Throughout their 15-year recording, career the Telescopes have always managed to amaze people. This is simply because no two Telescopes records have ever sounded the same, or indeed like anything you'd preconceivably expect them to sound like.
The 'Winter EP' is no exception, as both tracks on here, re-recorded versions of two of their most endearing songs from their earliest works ('The Perfect Needle') and their most recent ('Winter'), sound not only as far removed as possile from their original incarnations but unlike anything else on planet earth. Almost.
'Winter #7', as its entitled for this EP, is an eerie, melodramatic collage of wasp synthesiser and floating horn sounds over which Stephen Lawrie and Jo Doran harmonise part menacingly, part inquisitive, "Is this the way that I'm feeling?"
Better still is 'The Perfect Needle #4', which dispenses with the original's squalling feedback and white noise backdrop and replaces it with an intensely orchestrated hum that is equal parts Joy Division's 'Atmosphere' and Ultravox's 'Vienna'.
Welcome Hungry Audio to the big bad world of the record industry. May the rest of your gifts be as astoundingly beautiful as this.
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8Dom Gourlay's Score