The untimely return of Postman Lomu

Around 4 years ago I birthed a project called Postman Lomu, a kind of harder-edged noise-wall-ish adjacent sound that was a bit too cut-throat for my usual Soloman Tump sounds.  The project was a response to the feelings on the sudden Russian invasion of Ukraine - and its sad to note that the whole bloody war still rumbles on and civilisians are still dying in ghastly numbers every day.  

My original blog post can be found here.

I have updated the original стіна EP release with an additional long form track, a 20 minute recording of harsh noise rumblings and synth grumblings. The EP also now includes the track "attempt 3" which was featured on the Monolithic Blocks compilation by Camembert Électrique, also from 2022.

https://solomantump.bandcamp.com/album/- is where you will find the updated EP....

So this is very much a Postman Lomu month.  I submitted a new original track for the incredible Mima Kass fundraising compilation WITH LOVE AND NOISE by Blacksmith Noise Records, 180+ tracks covering all forms of experimental sounds and noises, an incredible listen and an honour to be part of the project. For a minimum donation of $1 (please give generously) you get 16+ hours of sounds to entice, arouse, perplex and stun you with.  Do it!  Oh, Postman Lomu - "Noise for Mima Kass" is track 129 if you were wondering :)

AND...

On top of all that, I just decided to relaunch a couple of my old Soloman Tump releases under the Postman Lomu banner.  These 2 x 20-minute long (ish) tracks were early experimental netlabel releases by me, on The Dark Thursday netlabel.  That label is no longer with us, so I felt it was time to resurrect these archival recordings, update the artwork, and share them for all once again. 

You can give the new/old tracks a listen here.  I would be interested to know what you think! It is interesting for me to listen to these again after a few years and hear the gestation of the original Soloman Tump sound, although be it a bit "harsher".  There is the structure and rhythm (kinda buried under the noise a bit), but also the field recording manipulations and meddling that went on to become a main part of my early EP recording methods. I think I started making these tracks in 2017, and I can't really remember what equipment I had available to me around then.  But its nice to hear the primitive workings with less kit, and its been a fun process to visit them again and makes we want to return to that method of working.  So, expect maybe some more sounds of this ilk coming again soon.

The photograph for On A Dark Thursday comes from Nesscliffe Training Camp in Shropshire, which keeps with the military themes explored with the cover photo of the стіна EP.

As always thanks for reading / listening.

Soloman Tump - Live for Muhmur Radio, 26/10/2025

Sunday 26th October 2025, remember it well for that was the date that I performed a session for Muhmur Radio, live and direct from the SoundArt studios in Dartington.  So a massive thank you to Steve for having me along and trusting me with about 27 minutes of your show, and to Chris for being the ever wonderful host and head honcho at the studios.  

I will admit to being a bit nervous beforehand, and especially when I discovered that the only other live broadcast that had gone out on Muhmur Radio was by Nocturnal Emissions in 2018.  So a true honour to be invited along and personally I think it ended up sounding "quite good". 

Also thanks for the cold beer! Much appreciated on the night to help calm the nerves :)

You can find more on the full broadcast, including a tracklisting of everything else that Steve played here -

https://remuhmuration.blogspot.com/2025/10/muhmur-radio-broadcast-286-26-october.html 

It turned into a solo men special, mostly (because there are always exceptions).  But I guess it shows how many guys there are out there, sat in dark rooms alone, making noises.  Perhaps we will get solo women in the future, would make for a great show.  I shall put the idea forward!  

The original Muhmur setlist - slightly altered on the night

I also gave some words for a pre-match interview with Steve over email, which have been published here - https://remuhmuration.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-muhmur-radio-soloman-tump-interview.html  - after all the interviews I did for the various zines over the years, this was the first one I had ever done for someone else.  So I probably waffled on for a fair bit after being given the opportunity.  

A few thoughts about the set itself;

It was partly planned, and partly improvised.  

I had 3 prepared recordings that I used as baseline sound sources to play and manipulate throughout the set.  There was an oscillating sine tone,  a vocal sample from "The Age of Steam" BBC Sound Effects record, and a synth recording I previously created for one of my previous releases "Weland" - so I guess this became a live version of that track.

I recorded a few practice sessions around these samples, using them in various ways with different effects and equipment, before settling on the rig that I took to the studio. The run time left a lot of room to experiment and play around these, and luckily on the night I managed to keep roughly to the allocated time.

There was the temptation to bring along EVEN MORE KIT than I did, but after a bit of whittling down, I managed to fit everything onto an offcut of timber I found in the garage, which made transporting and setting up in the studio a lot easier. 

