Pye Corner Audio releases a new album, 'More Songs About The Sun'. It’s his second studio album for Sonic Cathedral and a sequel of sorts to 2022’s acclaimed 'Let’s Emerge!'. The title is a light-hearted acknowledgment that the album picks up exactly where the last one ended with ‘Warmth Of The Sun’, with opener ‘Euphoria’ mixing blissed-out Balearica with guitars by labelmate (and Ride / Oasis member) Andy Bell. “I definitely wanted it to feel like a direct continuation from the previous one,” explains Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “I wanted the whole record to be awash with distortion and saturation, but not in a blown-out guitar amp kind of way.” He’s right: everything here feels a lot bigger, bolder and acid bright. “The musical influences are all the usual suspects – Stereolab, Spacemen 3, Harmonia, Cluster, Suicide,” he reveals. “But I think that this album wears them in a much more direct way.”

Several songs feature vocals, and not all by Martin himself – ‘The Breath Of Now’ has a stunning, spoken word monologue by Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin. The resulting dystopian nightmare is the first time that clouds of darkness obscure the sunshine, but, as Martin says, “you need the shade to appreciate the sun”. “If there’s a theme that runs throughout then it’s optimism, even in these darkened days. The sun will continue to rise… even if there’s no one around to see it.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Euphoria
2. Analogue Dreams
3. Cycle
4. Greet The Dawn
5. Eight Thousand Years
6. Inverted Dreams
7. The Breath Of Now
8. The Race Is Run
9. Rays Of Sunshine
10. As We Begin
11. My Shimmer
12. Blooms Fade

Pye Corner Audio shows off his love of acid on the first of two EPs for Emotional Response that drop simultaneously. This first one is his debut on the label and comes with a gorgeous cover that perfectly encapsulates the sounds within. 'Dust Acid' is a sparse cut with dusty drums and meandering basslines that slowly sink you in, then 'Magnetic Acid Two,' which like all of these was recorded live, is another expertly reduced brew of murkiness with plenty of frayed edges and vintage analog sounds. 'Wanna Show U Acid' is a late-night acid dream and 'Magnetic Acid Four' shuts down slightly more bite. Four timeless backroom cuts, make no mistake.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Two stunning EP's of PCA acid mayhem. We've heard a little of his acidic excursions under the 'Head Technician' moniker, but this time has all of the bristling tension and building groove of classic 'cid with PCA's more recognisable saturated tape hiss business. 'Wanna Show You Acid' is particularly reminiscent of the Black Mill Tapes days. Amazing.

TRACK LISTING

Dust Acid
Magnetic Acid Two
Wanna Show U Acid
Magnetic Acid Four

Pye Corner Audio releases an EP of remixes by Spacemen 3 legend Sonic Boom. Let’s Remerge! takes three tracks from the recent album Let’s Emerge! – which went to Number One in the Official Charts’ dance chart following its release in July – and gives them all appropriately weird and wonderful twists. ‘Haze Loops’ gets turned inside out, the smoke clearing to reveal some new shoots; Andy Bell’s guitar is brought to the fore on ‘Saturation Point’, keeping things together as the rest of the track spins out of control in the background, like a cross between Khruangbin and Ennio Morricone; previous single ‘Warmth Of The Sun’ is put through an acid blender, blurring all the edges and giving us one much-needed final hit of serotonin as the summer recedes into the distance.

“When Nat from Sonic Cathedral said we should ask Sonic Boom for a remix, I thought he was kidding, but as a huge Spacemen 3 fan I felt we should give it a shot,” says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “Happily, he ended up remixing three tracks and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the results. He really took them somewhere special.” “Friends kept mentioning Pye Corner Audio. Friends with good taste. And when I listened, I could hear why,” says Sonic Boom, aka Pete Kember, who has just released Reset, his acclaimed collaboration with Panda Bear. “When Sonic Cathedral approached me about a remix, with Andy Bell in tow to boot, I asked for the stems of the three tracks that I liked the most… and sometimes in life things just flow. “Three tracks and three remixes later, here we are, finally sending them off into the world to do their thing and for us to float and oscillate into their textures. These songs were medicine during troubled times for me. I can’t think of a better endorsement.” Praise for Let’s Emerge! “It was an amazing thing to realise that people connected so positively with Let’s Emerge!” says Martin, “as it was such a personal record to make.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Sonic Boom takes his deft hand to three of the highlights from Pye Corner Audio's superb 'Let's Emerge' LP (my personal LP of the year), and twists them into psychedelic versions of the originals. In keeping with the originals, but taken in entirely new directions, it's a brilliant outing from Kember, and a wonderful addition to the considerable PCA canon.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Haze Loops (Sonic Boom Remix)
A2. Saturation Point (Sonic Boom Remix)
B1. Warmth Of The Sun (Sonic Boom Remix)

Pye Corner Audio releases a new album, 'Let’s Emerge!', for Sonic Cathedral. It’s his first studio outing for the label following the acclaimed live recording 'Social Dissonance', which was released earlier this year, and it features Ride guitarist Andy Bell playing on five of its ten tracks.

