Noise Compilation of (next) month

 I contributed a track to this Halloween themed noise compilation, courtesy of Vacuum Noise Records. 

https://vacuumnoiserecords.bandcamp.com/album/--22

My offerinf for the release is called "Hundatorra", a track that was born from the Open Access Land sessions but didnt quite feel like it fit with the rest of the album.  It did however feel quite doomy and creepy, which lent itself to the Halloween cause.

Hundatorra is the name of the long abandoned / ruined medieval village up on Dartmoor, near the rocks of Hounds Tor. Hounds Tor itself was made famous by the Sherlock Holmes novel 'Hound of the Baskervilles' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and is an amazingly atmospheric location any day of the year.  Robert Eggers has been nearby recently filming scenes for his upcoming Werwulf film.  So therefore, all ties in very nicely with the theme. 

I love the artwork that accompanies this compilation - gloomy moth-like creatures. The artist is https://francescastrada.com/home.html so check out more of their work.

The compilation of music itself is a great variety of sounds and styles and certainly not just a straight up NOYZ comp.  I was impressed by the width of offerings and look forward to hearing the bonus tracks when I get the download. As usual, there will be some artists ill explore more into.  Did I ever mention I love compilations!?

Hope you enjoy and can support the compilation if you are able.  I will feature a couple of tracks in Tump Clump #53 (December edition). 

World Drone Day (an attempt)

 I tried making a drone track for the Fallen Lo world drone day compilation - "this trempling place".  I ended up with an 11 minute long crunchy static beast which had more akin with the aesthetics of harsh noise wall.  But with some keen listening, you may find some drone tones underneath the crunchy full freqency noise and skittering tones.  So, slightly droney, but not fully, but possibly as close as the Soloman Tump sound gets to a purists drone.

I called the track Cyclopean Trawling, and you can find it here as a pay-what-you-like digital download/stream album via Bandcamp.  Also on the compilation are noise associates Ritual Dust and The Crawling Man amongst a total of 31 killer tracks.  Some great variety here and I love being part of collected compilations of artists from all over the play.  

Kodak Ghosts Run Amok!

Yes, the name of a 1980 track by synth pop outliers Eyeless in Gaza (thanks for the tip-off, Steve of Muhmur Radio), but also an excellent zine coming out of Bristol.  

Being Instagram acquaintances with Matt who creates the zine, it was a pleasure to meet him at Feedback & Frustration in Bristol back in February and grab a copy of Issue 6.  It features and interview with the now sadly defunct Fever 103 (but reborn as Mad Girl so watch this space) and many other wonderful acts of the underground, gothic, electronic and noisy worlds.  Plenty of crossover with Intrusive Signals!

Just before Feedback & Frustration I was asked if I wanted to contribute a track to the forthcoming Issue 6.66 Industrial & Noise compilation. Hot dang yes I would!  The zine itself includes a game, maze, a lush interview with Distraxi (who I made the recent Dartmoor Electronics split CD with) and also an interview with Kelan, who appeared in a past issue of my Snare Rush zine as part of rhythmic ritual duo Salac. 

So it was an absolute pleasure to provide an exclusive track "Foxtormire" for this CDr compilation of which there were only 50 copies.  To be featured alongside such inspiring acts as Distraxi, Knifedoutofexistence, Ecotage and Acts of Worship (who all played the all-day gig in Bristol under one guise or another) is a real coup for me! Additionally, Tommy Creep is responsible for the equally awesome Black Panels Only eurorack zine.  

So the zine in question is most likely sold out now. And I don't think there are any plans to make the compilation available digitally.  So you may not be able to even hear half of the tracks played here, such is life in the DIY world.  I know a few are (or will) be available elsewhere, and I may stick Foxtormire onto bandcamp at some point in the future.

Support DIY and zines and stuff. It's fun. 

Autom, Sprau

Greetings!

Some autumnal ramblings as the summer holidays are at an end and my young Tumplets are sent kicking and screaming back to school.  

Forthcoming:  An excerpt of a live recording from Supernormal Festival 2022 whilst jamming in the woods on the Sunday morning after not enough sleep, too much ale and lots of hot sunshine.  Some delirious spanked out drones were the order of the day, and thus I named the track Brazier's Drone in homage to the amazing location I found myself in.  The track will feature on the new Shadowlands #2 compilation released digitally by Owlripper.  Thanks for having me.  Have a listen / download it here:- 

https://owlripperrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/comp17-shadowlands-2

I had been jamming alongside my regular partner in grime Plague Arish, and whilst he waddled off to get some breakfast and coffee for us I made this recording.  Some of our duet work will be released elsewhere soon.

Here's a sneaky preview of the artwork I created, a sort of dreamy overlay showing Sunset on the festival site on the Friday evening, and some of the gear I used to create the sounds.  Everything was battery powered or just raw weird sounds - sticks, stones, leaves, springs... you know the drill.  

We appreciated the small audience who had gathered by the end of our session.  Including the wonderful DJ Bus Replacement Service who had slayed the Red Kite Tent (pictured!) the evening before with weird techno, hardcore and lashings of fun.  Later that day, Surgeon rocked the main Shed stage with an hour of live and raw techno from his mod synth rig.  Such a great weekend.  More ramblings on that soon I suspect.