Listening again, there were a few things I would have done differently, but thats the beauty of improvisation (and also possibly why I felt a bit nervous!).  

I kept the volume out of my mixer fairly low as im not used to blasting it out too loud at home - I also wanted to keep some headroom so that I could master the recording with ease (and yes, I think I will release a 3" CDr version soon...)

One of the alternative practice recordings will feature on the next Tump Clump radio show to give an idea of how the live process works.

Overall, great fun to do this, and it has given me the itch to do it again!  Thanks again to Steve for supporting my work and giving me the desire to do more....

Soloman Tump - Open Access Land

I kind of panic released my new album called Open Access Land and it was a fun creative process.

I flirted with the idea of approaching a few different labels to see if they were interested in my sounds - but i've always been a bit of an outsider to the ousiders and usually end up doing things by myself.

So this was a nice return to DIY projects using up some black backed CDs and cardboard sleeves that I picked up from the always fruitful Proper Job re-use centre in Chagford.  This is also where I bought an external CDr/CD-rw drive for £3. I must make time to go again soon.

The recordings for this album started in the spring, feeling endlessly inspired by my Field:Tone Weaver instrument, i've always recorded my sessions but having this bit of kit in the setup means that you can never "go back" to a sound.  So recording is now essential.  It also means I have a LOT of audio to listen back to, and to learn from, and perhaps has forced me to go a bit more minimal in my sounds in case something sounds really good and I can use it as a layer or sample at a later date.  A couple of the tracks were played on Tump Clump shows in their earlier forms, as I was sort of testing them out. 

So by nature, this album feels a little more stripped back than previous Soloman Tump efforts.  Sure, there are still erratic noises, and dark layers, and dense bits, but to me if feels a little bit more easier or free.  

Dartmoor has been the centre of a media storm over the past few years due to the wonderful RIGHT TO ROAM movement, whom I place as my main inspiration for the making of this album.  A light at the end of the tunnel in a bleak situation where parts of the open access land of Dartmoor being slowly sold off and withdrawn from public use.

Keeping in this spirit,   the digital version of this album is available for free, and always will be.  Or, you can pay something if you prefer.

As previously mentioned, I made a few physical copies of the album which was actuallty quite an inspiring artistic process and not something I usually allow myself to get too engrossed in. 

I foraged lichen and mushrooms from nearby woods following a storm. I dried the lichen to make "brushes" that I stamped in ink to pattern the blank CD cases.

I then made spore prints with the mushrooms; which had various effects from really quite good to terrible; a great DIY learning process! Different mushrooms drop different colour spores at different intensities.  I picked a wide variety of fruits from the woods, placed them on different coloured cards, covered them overnight, and kept my fingers crossed.  

The combination of white spores on yellow card was unfortuantely a bit too weak to be of any use.  But there were some blackended spores on pink card which looked excellent, and then white spores on white card too.  A great learning process.  I then used some sealing spray glue to try and preserve the prints.  If you ordered one, I hope they last a little while before degrading! 

Generally I hope you enjoy listening to the album and I am always keen to hear thoughts on my work, critical or otherwise.

1.Squirreling 05:55

2.Roamer 04:32

3.Slow March 06:43

4.Runjun 04:57

5.Bloodmoonthorned 07:54 (Produced alongside Stuart Chalmers)

6.Dub You 08:33

7.The Long Way Round 12:02

8.[Exclusive bonus Track for anyone who ordered a CD]

New things from me

Hello lovely people of Earth,

A little update from me, attempting to give myself some creative space and get myself motivated again.

I just released More Bun Rights on Bandcamp! This was originally released by the wonderfully supportive Human Geography Recordings almost 2 years ago, but with their permission, I have re-released this digitally with a couple of extra tracks from the same recording session.  A little toe dipped in the water of clearing some hard disk space and getting some more sounds out there in the wild.

I also submitted a track for the recent end of season Hello Goodbye Radio Show - 60 seconds maximum track length was the requirement and I duly obliged! Thanks to Dexter Bentley and Resonance FM for the airplay :)  You can find my offering near the end of the show, but I recommend listening to the entire thing because its brilliant all the way through, and a few friends of the Tump Clump show are also featured in there too. 

More soon....

 

Beltane greetings

Mayday! 

