As Approved by the Committee

Album review

This 14-track Telescopes collection is a very idiosyncratic sampling of one of the leading lights of the late-'80s noise rock/shoegaze scene in the U.K. The band began in 1988 as a full-on noise band influenced by the Jesus & Mary Chain's wall of blistering guitars, the Stooges' sneering vocals and attitude, and Sonic Youth's disregard for the niceties of traditional song structure. Songs like "I Fall She Screams," "There is No Floor," and the epic-length "Suicide" howl and scream, with singer Stephen Lawrie's thin voice cutting through the haze to deliver vaguely apocalyptic drugged-out lyrics. The first seven songs here all fit that general description, and are taken from the band's 1989 debut album for What Goes On, Taste. Following that record, the band began to shift away from the pure noise approach and to experiment with dynamics and a lighter approach. "Pure Sweetest Ocean" (taken from the To Kill a Slow Girl Walking EP from 1990) features an actual semblance of a melody and five minutes of whale noises tacked on the end of the song. After signing to Creation in 1990, the band evolved even more. The title track from their Everso EP, released at the end of 1990, shows the band ditching the wall of noise guitars entirely and employing some subtlety and sonic adventurism (dig the wild sitar drones and dreamy background vocals from guitarist Jo Doran). They continued to explore textures and a more ambient approach on their cover of the Beach Boys' "Never Learn Not to Love" (another track from Everso); it even manages to be quite beautiful, with Lawrie crooning instead of whining.
By the time of their next single, the Telescopes had made a complete transformation to a great pop band. "Celeste" is truly celestial, with Lawrie's vocals soaring over a baggy drumbeat and spacy clouds of guitars (also included on the collection is the expanded dubby version of "Celeste" titled "Celestial"). Their next single, "Flying," was another top-notch blast of phased-out dream pop (with banjo!), easily on par with anything the over-hyped Spiritualized released. "Flying" also appeared on the band's crowning achievement, the self-titled release for Creation that came out in 1992. Here's where the idiosyncratic nature of the compilation comes into focus. One could forgive (to a certain extent) the non-inclusion of some of the band's early singles like "The Perfect Needle" or "7th # Disaster." One could overlook the shocking decision to leave off one of the band's best songs, "Precious Little." One could even forgive the strange choice of "Pure Sweetest Ocean," with the five minutes of irrelevant whale noises, or the less than essential "Celestial." What cannot be forgiven is the painful lack of songs from their second album. Songs like "High on Fire," "You Set My Soul," and "To the Shore" are pinnacles of dream pop and should have been included here -- especially since that record is out of print. There is a very good Telescopes collection waiting to be made, but this isn't it.

© Tim Sendra /TiVo