Tump Clump #16 will be out end of the month - and possibly a 2 hour show.  We shall see.

And yeah i've still got no access to my Instagram page but I still don't care.  So, find me here, or over there.  

RENTAL YIELDS: VOLUME ONE

I became involved in the Front & Follow "Rental Yields" remix project in February of this year.  The idea is to be grouped with 2 other artist, and you each supply some samples / tunes / sounds (as "landlord") then re-work the sounds of somebody else in the triplet (as "tenant").  The project highlights the current housing crisis (HIGH RENTAL YIELDS!) and is raising much needed funds for SPIN, a Manchester based support charity.  

I was tasked with stealing and mangling the raw improvised sounds of Klaus Von Mork who currently resides in Gran Canaria, and my track has made it onto Volume One.  London based electronic musician Megaheadphoneboy received a clutch of my field recordings, unused samples and what not to turn into an excellent fidgety rave creation, which will feature in a later volume.  Then finally, Klaus Von Mork has reworked some of Megaheadphoneboy's recordings in order to complete our trio for a future edition. 

An excellent process to be part of, and Justin from Front & Follow has been truly professional and organised throughout.  Which of course you need to be with over 100 artists involved and files being swapped all over the place...

Really great to be on such a diverse lineup, featuring Kieran Mahon (who I saw give an inspirational performance at Dronica Festival in London a few years back), Polypores (who's album Flora remains one of my favourite modular synth creations of beauty and weirdness), The Leaf Library (London drone collective), Kinver Pond (who released the excellent Wellness Regime album alongside Ivy Nostrum) and finishing off with the unimitable Yol. 

And the best thing about these compilations is that there are many new artists I am not too familiar with, and so, let the digging commence......

>>> You can pre-order / purchase / stream Volume One HERE <<<

Tracklist

1.Robbie Elizee vs Kieran Mahon–Sister States

2.Bone Music vs Audio Obscura–Seize The Means Of Control Voltage

3.Polypores vs Crisp Packet Jackets–Trance Goblins

4.Kat Bryan vs Cahn Ingold Prelog–Paladin

5.Dogs vs Shadows vs Moray Newlands–The Soft Cushion Broke the Shadows Fall

6.Kuma vs The Leaf Library–A Guillotine For My Landlord

7.Spaceship vs Heavy Cloud–On What Were Once These Streets Before

8.Mute Branches vs wesellboxes–Witching Residence at the Box Factory

9.Salford Electronics vs Camp of Wolves–Shards

10.Distant Animals vs The Revenant Sea–Yields

11.Elizabeth Joan Kelly vs The Burning Trestle-Portabella House By-The-Sea (After The Burning Trestle)

12.Soloman Tump vs Klaus Von Mork–Little Owl (Stolen Pellet Mix 2)

13.Silver Tears vs Quartersized–And I Stumble Around

14.Kinver Pond vs tarotplane–For The Benefit Of The Community1\

5.Selfish Limbs vs The Kendall Mintcake–Surrender

16.Bit Cloudy vs Runningonair–Theoretical Conspiracy

17.bleepeater vs The Incidental Crack–Heroin Friend

18.Wodwo vs Shit Creek–Cetaphil Effaclar

19.Yellow6 vs David Wallraf–The World Can Be As Sad As It Seems

20.yol vs Concrete/Field–Rental Yields

Small Sounds For Small Bugs

 It was quite a coincidence that Moon Musiq put a call out for bug theme tracks, right as I was working on a bug themed selection of tracks that may form a future Soloman Tump release.

I am constantly fascinated by the world of the small.... recently I have been lichen spottng with the Devon Biodiversity Records Centre, and also with a local charitable farm via the PlantLife scheme.  I bought one of those little loupe finger magnifying lenses and it is amazing what you can discover.  

Here is just a small selection of what I have snapped recently.  Some accurate bug descriptions... some unidentified as yet (I am learning, go easy)

Lichen up on Dartmoor

Snails enjoying the warmth of the tree guard

Bug!

Lethal looking fly!

Phyllopertha Horticola on Dartmoor (in their hundreds....)

Unknown little caterpillar

Drinker Moth caterpillar

Big slug!

Nice looking shield bug?

Camouflaged spider with not so camouflaged egg sac

Leech at Haytor quarry pond

Beautiful Demoiselle on the bunting in our garden

And so to the music.... Small Sounds For Small Bugs is a compilation of 30 tracks by 30 artists, each lasting 30 seconds exactly.  So it plays out as a sort of mixtape totalling exactly 15 minutes.  Plenty of samples, ideas, scuttling, rustling, noises and samples as you can imagine.  

My track was fun to work on, it started as a shuffling percussive loop idea I had for a longer track but I ended up just trimming it back to the requisite 30 seconds and adding some of my trademark noise layers to make it less accessible.

Small Sounds For Small Bugs

So tons of inspiration from the small creatures.  I named my track "Narrow Headed Ant" after the very rare type of ant which is found on one nature reserve in all of England... about 5 miles from my home.  It builds a sort of thatched hat for the nest, creating warmth and safety.  There is not much of the specific heathland habitat left for them and they never travel far to create new nests.  So their numbers are critically limited thanks to humans building every bloodywhere. 

As ever, Moon Musiq are raising funds for the GEMS-Girls charity in the USA so any donations you care to make towards the compilation will be greatly received.