The Telescopes Radio Sessions collects together the essence of three live session recordings in 3 different countries over a three year period between 2016-2019. This is the third in a series of radio session releases from Tapete Records that have so far included The Monochrome Set and Comet Gain. More session releases are being lined up for the rest of the year and beyond - enjoy the sonics and stay tuned.

Over the years I have read a lot on people’s impressions of The Telescopes. Some folk think it’s a collective, others imagine it used to be a band and feel nostalgia towards what they consider to be the original line-up (even though many had come before, during and since) and some people refer to it as currently a solo career. In a way this is all true and none of it is. When faced with these kind of questions, along with questions about the style of music that The Telescopes make I often say The Telescopes house has many rooms, which explains things perfectly for me but for people on the outside looking in it only serves to increase their confusion. For me, confusion isn’t such a bad thing. Everything is born into confusion, the sense we try and make of that chaos is interesting and excites me. The universe often disorientates, it sends me a jumble of thoughts and impressions coupled with a feeling of something I need to express… if I could only decipher the encryption. This is how The Telescopes music comes to be and it is also how The Telescopes came to me.

I regard The Telescopes as an entity of it’s own that introduced itself in my darkest hour and I was chosen as its vessel. From the second it arrived I was obsessed to the point where there was nothing else. A bit like having an imaginary friend. As the obsession grew it began to infect others, everybody loved my imaginary friend and wanted a piece of it. As its success grew however, so did the corruption, until one day the entity fell silent. The silence lasted for years, I tried everything to reconnect but it was having none of it. I had been a bad caretaker, I had let the house become infested and I had lost my way. This epiphany served to remind me of simpler times when anything felt possible with this entity by my side. It had trusted me with something so simplistically profound and I had let it down. The realisation of this was a eureka moment. I am not The Telescopes, I never was and never will be, I am the caretaker, the lighthouse keeper and if a job is worth doing it is worth doing well.

With this dawning, I felt a crack open up in the cosmic egg and a familiar confusion in my head. The entity had returned. It was time to start untangling its tangled threads once more, to make sense of what it was saying, this time without corruption. It’s all about listening. I listen to what my cosmic friend sends me and channel this expression into what you hear through your speakers. It may take one person to achieve this, it may take more. There is no set line up or instru- mentation that can hold The Telescopes. Whatever it takes to hit the zone, whatever is available, absolute focus is imperative. Sometimes it takes sabotage to keep that line of vision intact, there is no room for preconceptions or complacency in making the music. The Telescopes music is the now incarnate and a state of total being is necessary to achieve. From the outside looking in... again, it’s all about listening. What comes through your speakers is the only thing that matters. The music either reaches you or it doesn’t. Everything else may seem interesting or confusing but ultimately it is corruption. So if you’ve bought the record, read the sleeve notes and bought a ticket to see a live show, don’t be surprised if the line-up is or isn’t the same as the recording. The only thing that is for sure is that The Telescopes as an entity is speaking to you in its own voice in every scenario. Of course the difference between albums and live shows is that you can play the record over and over again to the point where you know every line and every note that was played. Whereas with live events you are left with an impression that can only be replayed in your mind. It can be frustrating at times. When you are touring with a great line-up and feel like something exciting is happening, you want everyone to hear it, not just the people at the shows but the people that couldn’t make it on the night as well. There is no guarantee that there will be the same line-up at a live show as there is on the album. This is why live sessions are important, they document a side of things that is often fleeting.

Here we have three sessions, all different people transmitting The Telescopes sound on each. Some are regulars, some dip in and out and some were just passing through. In each case The Telescopes chose them as their vessel and as the lighthouse keeper I did everything I could to help them on that journey while trying to be a good caretaker to the house of many rooms. The Telescopes have been invited in for many sessions over the years, the first two were for John Peel on BBC Radio 1. We also recorded a session for Marc Riley and Mark Radcliffe before their celebrity when they had a show on BBC Radio Manchester. We could have compiled this album from those sessions, it was certainly considered but Tapete and myself believe this selection gives an exciting glimpse into that fleeting side of The Telescopes in a constant state of flux that is left mostly to myth and imagination. For those who listen to the records but have never had the chance to take in the live experience, welcome to the other side. For those that follow us live, here’s a little reminder and a keepsake. Infinite suns.

Stephen Lawrie
February 2024.

TRACK LISTING

A1. Handful Of Ashes (Radio Sessions)
A2. The Perfect Needle (Radio Sessions)
A3. Violence (Radio Sessions)
B1. Strange Waves (Radio Sessions)
B2. We See Magic And We Are Neutral, Unnecessary (Radio Sessions)
B3. You Can't Reach What You Hunger (Radio Sessions)
B4. Something In My Brain (Radio Sessions)

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‘Growing Eyes Becoming String’ is the sixteenth studio album from British noise-rock pioneers The Telescopes. Originally recorded over two sessions back in 2013 – one over a harsh Berlin winter in the Brian Jonestown Massacre studio with Fabien Leseure, and a second back in Leeds with early Telescopes producer Richard Formby – it’s a lost treasure that nearly never was. Succumbing to a hard-drive crash nearly a decade ago, the sessions were presumed lost and soon forgotten, until now. Miraculously rescued from the digital ether and finished by founding member Stephen Lawrie in his own studio over the pandemic, the album is now finally set for release via Fuzz Club and reveals another side to where The Telescopes were at in 2013.

