Teleman’s brilliant second album is proof of the desirability of letting musicians develop. Three members of the quartet were previously in the unrelentingly OK indiepop group Pete and the Pirates, all jangling guitars and cloying sweetness over their two albums. As Teleman, they dropped the jangle and brought a pleasingly Anglicised version of motorik to the fore. Brilliant Sanity opens with their most explicit statement of the debt to Germany, in the form of Düsseldorf, which manages to combine the shimmering keyboards of Kraftwerk, the propulsion of Neu! and chopped indiepop guitars in a magnificent whole. Fall in Time seems to be a workaday piece until three minutes in, when everything falls into place in a euphoric rush. Indeed, euphoric rushes decorate Brilliant Sanity at regular intervals – English Architecture has a chorus so uplifting you want to step out and salute the world – but they are deployed so judiciously that you never get tired of them. Here’s proof that indie doesn’t need to head for the landfill.
