Friday, 2 December 2022

The Tump Clump Episode 18

 And with this show, my time in 2022 is up.  How on Terra did that happen.  

I didn't specifically set out to make this show a "festive" special but it was still November when I recorded it, and Christmas was but a dim and distant memory from the previous year.

Yet it was very easy to re-use my "festive" logo from last crimbo and change the colour scheme slightly, and shazam! Instant festive edition.

Tonight's episode opens up with Breezeblock Tomb by Rovox 625, taken from possibly my most listened to tape of 2022 "Cut Into" which is on Steep Gloss.  A great label, and a massively awesome album.  Top drone / noise collage / weirdness in a very cohesive manner.  Breezeblock Tomb is a great example of a fairly simple drone track that comes to life if you listen over a good pair of headphones - its creepily panning all over the place and theres some subtle deep bass things going on in the background.  Lush.

Boobs of Doom - #29 Filthkiller is next, with the track Poisoning The Peace Pipe.  Boobs of Doom were a lockdown discovering of mine, and after a fairly quiet 2022 from them, I was (dis)heartened to discover this new album in their ongoing bid for digital domination.  An electronic doom-rock-electronic duo hailing from Scotland, their output is solid, noisy, sometimes groovy, but never positive.  This track has a bit of guttural doom amidst some head nodding drums... lovely.  This is not a show just for fans of noise or drone... I do like to stick in the odd thing with rhythm or repetition every now and then. 

Photophobik with "Exit Strategy" gets played next.  This is by no stranger of the show, Nick Edwards aka Ekoplekz, in a slightly more bizarre side project.  Quirky synth bleeps and decayed textures are the order of the day here. As a bit of a fellow gear nerd, I enjoy the fact that Nick lists his equipment on the bandcamp page, so for these sounds he used "Strega - 0-Ctrl - Liquid Foam - Quadrantid Swarm - Benidub Echo". . Nice.

Time for some noise! I discovered this tape on a rather cool London based label called Dusty Ballz.  The artist is Deng Boyu, a cut-up noise/idm artist hailing from China. Using metallic objects and various processing they deliver a rather excellent tape of intensity.  The artwork is awesome too.



Human Mask by OMNICIDE - from the "Blue and Yellow" album which was re-released in March of this year in order to memorise the Russian attacks on Ukraine.  Yodest from Leicester is the artist behind this diverse body of works.  Mostly drones and weird noises, you know, like what you would expect to hear on The Tump Clump.

And then my favourite discovery of 2022, O Ratel Ratel, with a track called Zindering released by Audio Visual Atmospheres from Belgium.  The story goes that Knifedoutofexistence played the Crude Transmissions Festival in the Dutch town of Leiden back in March, and O Ratel Ratel was on the line-up.  After reading impressive reviews of the performance I did some digging and discovered it is perfect material for the Tump Clump.  Decaying loops, wasp-like noises, desperate tension... wonderful.  

Bloodkry next, with Existence V from the Existence album, which I gained in a trade with the Finland based artist earlier this year.  Cold industrial repetition and smudged hiss combine with intriguing shifts in tone.  

I then thank Steve from Muhmur Radio for hooking me up with the next artist which is Minneapolis based Stomachache with the title track from their Good Machine album.  Building loops, noises and intensity make for a generally nauseating experience.  Proceeds from sales of this album go to the Minnesota Environment Fund, so support if you can. 

The excellent NoPartOfIt label are very liberal with their bandcamp codes, and I grabbed my code for Thirteen Hurtz UVB-76 this from a Reddit post.  Thank you! I play here the track called MDZhB.  This is quite a blistering noise workout of blown-out wind sounds, high frequency alarm shrill and constructed thingamybobs. 

Finally, time for some self-promotion because why the hell not.  I managed to squeeze in the track Demo(n) 3 from my own recent release as Soloman Tump called Safehouse Demo(n)s which I have detailed elsewhere on this blog.  You can find it here at name your price if you feel kind enough to support my artistic endeavours and maybe encourage me to do more of this stuff. 

And that is that.

Mixcloud now only lets me upload 5 shows for free, so i've deleted a load of old shows to make way for the new (as i'm skint and not paying for a premium account).  If there are any old shows you want to listen to again let me know and I can upload them. 

Well, I've waffled on loads this time.  It's nice to put a bit of time into the blog. Not sure when The Tump Clump will be back on the air in the new year yet but I shall update the blog when I know.

As ever, thanks to SoundArt Radio for putting me on.

Thursday, 24 November 2022

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. 


Wednesday, 9 November 2022

Mixcloud

It looks like they are imposing a posting limit soon on Mixcloud - 10 shows only.  So... I shall start removing the old episodes as we move forward.  I cannot afford the premium thing right now (and there's no point doing it for 3 months only to then lose the privilege and have to delete everything anyway if I want to add a new show).  More info on it here.

I understand why they are doing it - server costs and loads must be through the roof.  This will definitely clear out some of the chaff for them, but may also lose them some customers.  I guess they have properly done a cost/benefit thing and it should earn them some money.  Hey ho, not from me unfortunately. 

This is a shame because I have enjoyed the Mixcloud platform to date.  The main thing that was a bit slow and awkward is the tagging of shows (because I do it all manually rather than using a tracklist app... yeah I know, i'm still fairly analogue.  Hence this blog I guess...)

