Telescreens

About Telescreens

Telescreens emerged from the Bay Area noise-rock scene in the late 2000s, though calling them noise-rock doesn't quite cover it. They started as a trio — bassist Mara Fenn, drummer Joel Krasner, and guitarist Chris Leong — making the kind of angular, abrasive music that cleared rooms at DIY venues in Oakland. Early shows were mostly attended by other bands and people who accidentally wandered in looking for the bathroom.

Their first recordings were self-released cassettes with names like "Broadcast Decay" and "Signal Loss," tracked in Krasner's basement on borrowed equipment. The sound was deliberately blown-out, almost hostile. Leong ran his guitar through a chain of broken pedals, Fenn played bass through a guitar amp turned sideways, and Krasner hit his drums like they owed him money. It shouldn't have worked, but there was something compelling about how tightly controlled the chaos was.

The breakthrough, if you can call it that, came with their 2012 album "Static Discipline" on a small Chicago label. The production was cleaner but still uncompromising. Songs like "Receiver" and "Dead Air" showed they could write actual hooks while maintaining their commitment to making listeners slightly uncomfortable. College radio picked it up. They toured relentlessly in a van that broke down in every time zone.

By 2015's "Frequency Drift," they'd added synthesizers and drum machines to the mix, which alienated some of their noise-rock purists but opened things up. The album was darker, colder, more electronic. Tracks like "Interference Pattern" and "Carrier Wave" borrowed from industrial music and post-punk without sounding like cosplay. It was their most coherent statement yet, even as it documented their interest in falling apart in new and interesting ways.

The follow-up took five years. During that time, Leong left to work in software, which seemed depressingly appropriate. Fenn and Krasner continued as a duo, bringing in collaborators as needed. "Transmission End" finally appeared in 2020, recorded mostly in isolation even before isolation became mandatory. It's their most electronic record, built from loops and samples and very little that sounds like traditional instruments. Some fans hated it. Others claimed it was what they'd been trying to do all along.

These days they play sporadically, mostly one-off shows in cities where they have friends. Fenn teaches sound design at an art school. Krasner does mixing work for other bands. They've talked about new material but nothing has surfaced. Their entire catalog is on Bandcamp, where it sells steadily to people who stumble across it looking for something that sounds like nothing else they own. Which is probably how they'd want it.

Telescreens shows are quiet in a way that makes you pay attention. The crowd leans in rather than jumps around. There's real focus on the stage, people actually listening instead of waiting for a hook. The energy builds methodically—you notice it working on you rather than feeling suddenly slammed.

Known for Distance, Static, Neon Haze, Control, Fever Dream

See Telescreens Live