I *almost* had a new Soloman Tump album ready for Bandcamp Friday tomorrow (2nd May) but its just not quite there yet.  I don't want to rush it, and theres a couple of tracks that I'm not fully satisfied with yet to call them done. But for me, this has been great progress in terms of having an idea, recording things, and being happy with the process / output.

The release will be limited CDr and digital, and i've not quite settled on the name of the album yet.  I had fun printing the card sleeves, an excerpt below, I used storm-fall lichen gathered from Dartmoor, dried out then used as a sponge on ink pad.  The results are pretty striking and each cover will be unique.

The album is a dark drone love affair with discordant dismal loops and low-key murky noises.  Currently 6 tracks weighing in at around 50 minutes long but subject to final tweaks and sprinklings of  mushroom dust.  Hopefully released later in May or I might wait until the start of June.  I will probably play a track on Tump Clump Radio #46.

Happy Beltane one and all.

Soloman Tump - Torpid State LP

I finished working on my debut full length album, and actually it wasn't too arduous, all things considered.

The album is called "Torpid State" and is a reflection of the long deep sleep of Winter and the promise of the warmth of Spring.  Its kinda almost got some positive stuff in it, but dont worry... its still mostly dismal.  

Partly inspired by the dungeon noise of Disgusting Cathedral I've introduced keys into the Soloman Tump sound for the first time... sitting around the usual dirge and simmer of crusty noises and stuff.

The main thing is that it was fun to produce and I tried not to dwell for too long on "tweaking" the tracks after they were recorded.  As usual, a lot of the tracks started as session recordings whilst others were created from separate layers over time.  Plenty of field recordings and foley sounds in here too, such is the way of things.

I plan to release the album just in time for Supernormal Festival 2024, where I hope to have a few copies for sale / trade (CDr) and also stick the digital up for sale then too via my bandcamp page.  There is a preview track on episode 35 of The Tump Clump, where you can hear the track "Nocturne".

Thanks for listening!

The Tump Clump - Episode #34 - 06/06/24

The Tump Clump episode 34, first aired on SoundArt Radio 06/06/24...

Apologies again for being v v v v ve e e e e r r r r r y y y   y y    y    slow at posting this track listing up on the blog.  Slap my wrists and call me naughty!

Lavatone - How I Started My Own Finger Collection (Mr Bundle Compilation) - Owlripper Recordings

violeer - changeling (Fairgrounds) - self released

Ekoplekz - Circular Spin (Ekochamber) - self released

Dead Space Chamber Music - Track for Kodak Ghosts zine - sorry still can't find the name of this one but it was released on CDr for the zine last year!

Perc - Calcify (The Cut-off) - Perx Trax

Luxury Mollusc - A Noxious Tithing (Choir of Deluded Mass)

Pakkokon - From Black Skies (Noise As A Form Of Expression Vol.1) - DramaRecorder

Kirril - III (01/23-07/23) - Owlripper Recordings

Private Arms - Private Arms (Your Words Drip Like Wet Saliva) - self released

Junkyard Shaman - Stones & Metal ( Materia ) - self released 

Hannya White - Just Yours (I call you another name)

ZREEN TOYZ - Passage Of The Grim Reaper (Mr Bundle Compilation) - Owlripper Recordings

HERE BE THE LINKETH for post-FM broadcast Mixcloud archival reasonings.

The Tump Clump Episode 31 - 14/03/24

The Tump Clump is back! After a few months break whilst the Sound Art studios relocate, it was good to be able to put a new show back out there.  Feeling slightly guilty that I was not able to lend a hand to the SoundArt crew during their move; awkward timings, family and work commitments made it tricky to get over to Dartington whenever the call to arms was made.  I hope to get there soon and lend a hand in some way as the work continues to get everything ship shape.

So without further ado; here are the tunes played in the newest show:

The Tump Clump # 31 - 14/03/24 - 9pm GMT

1. Pale World - Destitute (Destitute LP, Trust Collective) - https://trustcollective.bandcamp.com 
2. Saint Vehk - Neither I (Practice Doubt I & II) - https://owlripperrecordings.bandcamp.com
3. 0164 - cutup roc 07 (Antihistamine Sampler 2024) - https://histaminetapes.bandcamp.com
4. Heavy Cloud - Teyr Stone Fractuur (Antihistamine Sampler 2024) - https://histaminetapes.bandcamp.com
5. Hannya White - Bring Me Back (I call you another name) - https://hannyawhite.bandcamp.com
6. BMH - The Tape Is In The Machine (Eye Eye / II / Immortal Influence) -  https://b-m-h.bandcamp.com
7. Randy Greif - The Hole To Heaven (Golden Joy Club) - https://tribetapes.bandcamp.com
8. Mademoiselle Marchand - To the Buried That Repose Around Us (Inner Demon Records) - https://innerdemonsrecords.bandcamp.com
9. Private Arms - Blazing Trail Of Incompetence (Your Words Drip Like Wet Saliva) - https://sewerelectiongbg.bandcamp.com
10. Fecal Mutilation - New World Flesh (Heal The People, Heal The Land) -https://abeautifulidea.bandcamp.com
11. Judge Rusty - Contaminator (JR) - https://judgerusty.bandcamp.com