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So what next for Soloman Tump?  Well, the Christmas / final episode of The Tump Clump in 2022 is up next on 2nd December. And I am slowly working on a new Ep of tracks.  Some potential collaborative stuff bubbling under but nothing concrete on that yet.

Also, the latest RENTAL YIELDS volume is imminent, featuring the Megaheadphoneboy rework of some Soloman Tump sounds.  These compilations are fantastic and well worth throwing a few pounds at as we head into winter.  Proceeds are supporting a homeless charity based in Manchester and those without a roof could really do with the help right now.  On this release you will also find Tump Clump friends and alumni Robin The Fog, Decommissioned Forests, Pulselovers, Polypores, Field Lines Cartographer, Pettaluck, Giant Head, The New Emphatic and Concrete/Field.  What a role call!

Amazing work by Front & Follow putting these compilations together, curating so many artists and being generally fab at organising a bunch of disconnected people who are probably all working together for the first time.  Very inspiring and I hope it has kick started some new projects around the place.  I enjoyed working with Megaheadphoneboy and Klaus Von Mork in our little round-robin trio, it felt fairly effortless and all of our creations are very different and inspiring.  More please :)

Sunday, 30 October 2022

The Tump Clump Episode 17

The clocks have changed, and Halloween hangeth over our heads like a string of luminous pumpkin bunting. 


Episode 17 of The Tump Clump appeared out of nowhere; suddenly October was done I realised that I had not managed to put much thought into the next radio show at all.  A combination of a new job (which is going well), school half term (pretty good, saw some friends, did some things), and generally trying to decide if I want to start work on a new zine or carry on making Soloman Tump sounds - I really do not know if I can commit enough brain power to be able to do either or both justice right now.

So I picked out some music from my collection - some tracks a few years old, some brand new and not even released at the time of recording.  And actually I enjoy how these tracks sit together, especially the IOM track that Iker sent me a download code for over the weekend.  This track in particular really clicked with me. The Bloodkry EP (and Existence LP) are also both amazing pieces of work, and really fit with The Tump Clump aesthetic of dismal. 

The Tump Clump #17 - 03/11/2022

The Plague Tump Soloman Arish track was recording in a fancy camping pod at Dartington Hall on a rainy / sunny / afternoon / evening.  Fuelled by cider, ale and pizza.  With apologies to anybody camping nearby who could hear what we were up to, but the acoustics in those pods was pretty lush.  We recorded about 2.5 hours of sounds, with a variety of gadgets, foley, battery powered speakers and rummaging.  This snipped is a trimmed/layered/EQ'd compilation of some of the more interesting parts to our ritual.  The recording appears on the Cartes Postales compilation through the hugely prolific Camembert Electrique label, alongside a talented bunch of international artists (including James Nathan Powell who's crumbling noise wall efforts I am especially fond of). 

I finished the show with a demo track I am working on called "Banquet" - I did not talk about this in the recording as I just wanted to see if anybody was actually paying attention.  The track was created with the Behringer Neutron, some time stretching, and a recording of me fiddling with my office chair.  I quite like it and it may appear on a forthcoming release.  

Thursday, 6 October 2022

The Tump Clump Episode 16

Back once again with the ill behaviour.....


SoundArt Radio returns after its Summer siesta and with it, The Tump Clump returns to the FM airwaves across Totnes, Dartington and slightly beyond.  Now at 8pm from Thursday 6th October (now, as I type this!) and every 4 weeks thereafter.  So just in case you can't figure that out, the next couple of shows after will be Thursday 3rd November and Thursday 1st December.  Stick them in your diary.  

You can listen live online with the player app, or I stick them online on Mixcloud soon after broadcast.

Same format as before really, as many dark weird electronics dismal experimental noisy tunes as I can cram into an hour. 

This month, the track list goes a little something like this, with some bits of me rambling between. 

1. J. Lynch - The Wanderer (from the Tender Appropriation EP on Difficult Art & Music)

2. Jason Crumer - He's Game Babe (from the Thin Ice tape on NoRent)

3. Degradation - Reflux (from the Leadlined LP on Brachliegen Tapes)

4. Distraxi - Zombie Met Kim Jong Il (from Cotard's Syndrome)

5. Rooy - In albis (from Por un instante, la mariposa que arde en mi lámpara se hace de oro )

6. Jo Montgomerie - they all fell so easy (from Those Things Beyond & Within on Brachliegen Tapes)

7. WELLNESS REGIME - Sleep techniques (from the album DOWN)

8. WET MIRROR - Trick Bone (from the album CARTOON POWER ELECTRONICS)

9. Isn'tses and Pillars of Golden Misery - Live from Epping Forest, May 2022. Exclusive to finish the show with, thanks to Tim & Lisa for sending this to me :)

I enjoyed recording this show, having sat on a bunch of these tunes over the summer ready to unleash.  I dropped into the SoundArt Studios at the weekend with my partner in crime Plague Arish, just as Jon was recording his Dub On The Dart show.  Plague and I then visited the nearby New Lion Brewery for some funk and soul jams courtesy of Jelly Jazz which was a scorcher! Nice to dance and drink beer again. 

We also recorded a bunch of noisy tracks which you might be able to hear somewhere soon....

Cheers!