[Cover photo credit to Frank Uyttenhove]
Telex have released a box set collating the newly remastered reissues of their 6 studio albums, Looking for Saint-Tropez (1979), Neurovision (1980), Sex (1981), Wonderful World (1984), Looney Tunes (1988) and How Do You Dance? (2006).
Remastered and newly mixed from the original tapes by Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers, Telex is out as a 6-piece vinyl box set and digitally via Mute, with the 6xCD box set available in US/CA on May 5th, 2023
The Belgian Synth-Pop trio, Marc Moulin (1942- 2008), Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers, launched in Brussels in 1978 and, as one of only a handful of Synth-pop pioneers at the time, helping bring Electronic Pop to the mainstream.
Their debut album Looking For Saint Tropez contains covers of Plastic Bertrand’s pop-punk “Ça Plane Pour Moi” and Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock”. Had Telex merely confined themselves to such covers they might have been regarded as a rather clever comedy band.
However, they also cut “Moskow Diskow”, a dancefloor classic which laid the path for Electronic music like House and Techno. Ahead of its time, the album’s reputation has only been enhanced throughout the years.
The follow up, Neurovision, includes the track “Euro-vision” which was famously entered into the Eurovision Song Contest, representing Belgium. Moers says he regarded their entry as “very Situationist International, the worm in the apple.” and they resolved either to come first or last. They didn’t achieve that goal, but became part of the Eurovision saga.
For 1981’s Sex the trio teamed up with Sparks, a match that showcased both bands’ determination to make Electronic Pop music suffused with wit. Sparks in the end contributed lyrics for the entire album.
Wonderful World followed in 1984 and the title track included here on the EP shows a band continuing to push a state-of-the art sound. 1988’s Looney Tunes, featuring the Dadaist cut-up “rap” of “Peanuts”, resulted in Motown among those vying to sign them. The band then worked on projects outside of Telex until 2006’s How Do You Dance?
Telex announced their retirement in 2008, following Moulin’s death, and in 2021 began a new partnership with Mute beginning with the release of This Is Telex, featuring two unreleased tracks.
