Pynch Channel Chaos and Catharsis on Lo-Fi Second Album Beautiful Noise

South London’s Pynch return with Beautiful Noise, a self-produced, lo-fi triumph that swaps the social angst of their debut for existential wonder and emotional vulnerability. Where Howling at a Concrete Moon tackled the malaise of austerity-era youth, its follow-up turns the lens inward, charting love, grief, and artistic meaning with poetic sincerity and glitchy charm.

Mostly recorded in frontman Spencer Enock’s Brixton bedroom, the album is as intimate as it is expansive. Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay handles live drums at Press Play Studios, while Jimmy Robertson (Fat Dog, Los Campesinos!) gives the mix its textured polish. The result is a DIY patchwork of distortion, slacker guitars, breakbeats, and synth-laced reflections—equal parts Pavement, New Order, and Jonathan Richman.

From the meta-pop self-awareness of “Post-Punk” to the kitchen-sink musings of “Microwave Rhapsody”, Pynch weave everyday moments—Reddit threads, jeans shopping, cheap beer—into sweeping questions about life and meaning. The gorgeous “Come Outside” closes the album with a breathless spoken-word duet that captures the record’s melancholic warmth: “It’s in the fading dreams that we choose to believe / It’s in the mystery of being anything.”

There’s a newfound cohesion here too. With new member Myles Gammon on synths, Julianna Hopkins expanding her role on drums and vocals, and Spencer’s brother Scott providing dreamy 35mm artwork, Beautiful Noise is as much a statement of collective identity as it is sonic experimentation. Released on the band’s own label, Chillburn Recordings, it’s a defiant, human album made outside the algorithm—raw, searching, and full of joy.

“We don’t have all the answers,” says Enock. “But we wanted to make something that feels real, like us. Love, death, and the wonder of being alive. That’s what we were chasing.” With Beautiful Noise, they’ve caught it—however fleetingly—and turned it into something worth holding onto.