TELESTRION

Head Heritage
July, 2008 Druidion
Julian Cope

Okay, moving swiftly on to this month’s reviews, first I gotta hip y’all to the stunning self-titled debut album by Telestrion, a long-haired quartet from the American south. Utopian, apocalyptic and transcendental all at the same time, Telestrion’s songs dance on fire somewhere between the Satanic and Whirling Dervish gypsy psychedelia of SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH and FUTURAMA, the outrageously over-arranged second album by Bill Nelson’s Be Bop Deluxe, as played by the Todd Clark Group and/or the phased-out psychedelic fury of Neil Merryweather’s Space Rangers. Telestrion utilise a kind of ever-unfolding QUADROPHENIA approach that overwhelms and disorientates listeners to such a degree that there’s no possibility of knowing just which song they’re listening to. Imagine an LSD-soaked Montrose or a modern Flower Travellin’ Band and yooz getting close to the swirling catharsis this quartet has laid upon us. Classic Rock? Nope, for these druids have truly excavated a rock-cut tomb all their own, babies. With its crackling analogue synthesizers and perpetual FX, TELESTRION is what I thought Dwarr would sound like had they not suffered from such feeble ‘80s production. Score this jewel from the band’s own Electric Mind record
label, or via amazon.com/TELESTRION-Telestrion.
- www.HeadHeritage.co.uk

Stereo Subversion Review

Karen Looney

Far out, mystical, and sometimes unsettling, just one look at Telestrion's album cover, painted by surrealist artist Ton Haring, will let you know what to expect from the band's debut. Lush hills are dotted with vigilant eyeballs looking over the oddly untouched landscape. It is as if the artist has transported us from the physical realm to the ever-evolving land of dreams and serves as the perfect visual introduction to the music of psychedelic rock band Telestrion.

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, Telestrion is a four-piece band that creates otherworldly rock clearly inspired by altered states of mind. They are named after a ritual hall at the ancient Greek Temple of Demeter, where noteworthy pilgrims like Plato and Aristotle partook of psilocybin mushrooms as part of an initiation ceremony. Reformed from the ashes of the band Qualone (basically, they got a new drummer), Telestrion assembled in mid-2006 and released their first record on October 9th, 2007 on their own imprint, Electric Mind. They have since received much praise from the online psychonaut community.

The music of the band's self-titled debut is, in a word, heavy. Between the slow, ringing guitar riffs and the low, low bass one feels as if a concrete block has fallen on their shoulders. Telestrion lumbers like Black Sabbath's earliest down-tuned efforts but sparse synthesizer and a number of pedal effects keep the music fluid and natural. Opening track "The One To Go" sets up an atmosphere of celestial visions with a deep, rolling rhythm accented by faraway cymbal crashes. The distant male vocals melt into the music, illustrating a questionably apocalyptic dreamscape ("Is this how it all will end or is this how it begins?").

"Get Your Mind Out" is a true gem, beginning with a forceful, fist-pumping riff and mysterious vibrato squeals. Then, suddenly, the intensity is released into a mellow segment reminiscent of a slow Sgt. Pepper era Beatles as the singer imagines being happily lost in a trip for all eternity. "Half" trudges forth with twiddling guitar sounds and a hammering refrain, all in tribute to synesthesia ("I hear colors with my eyes and feel them in my brain") "Now" is hard rocking with more cowbell than you can shake a fist at. The album appropriately closes with an extravagant cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine."

Interestingly, there is little to complain about on the album. One might imagine the slow pace and erratic sound effects would get old after a while but they do not. The trippy synth sounds littered throughout the album never feel arbitrary or distracting. Even on their thirteen-minute epic "Lost in the Sky," Telestrion manages to keep listeners engaged.

