Untitled Second

Album Review

The Telescopes began as a run-of-the-mill British shoegazer band fully under the thrall of noise and My Bloody Valentine, perhaps a little angrier than most of that ilk but pretty unmemorable. At some point, however, they discovered subtlety and songcraft. They traded in most of their noise pedals for some that make the guitars go all spacy and phased-out. They also wrote a batch of songs with melodies and hooks reminiscent of Love or The Notorious Byrd Brothers-era Byrds. The songs on The Telescopes are built on acoustic guitars, then the aforementioned tricked-out electric guitars are laid on top and garnished with bongos, organs, pianos, and all sorts of classic instruments. Stephen Lawrie's vocals are restrained and semi-emotional and female backing vocals add a touch of sweetness that might otherwise be missing from the record, as the overall atmosphere is very moody and introspective. A large chunk of the credit should be given to producer Guy Fixsen, who also helmed some great records with Moose and Rollerskate Skinny and was a member of Laika. Sadly, the Telescopes split soon after this album came out, but the classic sound they came up with here lives on in bands like Mojave 3 and the Verve. [In 2008 Bomp! reissued the album under the title # Untitled Second, something Rev-Ola had done in 2004. That previous edition included two bonus tracks ("Dnaanb" and "Tornado") and a new cover. The Bomp! version keeps the same cover but adds three different bonus tracks: the EP version of "High on Fire," a sitar-led version of "The Sleepwalk" and non-LP track "Sunspray". Hopefully the next time the record is reissued the label involved pulls together every stray track, re-mix and version, and comes up with something definitive.]