Pye Corner Audio - Volumes 1 & 2

Been really looking forward to this one after catching him live in Newcastle a few weeks back. Personally I'm actually not massively into some of the Ghost Box stuff as it often errs on the side of melodically twee or daftly nostalgic without particularly inspiring me but this guy is totally summat else! “The Head Technician”, he calls himself, and here is an archive of particularly stunning electronic treats that he has gifted to Type Records - one that you certainly don't want to miss, yo!

Originally a self-released outing named the 'The Black Mill Tapes', this bulging set of lo-fi electronic ventures sounds like it has been discovered in a bunker discovered from the first Cold War era, like mid-late '70s. There's so much to be enjoyed here, ranging from austere, detached vintage synths, crackly ambient scenarios, proto-techno beats, Radiophonic Workshop eeriness, muffled Leyland Kirby-esque elegies, blurred, decaying retro keyboard loops and hypnotic kaleidoscopic rhythms. That's all from the first side. I totally feel like I'm in heaven!

Just checking out a side of the second vinyl (One green, one blue! How neat-o) and it opens with a dark authoritative cosmic piece that blends into another chunk of very slow embryonic techno that itself resembles something found in Ware and Marsh's pre-Human League demo drawer, the fidelity of some of these pieces is so gloriously faded and fluttery like a really old worn tape but the power and authenticity really shines through. Imagine finding this music in an old chest, you'd cry with happiness at some of the amazing pooting rhythms, warm fuzzy analogue textures and sad-eyed electronic sci-fi melodies and his organic production touches just completely sell it to me, this is intimate, beautiful music as full of brittle wonder and tinged with regret as it often is.