Reviewed By Justin Santelli
Is there anything better than high-treble, metronomically entwined guitar lines to soundtrack a blissful bummer? Human history has yet to reveal an equally satisfying alternative. Telstar Drugs, outstanding anthropologists that they are, understand this, and have done the world a favour by issuing another twelve-inch wide contribution to the cause.
A four-piece hailing from Montreal via Calgary via Hamilton label Perdu, they don’t deal in the same kind of darkness as labelmates WTCHS and CROSSS, instead choosing to hypnotically lull you into a shimmering night-haze. They’re loose, and consequently, dangerous – nowhere near as mathematically uptight and slavish as some of their post-punk peers. Think the first Beach Fossils record, but with the stick up its ass replaced by a joint in its hand.
Endless Straight is the name of their new four-song EP, and it’s aptly titled. These songs play deadpan, and sometimes they feel like they can keep expanding forever, winding further and further down the funnel of your mind.
What makes Telstar Drugs special are these slight fluctuations in the flatline, like the weirdly sad bassline that runs through “Pressed”. Or the pauses in “Still” that eerily replicate the pull of sleep as you begin to nod off at the end of the day. This is where all of Endless Straight lives: that weightless, blank space betwixt consciousnesses. It isn’t until the final minutes of “Glass Bottle”, when the thump-and-stab attack falls away to a floating glimmer, that you are reminded of the sun. And gasping for air, you wake.
Top Tracks: “Pressed”, “Still”
Rating: Proud Hoot (Really Good)
