British noise-rock pioneers The Telescopes will perform for the first time in Bucharest this autumn – November 8 at Control Club – in support of their 16th studio album, Growing Eyes Becoming String, released earlier this year.
Recorded between Berlin and Leeds, Growing Eyes Becoming String is a lost Telescopes treasure that nearly never was, rescued from the ether and now finally released by Fuzz Club Records. The origins go back a decade when, in 2013, The Telescopes were invited to record an album at Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s new studio-in-progress in Berlin, with a line-up consisting of founding member Stephen Lawrie and London psychedelic unit One Unique Signal.
On reaching Berlin, the group teamed up with good friend and author/visual artist Will Carruthers (Spacemen 3, Dead Skeletons). Carruthers, also a skilled carpenter, built soundproofing boards and recruited Anton’s producer at the time, Fabien Leseure, and together they sourced equipment from all over the city and soon had a functioning studio up and running. Between Boxing Day and New Years Day, most of the music for the four tracks that would make up side one – ‘Vanishing Lines’, ‘(In The) Hidden Fields’, ‘Dead Head Lights’ and ‘We Carry Along’ – was recorded, with Lawrie planning on finishing up back in his own studio.
On returning to the UK, the group turned to Richard Formby (Spectrum, The Jazz Butcher) in Leeds for side two. Here, Lawrie and the band began to flesh out the record, laying down the three tracks – ‘Get Out Of Me’, ‘What You Love’ and ‘There Is No Shore’ – that would make up its B-side.
Across its seven tracks are all the trademarks of quality that long-time fans associate with The Telescopes’ music. Solid songs, melody, harmony, noise, dissonance, improvisation, experimentation and an all-embracing journey beyond the realm of natural vision. As Lawrie puts it: “Loaded with guitars, noise and melody, swirling around pounding repetition, Growing Eyes Becoming String is a more vocal document of where The Telescopes’ head was at during that time.”