Where their physical output at the time mostly consisted of experimental noise improvisations, so far removed from any obvious structure, ‘Growing Eyes Becoming String’ shows how The Telescopes – Lawrie backed by London experimental unit One Unique Signal – were actually creating more song-based music in a parallel existence. Across its seven tracks are all the trademarks of quality that longtime fans associate with The Telescopes’ music. Solid songs, melody, harmony, noise, dissonance, improvisation, experimentation and an all-embracing journey beyond the realm of natural vision.

“The objective with both sessions was to go in blind and be entirely in the moment”, Lawrie recalls: “There were no preconceived ideas, everything was written as it went along. Much like our drive to Berlin, through an intense blizzard with almost zero visibility, we were relying on the heightened instinct of being entirely in the now.” The result is another masterfully hypnotic set that matches its more melodic spaced-out moments against heavy drone-rock blow-outs: “Loaded with guitars, noise and melody, swirling around pounding repetition, this is a more vocal document of where The Telescopes head was at during that time.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Deep, fuzzy psychedelic wig-outs and stark minimal drum / bass drones sit behind the stoned drawl of Telescopes' Stephen Lawrie. It's a hefty chunk of lysergic noodles and third-eye opening walls of sound, finely crafted and palpably authentic.

TRACK LISTING

Vanishing Lines
(In The) Hidden Fields
Dead Head Lights
We Carry Along
Get Out Of Me
What You Love
There Is No Shore

The Telescopes are an all embracing concern that began in 1987, the only constant being sole composer/ instigator, Northumbrian born Stephen Lawrie. The band’s line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between 1 and 20 members on a recording.

The Telescopes were initially signed to Cheree Records then moved on to What Goes On Records where they became regulars at the top of the indie charts before gaining more mainstream success on signing to Creation Records. The Telescopes are now with Tapete Records. The previous album for the label – Songs Of Love And Revolution saw a return to the indie charts in 2021, including a Dinked edition with remixes by Anton Newcombe, Lloyd Cole and Third Eye Foundation. The Telescopes music has constantly pushed at it’s own boundaries, it overlaps many genres following its own course, inspiration led.

Time has shown The Telescopes music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new with each listen, it has been described by the British music press as 'more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk'; a thread consistent throughout a highly influential body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have been cited as an influence on many artists across genres, around the world. The first five albums have all been re-issued by renowned labels such as Cherry Red, Bomp! Rev-Ola, Space Age Records, Weisskalt, Glass Modern, Fuzz Club and many more.

Of Tomorrow is the 15th album from The Telescopes, the fifth for Tapete. The album was created entirely by Lawrie at his studio in Shropshire, it is a departure from what the press often refer to as a ’wall of throb’ when describing the dense merge of noise and sound synonymous with most of The Telescopes output. Of Tomorrow marks a complete change in dynamics. Here we have the poetry of motion, solid grooves to the fore, leaving crystallised trails across a fluttering undercurrent of uplifting rhythm and hooks. Lawrie’s voice, usually treated as an instrument equal to the rest of the sound now takes the reins, engaging the listener in a melodic swirl of radiant harmony that speaks, sometimes in a whisper, of love as revolution. Every song on the album stands it’s ground, each one unique. Everything from the composition to the performance, arrangements and production are leaps beyond previous offerings. This is an album to get lost in on the dance floor or headphones in equal measures.

TRACK LISTING

1. Butterfly
2. Everything Belongs
3. Where Do We Begin?
4. Only Lovers Know
5. (The Other Side)
6. Under Starlight
7. Down By The Sea

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Previously only available as a download and CD on the band's Bandcamp page, this is it's first appearance on vinyl. metal machine music... moody and alluring. edwin pouncey, the wire beautiful, chaotic and compelling - genres are unimportant, the telescopes pay pigeonholes as much attention as pigeons do immigration officials. the telescopes are truly transcendental, they make the music they feel moved to when they feel moved to do so. This is why they can record a perfect pulse drone backwash like 'another sky' and equally why legions of allegedly cutting edge bands will rip off and run out with a diluted version within the next year. this is why 'household objective#2' is the coolest and scariest piece of electronica to surface since the BBC's radiophonic workshop got dr who off to a flier. the telescopes light a torch under the arse of a depressingly homogenized world, but don't follow theirs, light your own, it's what they'd prefer. Milky Clear Vinyl

The Telescopes have been described by the British music press as 'more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk'; a thread consistent throughout a body of work spanning over 30 years. The Telescopes have constantly pushed at their own boundaries to unravel new pathways of existence, colouring outside the lines of all expectation to reach beyond the realm of natural vision.

