It's tyme for a Pye Corner Audio Thread...

[shadowplay]

Oh yes it is...



I know there's at least a few fans on here and possibly more lying out in the long grass looking at the stars that shine like eyes.

New album Stasis arrived at House of Shadowplay this bright morning, billed as sort of sequel of Sleep Games and I am loving it! A touch more outgoing than this years more limited release Prowler but on the other hand more of a stray at home record than some of his recent floorwork.

Only two full trax in the wild;

Pye Corner Audio - Lost Ways

Pye Corner Audio - Ganzfeld Effect

So if your feeling disposed, let's talk Pye Corner Audio (and House in the Woods, Head Technician etc) and share our favourite tracks, singles and albums be they somnolent modular lullabies, stroboscopic space disco euphorias or late night motorway rollers.

Also talk Ghost Box in general if you want, I'm really lookign forward to the Pattern Forms album in October.

D

[maximee]

This is good, I will be ordering a copy. Nicely laid back synths.
Thanks once again for sharing!

[Jaguar018]

I like some of this quite a bit, but this guy is like JK Rowling to me. He could use an editor to get rid of more chaff.

[Slow-Pop]

I'm a huge Pye Corner Audio supporter, as you know David, and really loved Sleep Games. I haven't listened to the samples yet but if it is a sequel to Sleep Games, I'm very excited!

I've posted it before but The House in the Woods - Bucolica is a dreamy master piece of ambience.

[shadowplay]

^^^

Yeah House in the Woods is a classic. The new PCA is really good, pretty much a distillation of his style and a record I think will mint him some new fans.

D

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I know you hate music videos, David, but I quite enjoyed the Primer-like short film.

With the best will in the world I find this music quite bland, and I really do struggle to see a substantive difference between this kind of stuff and early '90s ambient house which I have to say I had my fill of back then and emerged out the other side with a reinvigorated love of the 3-minute pop song.

Oi'll give it foive!

Edit: that House in The Woods track has really got something, though.

[whisperit]

I also agree that his music is missing something, however I can't stop loving the sound of it and will definitely buy Stasis.
It will brighten up the waiting for the Pattern Forms album, that's for sure

[shadowplay]

With the best will in the world I find this music quite bland, and I really do struggle to see a substantive difference between this kind of stuff and early '90s ambient house which I have to say I had my fill of back then and emerged out the other side with a reinvigorated love of the 3-minute pop song.

I don't see the comparison though I can see the influences; Tangerine Dream*, BOC, Drexciya, Legowelt, Carl Craif, Artificial Intelligence, Carpenter (with any hint of rock well cordoned off) but it does make me think of some music from around that time. I also love a 3 minute pop song.

*was quite close to starting a Tangerine Dream thread the other week, compared to Carpenter they get very little contemporary suction in the mainstream media. I think Tangerine Dream was the first German band I had all the records by when I really stated to look into this stuff in the early 80's, partly because you could buy them all for a farthing and partly because I liked them. The Virgin records from Phaedra to Hyperborea and even beyond have so much going for them. It's ridiculous that I know folk with all the Suzanne Ciani, Daniela Casa and Emerald Web records and no TD, which seems ridiculous.

D

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I don't see the comparison

Well, I'm not as much of a musicologist as you, but I hear the same palette of synthesizers, the same tempos (broadly speaking), and - perhaps more across the Ghost Box/Hauntology genre as a whole, rather than this specific LP - a lot of similarity in the use of sampled speech snippets referencing hypnagogic states and other semi-psychedelic babble. Also there's the way it just drifts along without much in the way of melodic hooks. The biggest difference seems to be that the world music elements, so often prevalent in Ambient House, don't get much of a look-in.

[shadowplay]

Btw Ulrich I know you like Delia Derbyshire, have you heard her 'lost' record 'Circle of Light'with Elsa Stansfield?

Fathomless beauty.

Shit, the film i linked to is gone so here's Part 1and part 2of the audio.

D

[UlricvonCatalyst]

Btw Ulrich I know you like Delia Derbyshire, have you heard her 'lost' record 'Circle of Light'with Elsa Stansfield?

Yes, I saw that was coming out and had a listen to it. It didn't really grab me that much musically. I can imagine it working just fine in its original context behind visuals, but I don't think it's very engaging as foreground music. So I opened a second tab and played Fish 4 at the same time....and wished it was long enough to accompany the whole Delia side....