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.  

Distraxi & Soloman Tump - Dartmoor Electronics

 

I am rather excited to have released this split album with DISTRAXI which we have worked on for the past few months.  It began quite organically, following a discussion on her visit to Dartmoor and my recent Palimpsest EP which began to explore the themes of folklore and layers of stories embedded in the landscape.  We soon began to work on tracks that would symbolise the dark horror folklore of Dartmoor through a harsh industrial soundscape. 

>>>> dartmoor electronics <<<<

A few words about the tracks I wrote for this release.  Please check out https://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/ for much more information on the places and legends named.

Bowerman's Nasus - named after a rocky outcrop found near Manaton, said to be the petrified body of Bowerman The Hunter who fell prey to the vengeful witch Levera after he disturbed their sabbath ritual.

Vixiana - the tale of a six foot tall witch who lived under Vixen Tor.  Legend said she had green sunken eyes and was skinny as a rake, trapping passers by in her cave carved by the creatures of Hades.  

Kitty Jay - the tale of the orphaned servant girl who fell pregnant to a farmers son near Easdon Tor.  She committed suicide in a barn and her grave was placed at the cross of a parish boundary to avoid shaming any locals.  To this day, fresh flowers are still placed by passing pilgrims to remember her.

The Triangle - A podcast on this area of Dartmoor can be found here by the wonderful "Faery Whisperer", relating to Kitty Jay, Bowerman's Nose and Easdon Tor.  

The album cover is a boundary stone found near Grimspound on Dartmoor.  The glitched background art was a happy accident created in the wonderful MSPaint. 

I was lucky enough to recently visit The Museum of Witchcraft & Magic in Boscastle, Cornwall where I picked up some further reading material on these legends.  Perhaps there will be more words on these soon.

In other news; I locked myself out of my instagram account recently, and unless someone at their end can get me back in somehow, I won't be back there anytime soon.

But, I am still alive. 

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.

Kitty Jay

From a forthcoming project

Far from where the believers pray

A mound of stone and soil lay.

Pilgrims pass and pay their respect

To the orphan girl who hanged her neck.

From Manaton strike for Bowerman’s Nose

Then over to where the Webburn flows.

Buried and staked where the roads are crossed

A banished soul forever lost.

 

Find fresh flowers at Four Cross Lane

Remembrance of the maidens' pain.

Pregnant and shamed she was cast away

The shallow grave of Kitty Jay.

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