The Tump Clump Episode 8

Episode 8 heralds the arrival of December,  the darkness dominates and the Winter weather has crept into play.  My shed now feels pretty cold.  And a bit damp.  

Perfect.

Let us continue.

Following an intro that could be me getting into the festive spirit, I open the show with a couple of tracks from the Steep Gloss label, based in Wigan.  I picked up the 2 tapes recently by Wellness Regime and The Conduits, and both resonate well with my current brain energy.  The Conduits take processed crusty loops and add an aura of dark strangeness.  Wellness Regime also use loops, perhaps field recordings layered with the chaos of life.

Dit Sese is an artist I am happy to admit that I know not much about.  Originally I discovered the project via a tape on Invisible City Records earlier this year, labelled as "Dense Electronics and Void Drone" which seems particularly apt.  The 2 x 15 minute tracks were recorded live in Tokyo in 2020 and forge an addictive drone trip that warrants repeated listens.  I was then pleased to discover the compilation track from Seoul based label Constant Value called In Thin Rain recorded in 2016, weighing in at just under 6 minutes and therefore I could shoehorn it into the show.  I hope to discover more from the artist... somewhere.... 

The run-out-groove-anthem this time around is the hideous Wombling Merry Christmas, simply because I found the 7" in my collection and its the only festive themed record I own. And NOW ITS STUCK IN MY HEAD AND I CANNOT GET IT OUT.  Sorry if you also get afflicted by this.  Go sing it to a friend and pass on this ear plague. 

I constantly try and make The Tump Clump an inclusive space.  I like playing tracks from around the world, from different scenes, and welcoming in different folk.  

So its pretty cool this time to play Urschmerz from Germany (death folk industrial), noise queen Lutkie from USA (gnarled synthesis and vocals) and Hannya White from London (abstract soundart). I lump all this together as DISMAL and I enjoy it.

The tracks by Pigswill and Scum Alice come from a charity compilation called Are You Shivering? put together by members of the DEEP DIVE DISCORD server and out on the Moon Musiq label.  Some really exciting sounds in here, and Scum Alice has a huge discography, seemingly broadcasting live on Youtube and Twitter quite often.  One to keep an eye on.  All proceeds support the GEMS initiative:

"For the past 20 years, Girls Educational & Mentoring Services (GEMS) has served as the nation’s leading organization for empowering commercially sexually exploited and domestically trafficked girls and young women. Through cultural change, advocacy, training, and survivor leadership, GEMS is committed to shifting public perception and policy."

I close the show with some sounds of my own called Grit, which is the digital bonus track from my new split tape release alongside BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER.  It's kind of my soft attempt at power electronics, but really just experimenting with a loop pedal and adding vocals. I enjoy this sort of setup, I might do more. 

Thank you for listening to the show and for reading all of this.  Please support the artists.

See you in 2022 for some more.

The Tump Clump #8 - 7th December 2021
Wellness Regime - Lucky This Is All Hypothetical Isn't It

The Conduits - All My Friends Are Shallow Dilettantes

Urschmerz - Reject

Dit Sese - In This Rain

Hannya White - Wanna See

Non Bio - Create Problems

The Mike Sammas Singers - Wombling Merry Christmas [Run-out Groove Anthem]

Lutkie - It Reckons

Pigswill - Sleep Cycle

Scum Alice - Heavy Whispers

Volunteer Coroner - Yesterday Lays Upon Your Shoulders

Soloman Tump - Grit

BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER x Soloman Tump - SPLIT

As mentioned in a previous blog post, I recently created my first DIY cassette tape for release.  After a few teething problems, I am pretty chuffed with the outcome.

There was one more hiccup after I finished that previous blog article - I posted 10 copies of the tape to BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER (who also lives in England) and after 9 days they had still not arrived...

So here's a bit of advice; always get a tracking number when posting with Royal Mail.  I was able to track the parcel and found that RM for some reason had not attempting to redeliver after there was no answer on the door after the first attempt.  We nudged them, and the tapes were dispatched again.  

After the fun I had working on the Lee Riley split, this one came around pretty soon after and I hope to get some more splits together soon.  TALK TO ME IF YOU ARE INTERESTED!

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So without further ado....

BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER x Soloman Tump = SPLIT

My track on the tape is called Engorge, and is my gratuitous attempt at some harsh noise.  As usual though, I had to include a few rhythmic elements, and moments of relative calm... Weighing in at nearly 16 minutes, its fairly heavy going.  

