The Telescopes - The Telescopes (1992)

The Telescopes began as a run-of-the-mill British shoegazer band fully
under the thrall of noise and My Bloody Valentine, perhaps a little angrier
than most of that ilk but pretty unmemorable. At some point, however, they
discovered subtlety and songcraft. They traded in most of their noise
pedals for some that make the guitars go all spacy and phased-out. They
also wrote a batch of songs with melodies and hooks reminiscent of Love or
The Notorious Byrd Brothers-era Byrds. The songs on The Telescopes are
built on acoustic guitars, then the aforementioned tricked-out electric
guitars are laid on top and garnished with bongos, organs, pianos, and all
sorts of classic instruments. Stephen Lawrie's vocals are restrained and
semi-emotional and female backing vocals add a touch of sweetness that
might otherwise be missing from the record, as the overall atmosphere is
very moody and introspective. A large chunk of the credit should be given
to producer Guy Fixsen, who also helmed some great records with Moose and
Rollerskate Skinny and was a member of Laika. Sadly, the Telescopes split
soon after this album came out, but the classic sound they came up with
here lives on in bands like Mojave 3 and the Verve.