Generally written off as a Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 rip The Telescopes earlier records are a lot more diverse than tag lines may describe. The Telescopes are to shoegaze what The Cro-Mags are to Hardcore. The Cro-Mags started late and therefore benefited from the influence of every major and influential hardcore punk bands of that era. They fused everything that they where influenced by and injected their own new york attitude into it. The Telescopes do a very similar move on their first LP ‘Taste’, and the title itself gives an air of pretension more overt and obvious than the Mary Chain or Spacemen 3 (see also the lyric in There Is No Floor, ‘there is no 13th floor’). The record was released in 1989 and its sound is equally influenced by records like Psychocandy or the Perfect Prescription but these dudes where obviously waaaay stoked on garage punk. Like they are definately down with the Stooges and Iggy Pop but they where probably waaay more excited about The Iguanas or Them. They also have much more of a Rolling Stones influence with a bit of the Buzzcocks
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The band has tread between shoegaze, psychedelic noise, and shimmering pop since they formed in Burton upon Trent, England, in the late ’80s, and they’ve remained opaque throughout; the founding singer/guitarist Stephen Lawrie is either charming or maddeningly cryptic in interviews, depending on who’s telling the story.
Luckily, the Telescopes’ debut album, “Taste”, is a sumptuous example of how music can communicate what language can’t. It was released in 1989, when shoegaze was still fledgling, and it’s a varied sampler of the eventual staples of shoegaze: zonked-out space rock, drone-laced rhythms, gossamer guitars. The divergence from the eventual genre lies in Lawrie’s vocals, which don’t so much swoon as sock you in the stomach, especially on the lysergic “Threadbare.” On “Taste”, that shock to the senses proves enlightening.
Our first album “Taste”. Originally released on What Goes On Records, almost 30 years ago, later re issued on; Cheree Records, RevOla Records/ Cherry Red Records and Bomp Records. Now available to download from our Bandcamp site..
The Fat Angel Sings 