I created the sounds with my home made "Spyrimba" percussive device, which is formed from 6 pieces of stainless steel strip, crudely rolled to form different notes, bolted to a base place.  Add a contact mic and a bunch of effects and hey presto - plucked noise.  

I added some clicks, loops, field recordings, some synth growls from my Neutron and probably some other bits too.  I tried doing it all live but had to layer and manipulate after because I screwed up. Hey ho. The final track now exists in this format and I like it.

The digital release also includes a track called Grit which was me trying out some live vocal work over a noise blast.  Dismal power electronics? Maybe. but I don't do screaming.  Not yet.

You can also grab the tape from BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER as well as browse his awesome discography HERE.

5 Reasons why I like split music releases

Recently I wrote an article on split releases for Intrusive Signals Zine #2 but unfortunately I ran out of space and I had to cut it.  

So here's a snippet of it, and the full unabridged article might appear in a future zine....

5 reasons why I like split projects

• Fun! Occasionally, working with other people CAN be fun.  They might have ideas that you never thought about, or a colour scheme that actually works really well alongside your monochrome sheep skull photo.  Also, human interaction? Sometimes, it is ok. Also, if they operate in a different scene or community, from a different part of the world or are pigeonholed into a completely different genre than you - amazing!!1 Just imagine the possibilities.

• Economics! You can split any manufacturing costs of physical media between the artists involved.  You can divvy up the artwork / design responsibilities.  Or you could each make your own to sell if it's a fully DIY tape / CDr effort.  Could be a cinch, unless the other guys are stoned 24/7 and don’t respond to your emails. 

• Marketing! You both got a fan base? This potentially means double exposure. Different social media accounts, forums (I still love those) and mailing lists can really help here. 

• Contrasts! Generally a physical split offers 2 distinct sides of media for you to digest (tape and vinyl, I'm looking at you).  They could be complimentary styles to appease genre hogs, or be completely contrasting to reach new audiences.  If you are a fan of one act you may just discover something awesome on the flip side.  Or not, but you still get your A-side. 

• Exposure! A chance to get your project known in a different scene or indeed continent. And if the other guys are better known than you, it's a chance to get your name out there alongside some heavy hitters.

My first DIY tape release

 

It is not really a surprise to see the cassette tape surging in popularity as a medium for getting your music out there. For a DIY music venture it's fairly perfect – with some basic equipment you can actually do it all yourself from home.  Popularity of the medium has soared in recent years as we were all forced to stay at home. 

Creating a good looking and sounding tape can certainly not be straightforward, and its easy to get rubbish results.

You don't want to record too hot and get unwanted clipping / distortion on the recording.

You need a tape recorder, blank tapes, packaging, and probably a printer unless you plan to do all of that by hand.

I purchased sheets of sticky tape labels, blank tape shells and plastic cases from TapeLine. Very quick delivery and reasonably priced. I note on their website they state they are seeing high demand for dubbing services!

Given that the dwindling number of vinyl pressing plants out there are seeing huge demand (with COVID and raw material sourcing issues also causing problems) there is no wonder that growing numbers of artists and labels are turning to tapes.

I personally love tapes as they force me to listen to an album as the artist intended (all the tracks, in the correct order) and they also remove me from my phone for a while – I take my portable player out for a walk and leave my phone at home!

So I thought I would use my blog to talk about how I put together my first tape project alongside the mighty fine noise beast that is BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER. BCS contributed a wonderful interview (and some art) for my recent Intrusive Signals zine. He mentioned that he loved working on split releases, and we went from there. Luckily we both had a long form track that was suitable – both clocking in at around 16 minutes.

I had wanted to work on a longer piece for a while, attempting something with harsh noise elements as well as using a stainless steel percussive instrument I had made last year (I might do a seperate blog post about this creation that I have called the "Spyrimba"). I recorded the session as live as possible – but there was a degree of post processing. I used audacity and FL Studio to add additional layers and play with the EQ. I wanted to make something oppressive sounding, but with moments of clarity. I have listened to a lot of Scald Hymn and Moss Harvest recently and so I take these as an influence here.

The TEAC tape recorder I bought during lockdown for £25 on gumtree works fine 90% of the time, but occasionally the head mechanism sticks up which means you cannot eject the tape or operate any of the controls. So I had to remove the door giving me screwdriver access to the mechanism so you can carefully ease it out. There is probably something I can do to sort this out but I don't know what yet. I can foresee that one day one of the soldered joints will give way and it will stop working altogether.

