the US advertising campaign of British TV series Downton Abbey.

Temposhark toured the UK in 2006 visiting all major cities, culminating in a performance at London's Tate Britain art gallery and soon afterwards at the Mean Fiddler Latitude Festival on 16 July 2006.

Temposhark first visited New York City on a UK music industry trade mission in June 2006 and started performing live in Europe soon after including a sold out headline gig in Paris in July 2006.

Temposhark were awarded funding from the 'British Music Abroad' scheme run by the PRS Foundation, Arts Council England and UK Trade and Investment to support their SXSW 2007 trip to the US.

[39] In June 2008, Temposhark headlined London club night Popstarz to coincide with the launch of their single Blame and the UK release of their debut album.

[40] In March 2010, Temposhark performed live at the Institute of Contemporary Arts fundraising gala at KoKo, London[41] alongside other acts including Ellie Goulding, Lily Allen, Bryan Ferry and I Blame Coco.

January 2006 saw Temposhark remix Sophie Solomon's song "Holy Devil" taken from the virtuoso violinist's solo album Poison Sweet Madeira on Decca Records.

2006 also saw the launch of Temposhark's official podcast series featuring lengthy interviews with fellow musicians/singers (including Kate Havnevik and Sophie Solomon) as well as short video documentaries and studio diaries.

[58] In May 2010, Rob Diament of Temposhark featured in the music video to Will Kevans' single "Dialling Tone" starring British actor Russell Tovey.