The Telescopes - Altered Perception
(Space Age)
The Telescopes recent re-emergence has given them a good opportunity to raid the vaults. Altered Perception is the lovely, if spotty, result.
Starting with "The Perfect Needle" and "Sadness Pale", one can sense that the Telescopes were a vibrant energetic band in the early to mid 90's. These two songs show an aggressive mix of Jesus and Mary Chain guitars married to the droning straightforward nature of Spacemen 3. The thing is, these two songs could live up to pretty much anything in either of those bands' catalogues! They are perfectly druggy and rocking at the same time. There are spots throughout the album that shine nearly as bright, such as the incredibly Spacemen 3-ish
"Violence" and the George Harrison-esque "Soul Full of Tears"—which sounds like a song that Kula Shaker might write if they were any good.
It seems that as the tracks progress, the energy level diminishes quite a bit. There are no real missteps other than some questionable synth pre-sets and perhaps a lack of editing capabilities (there are
15 songs included on the CD), but there are no real standout tracks past "Sadness Pale." It's all nice enough, but the energy and awesomeness that comes at the beginning is sadly lacking by the end. Sure, there are some great downbeat numbers such as "All A Dreams" which sounds perfectly hazy and lovely in a Slowdive kind of way, but once the fuzz has been turned off there just aren't enough songwriting chops to keep me interested.
All in all this is a fine portrait of a band that started super strong and sort of tailed off by the end of their 90s career. Like all compilations and best of's, it's a hit and miss situation, but definitely worth hearing and owning for any shoegaze/spacerock music fan.
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