TTW#50 – Pye Corner Audio – The Ever-Present Hum
Edition #1 - cassette only – limited edition of 200 copies
SOLD OUT AT SOURCE
Edition #2 - cassette only – clear shell, limited edition of 100 copies
SOLD OUT AT SOURCE
Track listing:
A: Part 1 (Motorway)
B: Part 2 (Treetop)
Illustration – grohs.
The Head Technician writes: “These two pieces are an exploration of the setup I use for my live shows. I wanted to come at it from a more compositional angle however. Using only a looping delay pedal and two synthesisers, they became a meditation on the sounds that surround us, but often go unheard.” – The Head Technician, 19 September 2012
Reviews
Boomkat (UK):
The Tapeworm capture The Head Technician aka Pye Corner Audio at his most serene, near beatless in this “meditation on the sounds that surround us, but often go unheard.” Using a relatively stripped down set-up of a looping delay pedal and two synthesizers, he weaves gaseous harmonics and delicious, wavering melodies breathing slow and heavy with dusty particulates on the first side. A barely detectable subbass oscillation gives some sense of forward motion (or is it reverse?) while his patient strokes gently colour the atmosphere much in the manner of his live shows, evolving to a near sacred finale of woozy organ chords. However, Part 2 feels very different; much darker. Hovering drones ice out any warmth on a glacial, psychedelic melt into the cosmic singularity, offering the lifeline of a sliver of melody to grab onto while the darkness spirals around us.
Other Music (US):
This new cassette-only offering by OM favorite Pye Corner Audio is a bit of a departure from his usual throbbing, shadowy ethereal beatscapes. Instead, we're given two long form ambient pieces, each taking up one side of the tape, crafted from just two synthesizers and a looping delay pedal. “Part 1 (Motorway)” is centered around a thick drone that slowly builds, its chords quivering and cooing like the siren calls of a vaporous spirit in a twilight night. A soft, quiet pulse gradually kicks in, and the keyboard tones grow in asymmetric clusters, until the drone and the pulse drop out, leaving only lush swells of warbling voices slowly fading away; it is, in a word, stunning. “Part 2 (Treetop),” an altogether darker affair, comes off more like the doom-laden ambient works of Deathprod than anything in the PCA catalog. Low, rumbling drones comingle with what sound like gusts of wind and slowly escaping air, building into a thick bog as organ tones overlap atop one another. It reminds me at times of Tangerine Dream, if only they were scoring an old Hammer horror film, or perhaps an episode of Dark Shadows. As the piece approaches its closure, a gentle yet sinister cycle of chord arpeggios chime in ascending sequence, slowly circling skyward before fading out of sight and earshot. While this certainly isn't the entry point into the world of PCA’s Head Technician, it's a striking piece of work most highly recommended to longtime fans and those who appreciate the darker hues of ambient music in general. This cassette is a one-time-only release limited to just 200 copies worldwide, so grab it while you have the chance!
Aquarius Records (US):
We've yet to get enough copies of ANYthing from this mysterious one man band, Pye Corner Audio, aka a mysterious man behind the curtain called the Head Technician, and this Tapeworm tape is no different. We tried to order 20 copies, and instead got 5, too few to list, but figured we’d give you tape nerds a chance to snag one, so here it is, a super limited cassette from this strange electronic audio alchemist, whose sound is equally mysterious, from sci-fi futuristic soundscapery, to blurred slomo Caretaker-ish drift, from home brewed IDM style skitter, to crackle drenched hum and psychedelic zoner bliss out. Fans of Demdike Stare, the Modern Love, Pre-Cert and Dead-Cert labels, odds are you'll dig this a LOT. And again, be warned, we only have FIVE copies, it’s already out of print and sold out, so once these are gone, that’s IT.