With a legacy full of eureka moments, intravenously fed through a crack in the cosmic egg, The Telescopes invoke the kind of altered perceptions that time has shown not only withstand repeated listening, but reveal something new whenever one ventures into the depths of their highly influential artistry.

At the core of their being, The Telescopes are an all embracing concern, in every sense, a constant revolution of the psyche exploding endless spores of sound, carriers of warm transmissions seeped in aural innovation that spiral around ones inner receptors to induce a series of auditory illusions that completely immerse the listener in the grip of their own imagination.

The most revolutionary act we can all perform is to stand by our calling, to keep doing what we do, for the reasons we are conceived to do so, no matter what. Some call it 'The New Weird' but call it what you will, it is born of love. The Telescopes are one of the very few artists that are living proof that this revolutionary act is possible to evolve and sustain free from artistic corruption.

Songs Of Love And Revolution is a solar burst of trance inducing rhythms gripped at the helm by a wall of throbbing bass held in place by a swarm of encircling guitars. Lashed to the mast of this whirling dervish, incantations abound to dispel what is bound. This is the 12th album by The Telescopes, music for a four-piece ensemble that will never sound the same twice in any given environment or to any set of ears.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Hypnotic stoned groove and psychedelic echo abound on this stunning new LP from English space-drone stalwarts, The Telescopes. Melodies slowly weave their way around the bass-heavy churn and jangling 70's guitars.

TRACK LISTING

1) This Is Not A Dream
2) Strange Waves
3) Mesmerised
4) Come Bring Your Love
5) This Train
6) Songs Of Love And Revolution
7) You're Never Alone With Despair
8) We See Magic And We Are Neutral, Unnecessary

Dinked Edition Bonus 12":
(Come Bring Your Love) Come Drown In Love (Anton Newcombe Remix)
Strange Waves (Lloyd Cole Remix)
This Train (Love-Songs Remix)
Come Bring Your Love (Camera Remix)
(Come Bring Your Love) Come Bring Your Magic Waves (Third Eye Foundation Version)

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Purple coloured heavyweight 180 gram audiophile double vinyl LP Not previously released on vinyl The Telescopes are an English noise, space rock, dream pop and psychedelic band, formed in 1987 by Stephen Lawrie, and drawing influence from artists such as Suicide, The Velvet Underground and The 13th Floor Elevators.They have a total of eleven released albums including their debut, Taste, released in 1989. 'Altered Perception' collects 15 of their most intricate workings from their first two albums with the odd rarity and b-side thrown in for good measure. Never before released on vinyl but now re-mastered by John Rivers at Woodbine Street Studio especially for vinyl release for RSD 2020.

Welcome to the 11th studio album from The Telescopes, their third for Tapete. Consisting of eight new songs and incantations that form a series of sonic convulsions stretching the parameters of intuitive composition to the point of auditory illusion. Conceived in 1987, The Telescopes emerged as innovators in the field of melodic noise, becoming a crucial inspiration to a multitude of artists and listeners alike. The group has consisted of a revolving line up centred around lead protagonist and founding instigator Stephen Lawrie.

As Light Return - The Telescopes are back with their ninth album. Evolving oscillations of guitar feedback screech and howl through thick layers of distortion. Overtones shift and drift and combine on a carpet of white noise. In the eye of the storm, the voice of Stephen Lawrie remains calm, almost detached. He intones a low, trance-like chant. The vocal is buried deep in the mix, the lyrics just barely discernible.

In early 1990, The Telescopes signed to Creation Records, who were enjoying success with bands like Teenage Fanclub, Ride and Primal Scream. Over the course of 1990-1991, The Telescopes’ sound evolved across three EPs. ‘Precious Little’ retained their earlier menace; ‘Everso’ was dreamier than before while ‘Celeste’ and ‘Flying’ blended psychedelia with a vaguely dancey backbeat. In 1992, The Telescopes unveiled their next album, #Untitled Second, a fascinating assemblage of their influences to date and a work which has matured well and subsequently inspired many so-called Shoegaze bands.

Sadly, the band disbanded soon after the LP’s release but reunited a decade later. Since then, The Telescopes have embarked on a musical adventure, creating music which is both exploratory and engaging. Only this year, they issued a new album Hidden Fields. Curated with the full cooperation of The Telescopes’ frontman Stephen Lawrie, Splashdown is the first-ever compilation to properly document the band’s three-year tenure with Creation Records. The first CD combines their four EPs for the label, with the added bonus of some tracks planned as the B-sides for an abandoned final EP. Disc 2 re-presents the band’s second album, which is joined by bonus material including some cover versions donated to compilations and a previously unissued session for John Peel’s show BBC Radio 1.

The Telescopes have signed with Hamburg’s Tapete Records. This new album, “Hidden Fields”, The Telescopes 8th, was recorded in Glasgow, with St deluxe.

“Hidden Fields” is an unexpected return from the group's recent expeditions into the outer reaches of freedrone noise. The psychiatric sounds of The Telescopes in a concise inner sensory rush. This is their most song based output for some time.