Music Review: Tele Mori

The band I am about to review today is a band that I never met through Twitter! Shocking news, right? Earth shattering? Maybe not.

I found these guys through Spotify in what was a game of word association. It started with a friend saying lets send each other songs to do with America. I put in California and randomly selected a song called ‘California Year’ by The Brokenmusicbox. They're not bad, I would recommend checking out the track ‘Possible to Arrange’ from their latest album ‘A Life Less Underground’. I recommended this to a friend and she asked me to send her the track via Spotify. This resulted in me trying to desperately recall the name of the song…so I typed in Broken Music…and a new list appeared and Tele Mori were on that list as their album is called Sounds from a Broken Music Box.

It was a pretty long winded way of discovering them. But I was happy when I did. I listened to the album a couple of times and was impressed. I don’t know why it took me so long to see if they were on Twitter, I think it may have been because I expected them to have a mass following already – imagine my surprise when I found them and they had 51 followers! I couldn't believe it…I kept listening to them trying to work out why that was the case, bad PR maybe? Who knows! All I know is I have found them now and am enjoying listening to them. So much so, that I would like to share them with you, so a big round of applause for…



They are the first entirely American band I have reviewed. Hailing from Oklahoma in the US Tele Mori is made up of **insert band members names** and they describe themselves on their bio as:

"the sound is something remnant of indie rock with electronic tinkering...well thought out song writing enveloping all that is electronic modern rock n roll."

So the lead singer Henry agreed to answer some questions..

Can you give us a brief history of the band?

Tele Mori started out back in late 08-09 as just me and my brother Ryan writing and recording demo tracks with a full band in mind. Our previous projects had mainly been electronic focused so this type of writing was substantially different. I had to sort of dumb things down, keeping in mind if I added everything I thought would sound cool bringing in a band would just cause a big pile of sound with too much going on. We started performing live with a full band in 2010, it's taken several drummers and guitarist to find the right mix of people able to create and move in the direction that feels right. The line up is now all family members. Myself (Henry McMinn vocals, keys, programming) My brother (Ryan McDoulett Bass) Taylor Fallis My brother in law (drums, percussion) Griffin Sansone Tays Cousin/my cousin in law (Guitars, backing vocals).

Who are your musical heroes and influences?

My influences range from stuff like Mott The Hoople, T-Rex, The Beatles to current stuff like EdiT, Boards of Canada, Radiohead, Sparklehorse, Skinny Puppy, Mogwai ect... if you were to question the others I promise Def Tones, team sleep, Jawbreaker, NIN would come up as well more than once.

If you had to recommend one track to someone who has never heard you music before) as an example of your ‘sound’ which one would you choose?

I would personally probably pick "listening while I Sleep" because the glitchy synthetic undertones on it are a good representation of where our newer material is leaning a bit more dominant.

I think ‘Listening while I sleep’ is my favourite track, what inspired that?

That song was written about alienation and outside forces pushing you towards something. The feeling of being alone while surrounded by the herd, longing to sort of belong or fit into the system but not sure how. Once you figure it out and take your place in line realizing you never belonged in the first place and you're still looking through the glass.

You recently supported Neon Trees, what was that like?

It was pretty cool, a bit unsettling at first, as you mentioned we opened up for them so you have this giant group of people rushing in really anxious and amped to see their favorite band. So you pick up on that energy but once the music kicked in everything falls into place and they're digging it. We had a great time, they're (neon trees) really nice people. As you know they're pretty popular right now, but that didn't seem to go to their heads. They were friendly, sat and talked with most of us during load in and whatnot.

Courtesy of Tele Mori

I am always curious as to what song bands would cover if they went on the radio show 'Live Lounge'...so, which song would you like to cover in that situation?

"Counting bodies like sheep to the rhythm of the war drums" by A Perfect Circle, everything about that song is great I could listen to it on repeat.

What have you got planned for the next 12 months?

We're currently tracking the next EP, we have everything written and we've performed some of the songs at previous shows kind of testing the waters. Once we've finished the EP we will continue booking shows and writing more material. Maybe book a tour in the spring. Ideally license our music out get a good label to push it, play more festivals. Play for you lovely folks across the pond.

Here is another track called Little Ghosts :)

I hope you'll take the time to check them out and let me know what you think.

Links
http://telemori.com/
http://www.myspace.com/telemori
https://www.facebook.com/telemori
http://www.reverbnation.com/telemori
https://twitter.com/telemori
http://soundcloud.com/tele-mori
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tele-mori
http://www.auxilarate.com/reviews/sounds-from-a-broken-music-box
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYtU00a5ym4
http://www.songkick.com/artists/4713148-tele-mori
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/sounds-from-a-broken-music-box/id520240645
http://www.sonicbids.com/2/EPK/?epk_id=289604