Telestrion, Blazing in the Sky: Making Time for Time
Posted in Reviews on July 26th, 2018 by JJ Koczan
A full 170 years after their last release, Atlanta heavy space rockers Telestrion return with a new one worthy of the distance from its predecessor. Okay, so maybe not 170 years, but Telestrion issued the vinyl-only EP, Molecule (review here), in 2012, and that certainly feels like two lifetimes ago. To the four-piece’s credit, they began recording the double-LP Blazing in the Sky way back when, it’s just only now coming to fruition. What sort of temporal loop may have occurred between then and now to cause the delay, I don’t know, but with a brisk 90-minute stretch its two platters, one can hardly accuse them of lacking productivity. Led by guitarist/vocalists Andy Samford and Brian Holcomb, who also handle a variety of other instruments from synth and theremin to sitar and Mellotron and “wind” between them, Blazing in the Sky features bassists Jonathan Lee and Stephen Carrington (the latter also guitar), synthesist/backing vocalist Karl Kendrick, percussionist Billy Reeves and drummer Ric Parnell, best known for his portrayal of Mick Shrimpton in This is Spinal Tap — an incendiary performance if ever there was one.
This assemblage and their purposes vary from track to track throughout the 15-song release, and while the format of a 2LP is necessary for the extended runtime, it also feeds into the concept behind the release, which is comprised of traditionally structured songs on its first 12″ and five mostly-extended jams on its second. As to which end of the offering might be more spaced out, it’s a judgment call, of course, but listening to the 15-minute penultimate cut “Midnight Never Ends,” freakery certainly abounds in a way that makes earlier three-minute hooks like “The Peak” and “Paperclip” seem positively straightforward. And to a degree, they are. The album begins with the more than slightly funky vibe of “Electric Ball” and embarks on a space-rock-via-grunge mission of aesthetic purpose that’s smoothly produced but still natural sounding. If some of the recordings are six years old — Telestrion went back into the studio in 2017 — they hardly show their age, and along with some decided Rush fandom, Telestrion show an affinity for the cosmic things in life that coincides with their still-weighted tonality and classic Sabbathian spirit.
That spirit perhaps shows itself most in the vocal cadence of “The Peak,” but it hardly departs on the slower, longer “Manifestations,” which follows, and it comes to a head on the seven-minute “A Storm is Comin'” later on, dosed as well with a good hit of psychedelia also at the forefront for “Oasis” of souls while “Paperslip” and “Nothing Left” speak more to the grunge side of Telestrion‘s sound, “Out in the Hills” seems to directly call to Spirit Caravan and the title-track is left to pull in a variety of elements — percussion among them — in some form of summary of the scope of the release. That’s a challenge in itself, but as side B closer “I Ain’t Got Time for Time” wraps with an upbeat kick following the space-doom conclusion of “A Storm is Comin’,” the vibe has long since been set for such turns. What allows Telestrion to make these turns as they go is an underlying foundation of songwriting. Their material is strong enough to support the stylistic shifts and still come across as catchy as intended and as strong in performance as it is in structure. LP1 is tight to such a degree as to be making a point of it, and accordingly it’s all the more of a surprise when they depart onto the second LP of all-out jamming.
Blazing in the Sky isn’t really just a double-album. It’s two albums. One follows one tradition, the other another. They’re connected via “I Ain’t Got Time for Time,” a reprise of which opens the second platter, but by and large, sides C and D are on their own wavelength as compares to the material before them. Whether it’s the Mellotron-soaked “Kykeon” or the theremin swirl of “What’s Not On” or the bass and drum pulsations beneath them both holding them together, the jams are of marked and distinct personality, and they tell a different story of who Telestrion as a band. To wit, if they had actually released Blazing in the Sky as two separate LPs over the course of however long, one might simply say, “Oh yeah, this is the record where they jam. Fine.” As it is, with the two methods positioned right next to each other, one experiences the scope of Blazing in the Sky different context. There’s no ignoring the band’s vision and tease with which they move from tight-knit pieces to wide-open, go-where-they-will jams.
I don’t know how much of “What’s Not On,” “Kykeon,” “Midnight Never Ends” and closer “The Law of Averages” — which would seem to be titled in homage to Parnell — is improvised versus being plotted out beforehand, but a sense of spontaneity pervades anyhow thanks to the inclusion of various percussive elements, keys, synth, Mellotron, etc., giving a progressive edge to the longer-form works and allowing Telestrion to convey and exploratory sensibility, resulting in an unwavering commitment to reverb and echo and a spaciousness that, as far out as they went, the earlier tracks on Blazing in the Sky could hardly hope to approach. As someone who’s a persistent sucker for heavy jams, the drift that Telestrion bring to “Kykeon” and the proggy sprawl of “Midnight Never Ends” are boons ahead of the heavier, fuzzy freakout in “The Law of Averages,” which ends the record on its most chaotic note. However it was recorded, whenever it was recorded, Blazing in the Sky marks Telestrion as a band that still has plenty to offer not just in content, but in method, and the departure from accomplished songcraft into the jams from whence that songcraft emerges is an admirable one not only for what it says about their process, but for their knowing when a song is finished and needs to be what it is. The life they breathe into these tracks is only a part of their appeal, but it’s a big one, and if it’s another half-decade-plus until they give a follow-up, there’s plenty here to chew on for the interim.