From the first glimpse of the artwork to the first note of the music it’s a marked deviation from Pye Corner Audio’s more traditional shadowy sounds. Whereas his last outing for Ghost Box (2021’s 'Entangled Routes') was inspired by the underground fungal pathways through which plants communicate, this one is very much above ground, bathed in sunlight and acid-bright psychedelia. “This is a departure to sunnier climes, but a departure nonetheless,” says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “It’s something that I’d been thinking about for a while. I try to tailor my work slightly differently for the various labels that I work with, and this seems to fit nicely with Sonic Cathedral’s ethos.”

Designer Marc Jones’ ultra vivid artwork consciously references the likes of LFO, Spacemen 3 and the early output of Stereolab. “I think it mixes together many of my earliest influences,” explains Martin. “I’ve been a long-time fan of Spacemen 3 and Stereolab. Their moments of repetition and drone have always seeped into what I’ve tried to create. “I was living in a small apartment and I’d stripped down my studio set-up when I was recording this album. This enabled me to focus on a few key pieces of equipment and explore them fully.” The recordings were fleshed out by Andy Bell, who Martin first met at the Sonic Cathedral 15th birthday party at The Social in London back in 2019 – the same show that became the live album 'Social Dissonance'. “New alliances were formed and friendships made in that basement in Little Portland Street,” recalls Martin. “When I met Andy, we agreed that we needed to work together in some way. After I’d remixed a few tracks from his album 'The View From Halfway Down', he kindly repaid the favour.”

The end results are incredible, from the first stirrings of opener ‘De-Hibernate’, via the glorious ‘Haze Loops’ and ‘Saturation Point’, the album slowly but surely awakens, blinking and feeling its way into the light. It all culminates in the epic closing track ‘Warmth Of The Sun’ which, with its vocal harmonies and acid breakdown, is seven and a half minutes of pure release. “That one’s about life’s simple pleasures,” concludes Martin. “The Beach Boys, tremolo guitars, infinite drones, Spacemen 3. Let’s emerge from this darkened era and feel the ‘Warmth Of The Sun’. “The last few years have seen huge changes, both personally and in a wider perspective. The album title is a reaction to this, a collective (tentative) sigh of relief. Here’s to new beginnings and a sense of hope.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: I love Pye Corner Audio, always have. We had Andy Bell in the shop a couple months back and he was telling us he'd worked with Martin on some music but I did NOT expect this. Gorgeous, plaintive washes of synth and reverbed guitar, echoes of melody within the expansive, electronic atmospheres. A stunning first one for the great Sonic Cathedral.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. De-Hibernate
2. Lyracal
3. Does It Go Dark?
4. Haze Loops
5. Let’s Emerge Part One
Side B
1. Saturation Point
2. Sun Stroke
3. Let’s Emerge Part Two
4. Luminescence
5. Warmth Of The Sun

In the heady days prior to the pandemic, on October 23, 2019, Pye Corner Audio headlined Sonic Cathedral’s 15th birthday bash at The Social in London (on a bill that also included bdrmm and Andy Bell). Now, following a limited cassette release in 2020, the incendiary performance – which mixes improvisations with reworked material from across his career – has been remastered by Antony Ryan (ISAN) and is to be made available on vinyl for the first time.

Wryly titled ‘Social Dissonance’, it comes on green and blue swirl vinyl in a striking fluoro green and neon blue sleeve by designer Marc Jones. “This is a recording of a gig in a small space with a big heart,” says Pye Corner Audio, aka Martin Jenkins. “A memory of a night before the world changed completely. However, new alliances were formed and friendships made in that basement in Little Portland Street.” Indeed, Pye Corner Audio went on to collaborate with Andy Bell on an acclaimed series of remixes and the Ride guitarist returned the favour by playing on some new recordings that will be coming out on Sonic Cathedral later this year.

TRACK LISTING

1. Untitled
2. Untitled

Entangled Routes is the fourth Pye Corner Audio album for Ghost Box Records. It’s the third part of a loose trilogy of albums starting with Stasis in 2016 and followed by Hollow Earth in 2019. Each album is a kind of high concept sci-fi epic, the latest instalment of which plays with the idea of mycorrhizal networks and attempts by humans to listen in and communicate.

As always with Pye Corner Audio and Ghost Box Records generally, narrative is not spelled out. It's only implied in the drama and mood of the music, with the help of careful attention to track titles and sequence and of course Julian House's consistently evocative artwork.

Martin Jenkins builds up tension with his minimalistic synth sequences and dance floor abstractions. His masterful sound design creates a sense of awe and vast space as he takes us on a fantastic and exciting voyage from peril to redemption.

Pye Corner Audio specialise in majestic, cinematic electronica that evokes sci-fi soundtracks, dystopian futures and the sound of haunted dance floors. The discography to date includes ten full length albums and many more singles and EPs across several labels. There are also remixes for John Foxx, Mogwai, Ride’s Andy Bell, Mark Lanegan, Alice Hubble, Stealing Sheep, Knightstown and Dolphin Midwives.

TRACK LISTING

New Roots
Synaptic
Paleolith
Earthwork
The Creeper
Hive Mind
The Clearing
Growth Potential
The Long Now
Phantom Orchid
Leaf Mould
Buried Network
Symbiosis