Telestrion's profound intensity and mysterious liquid nature make their self-titled full-length the aural equivalent of a lava lamp. The band has created a private little world in which we can tune out everything around us and contemplate inner space. Terence McKenna would be proud. - StereoSubversion.com

Head Heritage
July, 2008 Druidion
Julian Cope

Okay, moving swiftly on to this month’s reviews, first I gotta hip y’all to the stunning self-titled debut album by Telestrion, a long-haired quartet from the American south. Utopian, apocalyptic and transcendental all at the same time, Telestrion’s songs dance on fire somewhere between the Satanic and Whirling Dervish gypsy psychedelia of SABBATH BLOODY SABBATH and FUTURAMA, the outrageously over-arranged second album by Bill Nelson’s Be Bop Deluxe, as played by the Todd Clark Group and/or the phased-out psychedelic fury of Neil Merryweather’s Space Rangers. Telestrion utilise a kind of ever-unfolding QUADROPHENIA approach that overwhelms and disorientates listeners to such a degree that there’s no possibility of knowing just which song they’re listening to. Imagine an LSD-soaked Montrose or a modern Flower Travellin’ Band and yooz getting close to the swirling catharsis this quartet has laid upon us. Classic Rock? Nope, for these druids have truly excavated a rock-cut tomb all their own, babies. With its crackling analogue synthesizers and perpetual FX, TELESTRION is what I thought Dwarr would sound like had they not suffered from such feeble ‘80s production. Score this jewel from the band’s own Electric Mind record
label, or via amazon.com/TELESTRION-Telestrion.
- www.HeadHeritage.co.uk

Sea Of Tranquility.org


Combining the riff energy of such hard rock acts as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, and Cream, with the psychedelic space rock of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, is the self titled debut from Telestrion. While many bands have come out of the woodwork over the last few years pretending to know how to deliver solid 70's retro rock, Telestrion show here that they have a good handle on these classic sounds and can deliver catchy, memorable songs. From the funky wah-wah drenched "Middle Of Something", to the Sabbath-meets-Floyd stomp of "Melting Away", the spooky dirge "Sleeping Pill", or the psychedelic acid trip epic "Lost in the Sky", there's no shortage of tasty heavy rock flower power on this sucker. Andy Samford & Brian Holcomb throw down plenty of crunchy riffs throughout, and their vocals have a sort of Ozzy-meets-Waters delivery to them. Speaking of Pink Floyd, the band even covers the mighty "Astronomy Domine" here, complete with raging guitar lines, eerie vocals, and frightening electronics.

While not re-inventing the wheel, Telestrion is a rather enjoyable slice of 70's psychedelic hard rock, providing plenty of stoner riffs and just enough Moog, Mellotron, and Theremin to keep things interesting.

Pete Pardo
- Sea Of Tranquility.org

Sea Of Tranquility.org


Combining the riff energy of such hard rock acts as Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Grand Funk Railroad, Mountain, and Cream, with the psychedelic space rock of Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, is the self titled debut from Telestrion. While many bands have come out of the woodwork over the last few years pretending to know how to deliver solid 70's retro rock, Telestrion show here that they have a good handle on these classic sounds and can deliver catchy, memorable songs. From the funky wah-wah drenched "Middle Of Something", to the Sabbath-meets-Floyd stomp of "Melting Away", the spooky dirge "Sleeping Pill", or the psychedelic acid trip epic "Lost in the Sky", there's no shortage of tasty heavy rock flower power on this sucker. Andy Samford & Brian Holcomb throw down plenty of crunchy riffs throughout, and their vocals have a sort of Ozzy-meets-Waters delivery to them. Speaking of Pink Floyd, the band even covers the mighty "Astronomy Domine" here, complete with raging guitar lines, eerie vocals, and frightening electronics.

While not re-inventing the wheel, Telestrion is a rather enjoyable slice of 70's psychedelic hard rock, providing plenty of stoner riffs and just enough Moog, Mellotron, and Theremin to keep things interesting.

Pete Pardo
- Sea Of Tranquility.org

Dosenation.com

When I popped this review CD into my player I immediately thought it was Pink Floyd, but no, it is Telestrion, a bombasitc psychedelic rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. Loaded with chunky epic guitar riffs and screaming solos, this Telestrion debut could have been teleported directly from 1972. The sound rocks with echoes of Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, and many others of that riff-laden classic style, This is indeed an impressive album for a debut; Telestrion has the space-rock formula wired. Put on the headphones and turn it up to 11. - Dosenation.com

Dosenation.com

When I popped this review CD into my player I immediately thought it was Pink Floyd, but no, it is Telestrion, a bombasitc psychedelic rock band from Atlanta, Georgia. Loaded with chunky epic guitar riffs and screaming solos, this Telestrion debut could have been teleported directly from 1972. The sound rocks with echoes of Black Sabbath, Soundgarden, Pink Floyd, and many others of that riff-laden classic style, This is indeed an impressive album for a debut; Telestrion has the space-rock formula wired. Put on the headphones and turn it up to 11. - Dosenation.com