Quite an urgent collection of noisy dismal missives; some very recent, some a few years old.  All with a singular message of sonic experimentation and that I am pleased to unleash upon the airwaves.

The Pale World track I opened with is from a stunning new album on Trust Collective.  Very dense and noisy with fleeting sections of beauty hidden within; absolutely essential to my ears.

Heavy Cloud is an artist I am slowly coming being obsessed with; hailing from deepest Cornwall and taking the ravages of land and sea as an inspiration for sound and art work.  Really strong stuff and I appreciate them sending me their last few releases too!

Hannya White once again delivers some focused yet abstract work on her latest EP "I call you another name" - this track is the digital bonus offering that appears when you download, and is the subject of a nifty video on youtube in her singular style. And here it is to save you searching for it - enjoy!

The 3-track Mademoiselle Marchand EP on Inner Demons Records was released on my favourite 3" CDr format, and I long for more! Perfect short form harsh noise wall crumbles.

Another highlight this month comes from Private Arms, a collaboration between Sewer Election and vocalist Sofie for a uniquely eclectic album.  Putting these shows together makes me realise how much great music I have amassed, and how much more I need to listen to what I already have. Despite of course... the urge to get more being strong.  

Be back in just 4 weeks time with another hour of semi-organised ramblings between sounds - thats 11th April 2024.  Thank you for listening!

Soloman Tump - Bun Rights

 

The wonderful Human Geography Recordings released a few of my tracks under the name "Bun Rights" and I'm very proud of this one.  It's the second of their C-15 series, the first being released by the wonderful Stonecirclesampler  but you should also check out other excellent releases from the likes of Black Hair Rolled in Dried Blood, QNDFK and Liminal Haze which have all featured on previous episodes of my Tump Clump radio show. 

So anyway, you can grab a final copy of the tape here if you are quick, or the digital, and both come with a bonus track recorded from the same session:

https://human-geography-recordings.bandcamp.com/album/bun-rights 

My text for the label to stick under the release;

Soloman Tump - Bun Rights

Recorded at home and in the field May - July 2023.

Field recordings from across Dartmoor, UK.
Sounds composed through no-input mixing, resonant instruments Geiger Lab (thanks to Plague Arish) and homemade scrap metal instruments, all connected through various effects pedals.

Side A - Bun Barrow
Field recordings from visiting Bun Barrow and the nearby Blackslade Ford. It is meant to be summer, yet the weather is abysmal.

Side B - Shewte Rights
No input-mixer drones and collapsing feedback. A response to the wild camping ban - which has since been lifted. Not that we stopped anyway. Leave no trace; create only memories.

Side C - Knave-Go-By (digital bonus track)
An additional recording spawned from the recording sessions, named after the village, which is sometimes thought to be on Dartmoor yet is located in Cornwall. A real outsider.

 

Photo is from near Meldon Quarry, Dartmoor.  Nature reclaiming the steel that we put there years ago. '

Thank you for having me Human Geography Recordings! I really like the aesthetics of your label and the exciting sounds that you are putting out there.  

I did a real tape

I failed at mentioning it too much on this blog prior to release because I didn't want to broadcast details before the label did; and then it sold out pretty quickly, and then I forgot. 

My collaborative album alongside Paradox Encounter Group (aka Paul Xemporium) seemed to go down pretty well.  It was one of those long distance pass files backwards and forwards editing as we go along type things.  

If you so desire you can grab the digital direct from Tone Burst here, they did a fantastic job on the artwork and the physical media so I suggest supporting them if you are able. Couple of aleftover artist copies of the tape available on my bandcamp page if you wish....

