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The Telescopes — Third Wave
(Bandcamp Weisskalt WK-005, 2002/2021, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2024-09-02

Third Wave Cover art

Stephen Lawrie formed The Telescopes back in the mid 80s, and personnel and stylistic changes have been the norm, so approaching any of their albums is bound to bring up questions. You could get anything from dreamy songs to walls of noise to minimalistic Krautrock. Third Wave was the third release, and originally came out in 2002 after a decade without Telescopic activity. For this outing, Lawrie is joined on six tracks by Jo Doran (vocals, organ) and various others here and there on strings, brass, and woodwinds; there are real drums on a couple of tracks, but for the most part rhythms are handled by loops, samples, and machines. While the general style might be called experimental groove music, there are moments with a jazz flavor, especially when there’s a flugelhorn or clarinet in the mix. There are also samples of spoken word scattered throughout the tracks. “My Name Is Zardak (Drop Your Weaponz)” is an interlude for electronic noises, but most of the tracks are build up of tasty grooves and shimmering keyboards augmented by a variety of different additions. Sometimes breathy vocals from Lawrie and/or Doran, sometimes violin or piano, and some of it is quite pretty in a desolate way, like “Winter #2.” “Moog Destroya” sounds like a classic video game soundtrack run through a very unhappy amplifier. “When Nemo Sank the Nautilus” could have come out of mid-70s Germany, and “The Atoms of the Sea” seems like a refugee from a 90s nu-jazz album, albeit with a twist of cosmic weirdness. In all, Third Wave has a very appealing mix of experimentation and accessible music, and it’s good to have it readily available again with Weisskalt’s reissue.

Filed under: Reissues, 2021 releases, 2002 recordings

Related artist(s): The Telescopes

More info
http://weisskaltrecords.bandcamp.com/album/third-wave

 

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