TELEX – first 3 albums (1979-81)
Belgium’s answer to The Human League
Like Kraftwerk, Telex built their music entirely from electronic instruments, and the sounds of the two groups have a certain similarity. However, unlike Kraftwerk’s studied Teutonic irony, Telex favour a more joyously irreverent humour. Their debut album, “Looking for Saint Tropez”, featured the worldwide hit single “Moskow Diskow”, one of the first ever electronic dance/pop songs.
In 1980 Telex’s manager asked them to enter for the Eurovision Song Contest. They entered, and were eventually sent to the finals, although they apparently hoped to come last: “We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th spot” (Marc Moulin).[3] Their song “Euro-Vision” was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the contest itself. The Eurovision audience seemed unsure how to react to the performance, and after the band stopped playing there was mostly stunned silence, with scattered polite applause; Michel Moers took a photograph of the bewildered audience. The band walked off amidst sounds of muttering. A mark of the confusion caused by the performance was when vote-counting began, and Greece awarded Belgium three points, the announcer thought she had misheard and tried to award the points to The Netherlands. All of this was clearly bad news for the band’s English record label, Virgin Records, who were trying to pass them off as part of the New Romantic movement. The self-mockery of tracks like “We Are All Getting Old” didn’t help either.
For their third album, Sex, Telex enlisted the suddenly hip US group Sparks to help write the lyrics. However, the band still refused to play live and preferred to remain anonymous — common practice in the techno music artists they later inspired, but unusual in 1981.
Telex – Looking For St. Tropez, 1979 (ZIP file)
Telex – Neurovision, 1980 (ZIP file)
Telex – Sex, 1981 (ZIP file)
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Telex on Amazon MP3 Store
thanx for sharing these! been curious about their stuff… “moscow disko” being such the classic that it is, there HAS to be more gems to discover!
Oooooh, the name rings a big bell,thanks for the memory-jog.
being boiled by this! thank you so much!
Those first 2 LPs are great favs of mine but I’ve never come across the third before. Many thanks…
I am amazed at the quality of the production, it has dated extremely well. Thanks
THANK you for posting.
(Sex / Long Holiday)
“Where or where to go
Down by the sea, I’m hot and bothered
Where oh where to go
Up in the hills, I’m cold and bothered”
God, I love Sparks. I mean… right?