Ruminant by 310

© 2022

310’s ninth full length album Ruminant is a continuous mix of selected tracks from their EP’s DoPING CHIEF and 20/21, along with three new tracks; Zhinsinura, Seven Hands and Ruminant. 310 have been honing the sound for this new full length over the past few years, allowing new ideas to develop with an ease and flow of pace. 

Ruminant is a revisitation to the beat stylings of their Akai MPC2000 days on tracks like “Leave To Remain” with its interlocking time signatures and downtempo dub, and pushing their own envelope of weaved samples and found sounds on “Subway Knives”  Electric bass and Rhodes piano blend deep within the wash of sound.  A meditation on the past while being firmly grounded in the present, tying together in one Now. 

The cover photo was  taken in the Lake District in Northwest England in 1999. The Castlerigg Stone Circle sits just off camera. Dierker and Donovan were drawn to the site then and now.


Bruno Lasnier album review:

310’s knack for creating incredibly dense and brooding atmospheres has underpinned their music for 25 years now, from their humble debut back in the late 90s to their high profile stint at the height of The Leaf Label in the early noughties. 310’s releases have been more few and far between in recent years, so new music from Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan is always a thoroughly welcomed occurrence.

This album isn’t entirely composed of new music, the majority of the tracks having surfaced on a couple of EPs released over the last couple of years. However, with 3 new tracks helping to shape the narrative, Ruminent emerges as the latest in the pair’s cannon.

Dierker and Donovan stick to the formula that has made their sound so utterly unique and spellbinding. Sticky fluid hip-hop beats for the backbone of their work, but it is the sonic ambiences they wrap them in which really define them. Often pretty restraint, infused with elements of jazz, film music, samples and field recordings, they turn everything they touch into soundtracks for imaginary film noir.

The music here goes through some pretty dark and haunting moments, especially in the album’s middle section. There is real desolation and anguish in Subway Knives, Palliative Care or Mound Visit, and it takes some time for the listener to recover from this deep dive into despair, but as the album draws to a close, 310 bring the listener back from the brink, first with the luminous She Who Lunches then with the pastoral and dreamy title track.

310 releases may be a rarer occurrence these days, but this new album, the pair’s ninth, show that they haven’t lost any of their flair for creating incredibly memorable atmospheres.

Listen to: Mound Visit, She Who Lunches, Ruminant

310's Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan have been developing their unique blend of hip-hop, art-rock beats, ethnic percussion, ambient drones, vocal samples, and live instrumentation since 1997. With four albums released on the UK's prestigious Leaf Label, their signature sound has developed beyond its beginnings as tapes sent back and forth across the country. Joseph Dierker obituary link is below

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