ProGGnosis
http://www.silverdb.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=24169


When a band takes approximately just one year between its gathering and the releasing of its first album, this is normally a symptom of knowing exactly what they want to play and the capacity to put into music their sonic ideas. When it comes to Telestrion, this is just the case!
Formed in 2006, this band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia (USA), has just released their debut, homonymous album, and the music they play, though crossing some apart styles, is very well defined and achieves a perfect match between those different aesthetics.

Telestrion plays within a not that common style that I would define as something like “Hard Psych Stoner Prog”, meaning that they have shaped their sound in something that majorly drink from the musing fountains of Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock and Hard Progressive.
It is mostly obvious that bands such as Black Sabbath and Cream have been major influences to the achieving of this bands sound. The first has provided the reminiscent guitar riffs and type of distortion as well as the totally Ozzy-like vocalizations. The second has inspired the rockier and more psychedelic parts. The conjunction of these two musical approaching angles is what will better describe this bands music, but influences of Led Zeppelin, Orange Goblin, Flaming Lips and Super Furry Animals are also to be found here, both in the way the music aggregates the heaviness and harshness of the guitars with the freakiness of the psychedelic, keyboard driven parts.
The album keeps itself within the boundaries that are created with the aforementioned soundings, demonstrating a band with full capacity to create dense, heavy psychedelic with a tad retro ambiances, captivating music that will no doubt be of interest to those who like the early 70’s hard rock/heavy metal, the late 90’s stoner rock and the overall hard psychedelic soundscapes.

Nuno (Spain) - http://www.silverdb.com

ProGGnosis
http://www.silverdb.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=24169


When a band takes approximately just one year between its gathering and the releasing of its first album, this is normally a symptom of knowing exactly what they want to play and the capacity to put into music their sonic ideas. When it comes to Telestrion, this is just the case!
Formed in 2006, this band hailing from Atlanta, Georgia (USA), has just released their debut, homonymous album, and the music they play, though crossing some apart styles, is very well defined and achieves a perfect match between those different aesthetics.

Telestrion plays within a not that common style that I would define as something like “Hard Psych Stoner Prog”, meaning that they have shaped their sound in something that majorly drink from the musing fountains of Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock and Hard Progressive.
It is mostly obvious that bands such as Black Sabbath and Cream have been major influences to the achieving of this bands sound. The first has provided the reminiscent guitar riffs and type of distortion as well as the totally Ozzy-like vocalizations. The second has inspired the rockier and more psychedelic parts. The conjunction of these two musical approaching angles is what will better describe this bands music, but influences of Led Zeppelin, Orange Goblin, Flaming Lips and Super Furry Animals are also to be found here, both in the way the music aggregates the heaviness and harshness of the guitars with the freakiness of the psychedelic, keyboard driven parts.
The album keeps itself within the boundaries that are created with the aforementioned soundings, demonstrating a band with full capacity to create dense, heavy psychedelic with a tad retro ambiances, captivating music that will no doubt be of interest to those who like the early 70’s hard rock/heavy metal, the late 90’s stoner rock and the overall hard psychedelic soundscapes.

Nuno (Spain) - http://www.silverdb.com

Stonerrock.com


Having been a fan of Qualone, I was psyched to find out about these guys a while back. All I knew was the track on their myspace page, "Melting Away", which was a favorite of mine at the time. Fast forward a few months and finally I got to check out Telestrion's full length. Definitely worth the wait. Anyone who likes their heavy cut with a lot of psyche needs to check out this disc. Hawkwind is a definite sonic reference point, though with the exception of "Get Your Mind Out", I don't hear Hawkwind much in the song writing. What I do hear is a ton of heavy riffing melded together with some great, memorable SONGS which feature all kinds of guitar tones (electric as well as acoustic), weirdo keyboard effects, some trippy on point vocal harmonies, and a shitload of mind expanding production touches. This disc sounds amazing and obviously took a lot of time and effort to engineer (I'd love to hear it mastered for vinyl someday). And it's not just the recording itself, every member of the four piece has their shit down...great players. The pacing and track order of this disc works well too. For me, it really takes off with track 5, "Melting Away", and doesn't let up until the end of the disc. The cd gets progressively trippier from that point on, a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This would be a hell of a mushroom disc, which reminds me that I need to make some phone calls. Anyway, check out Telestrion. This is heavy psychedelic music of the highest order.