I dubbed all of side A first (BLACKCLOUDSUMMONER's harrowing offering called Wheeze & Junk), in real time, marked the side A label. Then rewound to the start of side B with a trusty HB pencil, before dubbing my track called Engorge. Both tracks are around 16 minutes each, and with 25 copies, that's around 800 minutes of recording.

In between recording I was designing then printing the J cards which I drew in my CAD software and good old MS Paint. I'm lucky enough to have a laser printer at home so using slightly thicker paper for the cards was not a problem, and also printing out the tape labels became a simple task.

Each sticker sheet had 12 labels (6 cassettes worth) and I did not want to try and line up text to each specific label, so I made a random repeating pattern that ensured that both our artist names would appear somewhere on each label. I then ran a highlighter over our names to show which track was on which side. The bonus of doing it this way is that there is loads of bits of printed label left over that include the pattern – I can use these for sealing the envelopes or using on future zines.

Sometimes the sticker labels go on wonky to the tape and they are a bugger to get off and realign.

The tapes I bought had the recording tabs already taken out (even though they were brand new) so I had to cut little bits of sellotape to stick over.

With a combination of borrowing my wife's paper guillotine and the kitchen scissors, I carefully cut out each J-Card, made a folding template, then used a steel ruler and scissor blade to score each fold line.

Why have I gone to lengths to detail all of this?

Well, firstly it shows how bloody awkward the tape can be. There are very good reasons why the medium was superseded in the 90s by the CD. So I take my hats off to the existing tape labels out there who are still releasing these on a regular basis. I would imagine if I release some more in the future (and I probably will, I have plenty of labels and a few blank shells left over) then the entire process might be a bit easier. I might also look into replacing or repairing the tape recorded because when the head shell sticks it really is awkward to reset.

But anyway, I am really happy with the final product and I love the BCS track. Its a full on noise wig out with a savage kick drum that comes in near the end, and its mixed really well by Foul Prey. I did consider asking them to master my track too – it bugs me when one side of a split is weaker compared to the other and in this case my track probably is the weaker of the two – however I wanted this project to be completely DIY from my point of view so I stuck with my mixing and mastering efforts. Maybe in the future I will look for a fresh pair of ears to sort my mess out.....

And all this for selling the tapes at £5 each, with plenty of initial start up costs. But then if I wanted to make money at this, I would probably become a deep house DJ or whatever it is the kids are listening to these days.... noise / experimental / DIY music is for the love and the experience. But now I have the means for doing this again.... but do I want to? Yeah, probably. They look cool and hopefully a few people will buy them! I will also trade a few, and there are a few people who have sent me stuff in the past so there will be copies going their way.

The tape will be released soon via bandcamp.  I will do another post detailing the actual release....

PS I'm still a kid and I love raving when I get the chance.

The Tump Clump Episode 7

 

Episode 7 of The Tump Clump finds a return to the familiar setting of my shed in Bovey Tracey, after last months live excursion to Dartington Hall.  It's starting to get cold in the shed now - I took a flask of tea in to record this episode.

Starting with a trio of artists whose name begins with L, moving into a trio of spoken word tracks, then shambling through some rackety drones and noises of varying origins.  Really cool to include a track by Shackleton from his new LP which is pure trance enducing darkness.  And also great to find a short track by RAXIL4 that I can play in my hour slot - most of his work is extended live jams.  

The run-out-groove selection comes courtesy of those rave funsters The Shamen, with their 1990 single Omega Amigo which is pretty good actually, all things considered. It pre-dates their chart successes by a few years and is a warm acid house trancer.  

As ever, I enjoyed putting this selection together and I welcome any feedback or suggestions of music you think may be suitable.  Thanks to Soundart for having me. 

Enjoy this dismal selection as the nights draw in and we head towards Yuletidemas. 

The Tump Clump #7 - 9th November 2021
Lee Riley - Armageddon Waltz
LINEKRAFT - Asura
Lucidet - UFO Sighting
The Eccentronic Research Council - John's Dream
The Eccentronic Research Council - Damian's Dream
Shaun Robert - Autoral Closure
The Shamen - Omega Amigo (Omega A mix) [run-out groove anthem]
Amhain - CF
Shackleton - Shimmer, Then Fade
Disgusting Cathedral - The Spectral Troubadour of Hastings
RAXIL4 - Shruti Box Experiment 04
Juhyo - Sacred Science
Leather Parisi - Katodik