Was a fun and slightly chaotic album to work on.  Paul sent me 4 of his tracks; I worked some ideas of them.  He liked them so much he called them "finished". Hah! Brilliant.  Me, the forever procrastinator, wanted to work some more magic into them.  But in the end we kept with the raw / DIY approach of calling it down.  I then sent him 4 of my tracks which became 5 once Paul had finished.  8 of them made it to the tape and the last one was played on Tump Clump a few months ago.  It might end up online at some point. 

the P.E.G sound is one of harsh noises and volume shifts.  The Soloman Tump sound is one of dismal repetitions and electronics.  I think they go together quite well. 

My original photo which inspired the artwork

safehouse demo(n)s

27th August 2019, Safehouse Studios, Oxford.  Where professional greats such as Foals and Glass Animals recorded some of their seminal works. But on this day, it was I, Soloman Tump, who plugged in a load of stuff and made a right old racket for a couple of hours.

I recently listened back to my studio recording, with all of its static, feedback (some of it which was intentional), the plugging in and out of stuff, the fiddling with cables and the general chaos of it all.  And I decided I actually liked some of it enough to stick it on bandcamp.  So, I present "safehouse demo(n)s", 4 tracks in all of their naturally entropic states.  Kind of noisy droney dismal electronic stuff.... exactly what you might not expect from me I guess.

All of these sounds were improvised.  There was barely any planning, I just turned up with a couple of boxes of kit and plugged it all in on the fly.  I probably should have spent a bit more time deciding what I wanted to do, but such is the nature of Soloman Tump that I am pretty proud of how this recording turned out.  If you take time out for a listen, I hope you enjoy it, warts n all. 

And thanks to Safehouse Studio for letting me make silly sounds for a few hours.  I wanted to go back again but then Covid happened, and I moved to Devon.  It's a great little studio, really compact, atmospheric, and given this was August, damn sweaty in there! It helped get me in the "mood" for jamming hard. 

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.  

The Tump Clump Episode 15 - MIXCLOUDSPESH

The Tump Clump reaches episode 15, and due to the summer siesta for SoundArt Radio, this is a Mixcloud exclusive edition for July / August.  Which also coincides with my 40th birthday so I decided to play a few extra tracks because I do not need to stick to the usual prescribed one hour slot......

Another disclaimer: I only play tracks I own. Either physically, digitally, or gifted to me direct from the artist/label.  If you enjoy the sounds played on this show, please directly support the artists and labels buy purchasing some of their art.

https://www.mixcloud.com/solomantump/the-tump-clump-15-040822/ 

Opening with the monolithic drone of Shiverdust by Lucidet which is taken from the Life Death Chaos Order album, a sprawling 4xCD / digital album of longform dirge and dark dynamics.  A feast of a trip if ever there was one.

Drek 5 by Ekoplekz is next - part of a suite of unreleased tracks that Nick was kind enough to send me a while back.  Check out his new single release which is on 7" lathe - be quick, not many left!

The next couple of tracks come from the compilation album The Quietened Mechanisms which was released by A Year In The Country back in 2018.  I recently revisited my CD copy and released again just how many great tracks there are on the release.  So I have included the offerings by Field Lines Cartographer and Grey Frequency which seem to sit well amongst the opening electronic drones of tonight's show.  I love the way the Grey Frequency track melds into a lush pad with birdsong halfway through.

A track by False Moniker from the Screen Memory tape which was released on Strange Rules in 2020.  Pretty much everything on the label is gold, but it seems to be a bit quiet of late as label owner Cremation Lily is concentrating on touring and releases their own sounds.  

Then I gratuitously played my remix of the Klaus Von Mork track "Little Owl" from the Rental Yields Volume One compilation, out now on Front & Follow.  It is really great to be involved in this digital series, and I thoroughly enjoyed putting this track together.  It's a sort of noisy / squelchy distorted vision of KVM's original session recording and found samples.  Future editions of the compilation will include the Megaheadphoneboy interpretation of my samples, and then the Klaus Von Mork rework of a Megaheadphoneboy track.  There are 20 tracks on this volume, all of excellent quality and touching up the various strands of electronics / experimentals, and sales are raising money for the homeless shelter charity in Manchester, so please support if you are able.  

AUTECHRE! I previously said on The Tump Clump that I wouldn't play any Autechre because if you wanted to listen to them you know where to find them.  But for this special edition of the show (and to kind of commemorate my 40th birthday!) I decided to play Tankraken, lifted from the Versions edition of their 2008 Quaristice album.  It still sounds superbly future, with icy percussion and moody grumbling bass.  I hope the mixcloud algorithm AI doesn't pull my show because I played this.

Then more excellent moody electronics from Helm, with a track called MOLE from the recent Axis album.  

