Vacant World Show

Vacant World started as a DJ night at Mono in Glasgow in 2013 where Lumpen Nobleman dug into his crates for 5-hour graveyard shifts on monthly Fridays. Punters came in waves through the night, from the middle-aged couple enjoying a civilised meal over some 60s Folk Revival via the hipsters whose free stubbies at the art opening across the road had run out requesting ‘that well vibey Arthur Russell track with the wee baby’s voice in it’ to the legends tipped out of the pubs at midnight demanding ‘early Stone Roses’.

The Vacant World radio show is less of a dig into the collection and more of an opportunity to search for new music leaning towards the DIY, the subcultural and the oppositional. Hope you enjoy it.

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When Glasgow’s Extra Normal Records released Lumpen Nobleman’s Grusha LP in 2011, many suspected that this curious exhibit of twisted bass music was actually the work of a sly stalwart of the city’s dark electronic underground. Big names from this infamous scene came out of the woodwork opportunely to claim authorship, but, alas, none of these illustrious figures could boast the illusive master tapes, so the identity of Lumpen Nobleman remained a mystery.

With the media vultures circling, dozens of dank mixtapes bearing the Nobleman tag surfaced, but still no clue as to who the lumpen one was. Rumour has it, he’s really just a normie who washed up some 500 miles away in Ramsgate in 2014 and, to this day, has a hand in the town’s annual festival of slightly-left-of-centre music, Contra Pop.