It's 1971, you've just parked your Triumph motorcycle at the Red Lion Inn, Avebury, by the ancient stone circle; you walk to the bar and order a pint of cold Harp Lager and a bag of cheese & onion KP crisps.

14 MP3 Songs
ROCK: Folk Rock, FOLK: Folk Pop



Details:
The album that got Blake's band Karmatruffle signed to an indie label is now available on general release for the first time. Featuring his strongest set of songs, 'Solomon's Tump' was recorded on a Tascam four track machine in a Cheltenham bedsit in 2003. Inspired largely by one-man-band The Bevis Frond, the album also weaves inluences such as Mike Oldfield and Hamell On Trial into a quintessentially English pastoral piece. The Tump in question is an ancient bronze-age burial mound in the middle of the Gloucestershire countryside where Blake would go to chill out after a hard day's work as a travelling book salesman. What Blake lacked in business acumen he made up for in creativity, and the album was written and recorded in less than two months.

After the break-up with Karmatruffle in March 2006, Blake first pursued the songs that he had written for the band that remained un-recorded. With the release in June of 'Final Whistle', that goal was achieved and Blake turned his attention to the album that had only previously been available as a limited release to family and friends. After listening back to the master tracks, he decided to re-record three songs that werenât quite up to scratch: Lost The Plot, Beautiful Person and Round and Round. The others were considered charming enough to remain untouched â for although they lack the sheen of professional recordings, the original versions capture the spirit of the songs perfectly.

With the exception of the drums, the recordings were made in Blakeâs tiny bedsit with one very cheap condenser microphone, on the back of the break-up of his relationship with his fiancée of three years. Despite many of the tracks alluding to this emotional crisis, the record remains curiously joyful and optimistic. It is unclear whether the title track is a real place or simply a state of mind, but for Blake it clearly stands as a place of solace where you can go to âfind your star or catch your dreamsâ. Maybe you will, too, up at Solomonâs Tump?