Time to play some noisier stuff... kicking off with GRIMWITH who I recently discovered via the double edged sword of Instagram.  Some great digital / tape noise coming at ya from Leeds.  Check it. 

I dipped back into the Rental Yields album with a track from Kinver Ponds and TarotPlane, with a track called For The Benefit Of The Community.  Lovely brutal repetition and ethereal voices.  Some might say "dismal".

Some may say that quite foolishly I decided to then play RatCornSample by DK.  This beast of a track appeared in my inbox recently and I cackled hard and had to play it.  So there.  VAMPIRES!

Then a bit of crackling noise wall for you, 5 minutes to be exact, courtesy of Gynaeolotry and the Plastic Bag: A HNW tribute to Vomir.  You will also found my Postman Lomu tribute to Vomir on the digital download extension should you really wish to listen to more.  

Black Lead Crucibles is a side project of the mighty Disgusting Cathedral - a long form tense droning beast of dungeon noise.  This meshes nicely into.....

....Hoodrat Messiah and the track Casablanca from the new EP called Gospel. Panic inducing atonal drones! Lovely stuff.  Another artist I discovered via Instagram, and they often put up pictures of their wonderful array of pedals and synths used in the creation of these sounds.  

To finish wish, I play a track by another Tump Clump favourite which is Salac, with their album closing number called Manifesto from Illicit Rituals.  It's a few years now since they interviewed for my now defunct Snare Rush zine, so maybe I should try and entice them back to Intrusive Signals for some more.  Hope to hear some new stuff from them soon! 

That's it for now.

Gritonometry EP

I have been working on a couple of tracks inspired by the presence of interesting bugs.  One of the ideas made it to the "Small Sounds" compilation previously blogged about but I managed to flesh out a couple that I ended up fairly happy with.

And so with a couple of other bits I have been working on, I decided to put this out as a digital only EP with "Pay what you want" enabled - please just ask if you want a free download code because I can easily generate some.

Cover image: woodworm "writing" from felled Oak tree.

So aside from the little bugs I have been looking at... I suffer from pretty bad hay fever. Some days it is completely crippling and I just want to hide inside under the duvet while I cry, sneeze and generally dehydrate into a withered husk. It is so dependant on the weather. I liken it to turning a tap on and off. Occasionally it gets left running at the worst time.  Today however... it is ok and I just have a mild fuzzy headache. 

Gritonometry is a concept I came up with whilst languishing in allergy induced hibernation recently. The sun was shining! But my eyes and nose were streaming with snotulus and I wept in the shower.. A complete bastardization of the fleeting visit of high summer we experience in the UK. The track is fairly simple, dense, and noisy. It does not do much. I was feeling pretty down when I wrote it.

The Black Ash Slug can be found on Dartmoor, it is the largest land slug in the world.  They are pretty rare and are only found in ancient woodlands, of which there are sadly dwindling examples of in the UK.  There are a couple up on Dartmoor where these slugs like to hang out.  

Rare "selfie" of me, even rarer because it was taken 

OUTSIDE in JUNE during DAYTIME

The Broad Bodied Chaser is a type of dragonfly that occasionally visits our pond. The one I saw looked like a huge hornet with menacing black and white stripes, until it landed and I figured out what it was. These two tracks have a strong percussive element and are swamped in bass and static. They are the most dynamic of the tracks I present here but I believe still retain the Tump sound.

The closing track Intrusive Signals is named after my zine project of the same name. The original piano was supplied by Arachnopus who I have worked with a few times now (she did the amazing video earlier this year for my set on Wonder Valley Experimental 14, as well as providing some excellent intrusive artwork for my zine). I took her original improvised piano recording (with some very light trimming) and added a large amount of filth. I loved making this and she supplied some great material to work with. Thank you!

1. Gritonometry 04:23

2. Black Ash Slug 05:36

3. Broad Bodied Chaser 05:52

4. Intrusive Signals 06:40

Note on mastering:

I find that the hayfever also effects my hearing - I am generally blocked. Bass sounds can hurt as they whistle through my ears, everything is muffled and dense. These recordings are probably heavily saturated with that sort of sound. A document to this moment in time through my senses.  Best listened to loud on some big speakers.  If the sun is shining outside, maybe shut the curtains and snort some ground black pepper to try and replicate my situation (actually, dont do that).

All tracks recorded April - June 2022. 

releases July 1, 2022

STUMP010

Piano on "Intrusive Signals" by Arachnopus.

All field recordings from Dartmoor by Soloman Tump

All other sounds by Soloman Tump and my machines.