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Artist
Telex
12+ albums
synthpopelectronic80selectronew wave
about
The Belgian synthpop group Telex was formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers, with the intention of "Making something really European, different from rock, without guitar - and the idea was electronic music." (Marc Moulin) Mixing the aesthetics of disco, punk and experimental electronic music, they released a stripped-down synthesized cover version of "Twist à St. Tropez" by Les Chats Sauvages. They followed up with an ultra-slow cover of "Rock Around the Clock", a hilariously relaxed and dispassionate version of one-hit-wonder Plastic Bertrand's punk song "Ça Plane Pour Moi", and a perversely mechanical cover of "Dance to the Music", originally by Sly Stone. 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) Their song "Euro-Vision" was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the contest itself.
