Smashing Pumpkins have started recording a new 33-song album that will be the joint sequel to their 1995 LP ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’ and their two 2000-released ‘Machina’ records.

Frontman Billy Corgan previously announced the project back in October, describing it as “kind of a rock opera”.

In a new update on their social media channels that was posted yesterday (March 2), Smashing Pumpkins shared a blurry CCTV-like image of a mic’d-up drum kit in a studio along with the news that they’d begun recording the ambitious 33-track album.

“Starting new SP album today, the 33-song sequel to MCIS and Machina,” Corgan wrote as a caption. “Songs are written, lyrics too… so now it’s just record-record-record.”

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This news follows on from Corgan confirming back in January that the band were putting the finishing touches to an update of ‘Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music’ – which could feature an 80 song-strong tracklist.

“It was written to be kind of like a musical, but because it was never finished, it was like shooting a movie that wasn’t fully edited right,” Corgan explained.

“’Machina I’ was like one edit of the footage, and ‘Machina II’ was some of the leftover footage – but there was even more stuff leftover. So, this was my attempt, 20 years later, to kind of finish the movie and in the process of trying to finish the movie, realising the movie can never be finished because a lot of stuff wasn’t finished.”

Corgan also spoke in January about the late Lil Peep, likening the rapper’s impact on his fans to what Kurt Cobain meant to Nirvana‘s fanbase.