Mauro Felipe
- www.stonerrock.com

Stonerrock.com


Having been a fan of Qualone, I was psyched to find out about these guys a while back. All I knew was the track on their myspace page, "Melting Away", which was a favorite of mine at the time. Fast forward a few months and finally I got to check out Telestrion's full length. Definitely worth the wait. Anyone who likes their heavy cut with a lot of psyche needs to check out this disc. Hawkwind is a definite sonic reference point, though with the exception of "Get Your Mind Out", I don't hear Hawkwind much in the song writing. What I do hear is a ton of heavy riffing melded together with some great, memorable SONGS which feature all kinds of guitar tones (electric as well as acoustic), weirdo keyboard effects, some trippy on point vocal harmonies, and a shitload of mind expanding production touches. This disc sounds amazing and obviously took a lot of time and effort to engineer (I'd love to hear it mastered for vinyl someday). And it's not just the recording itself, every member of the four piece has their shit down...great players. The pacing and track order of this disc works well too. For me, it really takes off with track 5, "Melting Away", and doesn't let up until the end of the disc. The cd gets progressively trippier from that point on, a good thing as far as I'm concerned. This would be a hell of a mushroom disc, which reminds me that I need to make some phone calls. Anyway, check out Telestrion. This is heavy psychedelic music of the highest order.

Mauro Felipe
- www.stonerrock.com

Daredevil Records/Germany
www.daredevilrecords.com

Telestrion from Atlanta, Georgia are a four piece heavy psychedelic rock band whose sound is a fusion of timeless riff-rock masters such as Black Sabbath, Masters of Reality and a huge psychedelic influence from Pink Floyd. This first, self-produced debut album, sounds fresh, modern and is a big surprise in this year. The self-titled debut has a great sound, responsible for that was Don Tart (Blackberry Smoke) and Jeff Tomei (COC, Jerry Cantrell, Smashing Pumpkins) and features a big booklet. And the music is, as I told before, a big surprise. The members played before as Qualone and Plaster, two great underground Stoner Rock heroes in the late 90`s. It is not fair to mention some single songs, because everyone is a highlight! The last track, ASTRONOMY DOMINE is an awesome PINK FLOYD cover and sounds like a real TELESTRION track. Starting with the mighty THE ONE TO GO, followed by the riff monster BLUE SUNSHINE - sounds like the late BLACK SABBATH jamming with MASTERS OF REALITY. Awesome! The vocals of Andy fit perfect to that sound and it is a shame that no big label has signed this band. The music is full of great riffs and picked with some psychedelic moments. One of the best and musically outstanding debut albums of the last years! Check this band out!

Jochen Bolaith
- www.daredevilrecords.com

Daredevil Records/Germany
www.daredevilrecords.com

Telestrion from Atlanta, Georgia are a four piece heavy psychedelic rock band whose sound is a fusion of timeless riff-rock masters such as Black Sabbath, Masters of Reality and a huge psychedelic influence from Pink Floyd. This first, self-produced debut album, sounds fresh, modern and is a big surprise in this year. The self-titled debut has a great sound, responsible for that was Don Tart (Blackberry Smoke) and Jeff Tomei (COC, Jerry Cantrell, Smashing Pumpkins) and features a big booklet. And the music is, as I told before, a big surprise. The members played before as Qualone and Plaster, two great underground Stoner Rock heroes in the late 90`s. It is not fair to mention some single songs, because everyone is a highlight! The last track, ASTRONOMY DOMINE is an awesome PINK FLOYD cover and sounds like a real TELESTRION track. Starting with the mighty THE ONE TO GO, followed by the riff monster BLUE SUNSHINE - sounds like the late BLACK SABBATH jamming with MASTERS OF REALITY. Awesome! The vocals of Andy fit perfect to that sound and it is a shame that no big label has signed this band. The music is full of great riffs and picked with some psychedelic moments. One of the best and musically outstanding debut albums of the last years! Check this band out!

Jochen Bolaith
- www.daredevilrecords.com