Burton's Telescopes have some how passed me by up until now (other than possibly being vaguely conflated with the Green Telescopes when no such connection in fact exists) but the press related to this new release (their eighth) consistently mentions the fact that the sound herein marks a return to their roots, or at least a turn back in that direction, so it seems like a good place to start discovering what they’re about.

Comprised of only five tracks things stay at the pretty ordinary level in terms of song length but there are no prizes for guessing that somewhere along the line for this to qualify as a full-blown album a lengthy number will need to show its face. Drone though is the order of the day so perception of length can be arbitrary as the listening experience unfolds.

Opening track 'You Know The Way' is a dark affair - vocal parts seemingly struggling their way through from an abyss to be barely audible beneath the thrashing guitars in the breaks between verses (you can't really call them choruses) and Stephen Lawrie going on about giving something away.

Drone's a style that for me requires more of a live setting to fully become involved in the experience so seeing the band at Rockaway Beach in Bognor in October is very likely to be a more immersive event than listening to Hidden Fields in one's living room. Resemblances to many acts of a similar bent are too easily encountered when playing the album (you can hardly just switch it on and leave it as background music) although that previously mentioned darkness, which surfaces again on third track 'In Every Sense', does carve out an element of uniqueness.

As promised the lengthy number of the album is final track 'The Living Things' which clocks in at just over 15 minutes. Whether it can manage to hold your attention for that long is debatable as, whilst it's pace is basically what you'd expect given the circumstances at the same time it's a bit of a plod with no hooks or frills rising up from the general morass to pique your interest now and again. Live, as posited above, the experience maybe be a lot different but on record it's too easy for your attention to drift away from.

Hidden Fields is available from amazon and iTunes.

The almost pop beginning of Wand’s third album 1000 Days could initially have you thinking they’ve had a serious change of musical direction in the brief number of months that have passed since the release of Golem earlier this year. The weighty riffs that we’ve come to know and love are though still there, just married up with a bit of shinier production and more psychedelic elements than on previous releases. They’ve also expanded out to fit in a dozen songs so there’s not really any room for complaint.

In point of fact the band have rather gone down the road that Ty Segall & Mikal Cronin occasionally travel when they lower the fuzz quotient in their output and fancy being a bit fey. Quality-wise there’s on the whole no dip and they show that they can amply handle what could be termed a more mature sound palate and ape Tyrannosaurus Rex with the best of them.

Where the greatest differences between the band’s first albums and 1000 Days lies is in the pace. Things get slowed right down on the likes of ‘Broken Sun’ and the title title track as the aim is for something momentous rather than a ground-level assault on the senses. ‘Lower Order’ and other songs do though, at least musically, aim to get in at the front door to give you the kind of shoving about that you’d normally expect to undergo.

The album’s one mis-step is the ethereal, pseudo-tribal instrumental ‘Dovetail’. Whether it would come over better if placed elsewhere in the running order (either right at the start or right at the end) is debatable but stuck in the middle of the album it does little other than interrupt the flow.  

A move forward then from Wand (unsurprising really given the inventiveness they clearly possess) and one that they pull off with no causes for concern or signs of running out of steam. Unlike Kennedy 1000 Days is not going to be the end of them.

1000 Days is available from amazon and iTunes.