New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The Telescopes present 'Silent Water', the second single from their 'Stone Tape' album, forthcoming via Rome-based label Yard Press. They just premiered this track via Paste Magazine, coming hot on the trail of 'The Desert In Your Heart', the lead track from their new long-play. and follows their ninth album 'As Light Return', released in July of this year via Tapete Records.
The Telescopes' new six-track offering inaugurates Yard Press' new series of record productions. Curated by Giandomenico Carpentieri, this endeavor is rooted in the desire to create albums that are developed in close collaboration with the artists involved. The starting point is to create a concept album specially designed for Yard Press, within a free environment without creative limits, where artists can pursue the most experimental and conceptual projects.
'Stone Tape' is a concept album inspired by the "Stone Tape Theory", theorized by
Thomas Charles
Lethbridge in 1961. The archaeologist, parapsychologist and explorer developed the idea that inanimate materials can absorb energy from living beings, and that this mental electrical energy, released during emotional or traumatic events, could somehow be "stored" in such materials and "reproduced" under certain conditions.
It has been 30 years since Stephen Lawrie founded The Telescopes. One of the more interesting bands to be on Creation Records, influencing The Brian Jonestown
Massacre and the whole shoegaze, space rock and psych movements, The Telescopes are the creative vision of Stephen Lawrie with a revolving line up. Formed in 1987, they released their first record in 1988, a split flexi-disc with Loop. A string of releases followed for Cheree Records, What Goes On Records and Creation Records, each one hitting the higher reaches of the UK independent charts, some of them making it into the UK mainstream charts.
Not long after touring with Spacemen 3,
Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Telescopes were headlining tours themselves with support from the likes of Slowdive, Ride, The Cranes, Bleach, Bark Psychosis and Whipping Boy. The band eventually transitioned from their noise origins towards a more brooding psychedelic sound.
Following the release of their second album in 1992, Lawrie put the group on hold, returning in 2002 with a renewed vigour. The late great John Peel, for whom they recorded two sessions, heralded their return and championed their 'Third Wave' album, exclaiming "The Telescopes have resurfaced and I am amazed and glad they are still practicing their mysterious art".
A string of releases followed. The Wire magazine described them as having "a very real and crazy originality that carries fat tons of wallop". The NME again found them 'in another universe altogether, incredible". Julian Cope championed two of their releases on his Head Heritage site, referring to their "suspended-in-space magnificence".
In 2011,
Portishead invited them to play the first ever ATP festival in London. The next year, The
Black Angels / Reverberation Appreciation Society invited them to the Austin Psych Fest. 2014 brought their seventh release 'HARM' on Neon Sigh, involving members of LSD & The Search For God and BJM, which Drowned In Sound called "a visceral exercise in harshly constructed noise".
The Telescopes then released two critically acclaimed albums through Tapete Records - 'Hidden Fields' and 'As Light Return', offering some of the band's most crucial listening so far. Following pulverising performances at both Manchester and Liverpool Psych festivals this year, The Telescopes are set to release their tenth album in November on Yard Press.
'Stone Tape' willl be released on November 20, digitally and as a vinyl limited edition of 500 copies via Yard Press, a label nurturing innovative cultural content, including visual works, underground events, books, and now music. It is available to order at www.yardpress.it/stone-tape or via Bandcamp at https://thetelescopes-stonetape.bandcamp.com/album/stone-tape.
The band will tour in support of this album starting in January 2018. In the meantime, you can catch them live during their European tour in support of 'As Light Return'.
"Every sound you ever heard was but a preliminary exercise in hearing, for the all embracing maelstrom of The Telescopes" -
Melody Maker (1989)
"Droney and draggy in the best psychedelic way with Telescopes' kingpin Stephen Lawrie in a swaying chant capable of sending you into a glazed daze. Close your eyes for added effect and hit repeat - by the end of round 3 you'll be hitting the peyote sands of shamanic trance territory" - Louder Than War (2017)
"While only six songs long, the record leaves quite a bruise behind. Lawrie gives into his minimalist side, accompanying his languid voice and hushed guitar playing with harmonium drones and, occasionally, the pulse of a drum machine... Don't operate any heavy machinery while this is spilling through your earbuds" - Paste Magazine
TRACK LIST
01 Become The Sun
02 The Speaking Stones
03 The Desert In Your Heart
04
Everything Must Be
05 Silent Water
06 Dead Inside
Written, produced, arranged and played by Stephen Lawrie
Album photography by Achille Filipponi
Series curated by Giandomenico Carpentieri
Series executive production by
Leonardo Mancini
TOUR DATES
Nov. 5 Badajoz, Spain - Mercantil
Nov. 6 Pamplona, Spain - Nebula Bar
Nov. 7 Barcelona, Spain - Sala Upload
Nov. 8 Tarragona, Spain - Sala el Cau
Nov. 9 Perpignan, France - Allez Viens
Nov. 10 Martigny, Switzerland - La Caves
Nov. 11 Bologna, Italy - Freakout
Nov. 12 Roma, Italy - Fanfulla
Nov. 15 Nuremberg, Germany - Z-Bau
Nov. 16 Halle, Germany - Hühnermanhattan
Nov. 17 Copenhagen, Denmark - Venue TBA
Nov. 18 Aalborg, Denmark - 1000Fryd
Nov. 19 Berlin, Germany - Badehaus Berlin
Nov. 20 Koln, Germany - Sonic Ballroom
Nov. 21 Paris, France - Supersonic
Nov. 22 Cardiff, UK - The Moon
