THE TELESCOPES
experimental health
Joining Musicology for our On The Level series, Stephen Lawrie of The Telescopes showcases the unique instruments used to produce his latest record.
STEPHEN LAWRIE OF THE TELESCOPES
The Telescopes are releasing their latest album, 'Experimental Health'. This is their 14th album and their third release on the Weisskalt label. The Telescopes are an all embracing concern which began in 1987 - the only constant, being sole composer and instigator, Northumbrian born, Stephen Lawrie. The band’s line-up is in constant flux, there can be anywhere between 1 and 20 members on a recording. This album was created entirely independently by Lawrie in a remote cottage in West Yorkshire between January and May 2022.
'Experimental Health' is folk music made with broken toys and cheap synths - mostly Pocket Operators and miniature synths. There are no guitars present on the album, most of the instrumentation costing £50 or less.
The Telescopes music has constantly pushed its own boundaries. The music overlaps many genres following its own inspiration-led course. Time has shown that The Telescopes' music not only withstands repeated listening but also reveals something new whenever one ventures between the grooves. It has been described as 'more a revolution of the psyche than a revolution of the sidewalk'; a thread consistent throughout a body of work spanning over 30 years.
To demonstrate how the sounds on ‘Experimental Health’ were produced, Stephen showed Musicology the exact equipment used on the album. Each instrument providing its own unique sound and contribution to the sonic symphony that Stephen and the band created.
THE EQUIPMENT
EDP WASP
This is an old 1970s analogue synthesiser that has a touch sensitive keyboard. It’s a bit worse for ware courtesy of the baggage handlers at San Francisco Airport and is a difficult member of The Telescopes as it only functions when it feels like it. The bass line to Leave Nobody Behind was played on this in a lower octave and it was used to create the low chord sequence on When I hear The Sound. On both tracks it was also used in the noise setting which enables the user to ride the white noise feeding it through various filters. On Leave Nobody Behind it I utilised the ‘Random’ function to create a kind of arpeggio in a lower register to the higher Pocket Operator arpeggio that is also in the song.
KORG MONOTRON DELAY
(Analogue ribbon synthesizer)
I used this as a tape echo to add noise and static to the tracks to give them some dissonance. On The Turns I fed a drum beat from the Casiotone through this and played the ‘Cut-Off’ and ‘Feedback’ functions along to the rhythm. On most of the tracks this is used without anything fed through it, mostly just feeding back on itself, I rarely used the actual keyboard. The bleeping sounds on When I Hear The Sound is one of the rare exceptions where the keyboard was touched.
FINGER PIANO
(Kalimba) This appears on The Turns Again, just a simple creepy melody played with thumbs, used for the same reasons as the Penny Whistle was used on The Turns. The Turns Again is basically a song that grew out of messing around with the very end of The Turns. I took the vocal phrases from the outro of The Turns, flipped them into reverse and dropped them into The Turns Again, much to my surprise the phrase ‘Turn again’ when reversed came out as ‘there, there’. It seemed a fitting, spooky end to the album.
PENNY WHISTLE
The Penny Whistle was multi tracked on The Turns, I wanted something naive and innocent sounding but with an eerie menace, like the Pied Piper; to fit the unnerving nursery rhyme quality there is to that song.
KORG MONOTRON DUO
(Analogue ribbon synthesizer)
This is a miniature synth that I played with a pen. It was used to create the pulses on The Turns and the descending pitch bends on 45e. Some of the counter melodies to the basic chord structures were also put together on this. It’s quite difficult to play with the fingers but it has a great tone and the X.Mod feature can provide some interesting variations, I used that to get the pulses. Pulses and bleeps were what I heard in my head when I came up with the album title. They seemed to suggest the necessary environment for the overall concept of Experimental Health.
POCKET OPERATOR OFFICE
This is a mini sequencer loaded with samples of office equipment such as photocopiers. Most of the song Leave Nobody Behind was created on this, including all of the rhythms; some treated with the in-built effects. I used this model for a lot of the bleeping sounds throughout the album. On Because they care I created an arpeggio on the machine then accidentally hit the ‘Key’ button, which seems to randomise any pattern currently playing, in this case it was a happy accident, the revolving melody you hear on the intro/middle8 and outro of the song is how it turned out.
STYLOPHONE
A ribbon synth played with a pen. Made famous by David Bowie on Space Oddity. I’ve had this since I was a child. I used it on Because They Care, it lays out the general chord structure of the song as a rhythm guitar would.
POCKET OPERATOR FACTORY
This mini sequencer is loaded with samples taken from a factory environment. They can all be manipulate beyond recognition. Most of the drums were created on it and the Office model. Some of the melodies and lead parts were also assembled on here including the arpeggio’s on Leave Nobody Behind, Repetitive Brain Injury and 45e. The lead parts on those songs were also played on this machine. On Repetitive Brain Injury the melody has a pulse effect which is created by manipulating various in-built features.
THEREMIN
Built by Tony Theremin Maker since 1962. Tony was like a mad scientist around in the late 90s. He’d been on the BBC’s Tomorrow’s World in the 60’s, demonstrating the Theremin and went on to build them for a lot of underground artists. I’ve given a few away as presents. He also built mad pedals, I have a couple of fuzz pedals he made which swing from extreme noise to sheer noise terror. He was a great believer in the healing power of silver and used it frequently to good vibe folk. I used this in the breaks on Wrong Dimension to give it a kind of Sci-Fi rush when the organ comes in. The antenna controls the frequency and the bar controls the volume, how each parameter responds is determined by the dials at the front.
POCKET OPERATOR SUB
Most of the baselines were created with this mini sequencer. Like it’s name suggests it has a few good sub sounds than can be sequenced into patterns, it also has a few good drum hits and percussive sounds that were used now and again. Some melodies were also created on it such as the counter chord structures on The Turns and the rolling ‘piano’ part on the instrumental section of When I Hear The Sound. I worked out the melodies freehand then programmed them in to the step sequencer.
CASSIOTONE MT 400V
This is an old Casiotone from the early 80s, I’ve had it since I was a teenager, it’s been gigged and studio’d, trashed and rebuilt a lot and has seen much better days. I used it for the solo on Wrong Dimension for a standard organ sound and I used the Waltz beat on it’s built-in rhythm box fed through the Korg delay on The Turns. Gives it a kind of Dub Waltz vibe.
