Telescopes - #4

by Helen Tipping

published: 16 / 9 / 2005

Label: Antenna Records
Format: CD

intro

Excellent and atmospheric largely instrumental rock from former Creation label signings the Telescopes back with a fourth album on their own Antenna Records label

The Telescopes are very difficult to describe, yet their music fills your head with images. The first track is called 'The Hypnotic Pulse of the Motor Driven', and it's just that. A hypnotic, grinding, industrial rhythm with barely audible vocals just on the verge of being heard behind white noise. It puts me in mind of the film 'Eraserhead' with its industrial soundtrack. It does bring to mind film soundtracks in my mind. The third track 'On a Dead Man's Bones by the Light of the Moon Skeletons Dance a Demon Dance of the Doomed' makes me think of those pre-war black and white films with images of then modernity, whilst at the same time there is a sense of empty mausoleums, monuments to the long forgotten dead. Perhaps it's the echoing sadness of the sound, or maybe the title is suggestive, or just apt. Another track, 'All the Leaves', could be an ode to a lazy, hot afternoon in which it is too humid to move. It's short and sweet and I might have drifted off to sleep if it were any longer, but more in the way of a summer's afternoon siesta than from being bored of listening - I certainly wasn't. Any band that lists "wire brush on cheese grater" and "leather sofa played with mallets" on their list of instruments used is going to get called experimental. Yet this is a fully fledged sound, it's not really an experiment - these noises go towards making an excellent and atmospheric album. The tracks are mostly instrumental, bringing in not just the former mentioned oddities, but also fuzzed guitar, muted vocals, white noise, chiming keyboards and flugelhorns. The Telescopes is mainly the work of Stephen Lawrie. The only other constant in the project is Jo Doran. They are assisted on this recording by Lorin Halsall and Jerry Hope. These four toured as The Telescopes in early October, which should have been an enthralling experience.

Track Listing:-

1 The Hypnotic Pulse Of The Motor Driven
2 Link #1
3 On A Dead Man's Bones By The Light Of The Moon Skeletons Dance A Demon Dance Of The Doomed
4 All The Leaves
5 A Measure Of Imbalance
6 Singularity
7 Fear The Eye Became The Tone
8 The Yearning
9 Winter #4
10 It Bleeds

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/thetelescopesuk
http://www.thetelescopes.com/
https://thetelescopes.bandcamp.com/

interviews

Interview (2016)

Anthony Strutt speaks to Stephen Lawrie from experimental/psychedelic act the Telescopes about his band's lengthy history and their recent inclusion on 'Still in a Dream', a new five CD shoegaze box set

Interview (2006)

Interview (2004)