Telex (band)

Telex
Telex at a rehearsal for the Eurovision Song Contest 1980
Background information
Origin	Brussels, Belgium
Genres	Electronic, avant-garde, dance, experimental, house, electro, synth-pop, new wave, disco, post-disco
Years active	1978–2006, 2009 (hiatus in new music between 1989–2005)
Labels	RKM Disques Vogue Virgin Records Sire/Warner Bros. Records Atlantic Records EMI Records Alfa Records
Past member(s)	Dan Lacksman Michel Moers Marc Moulin

The Belgian synthpop group Telex was formed in 1978 by Marc Moulin, Dan Lacksman, and Michel Moers. They mixed disco, punk and experimental electronic music.

Like Kraftwerk, Telex built its music entirely from electronic instruments.

In 1980 Telex's manager asked the group to enter the Eurovision Song Contest. The group entered and were sent to the finals. The group's 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. After the band stopped playing, there was mostly stunned silence. Michel Moers took a photograph of the bewildered audience. The band walked off to sounds of muttering. When vote-counting began, and Greece awarded Belgium three points. The announcer thought she misheard and tried to award the points to the Netherlands.

For its third album, Telex got the help of US group Sparks to help write the lyrics. However, the band still would not play live. This is common practice for techno music artists, but unusual in 1981. The fourth Telex album, Wonderful World, was barely distributed.

In 1986, Atlantic Records signed Telex. At this time the band was using sampling and a more up-tempo humorous style.

In 1989, Telex revisited all of its old tracks and remixed them to be like house music.

After almost two decades of silence, Telex made a comeback in March 2006 with How Do You Dance on EMI Records. It had five original songs as well as five covers.

Discography

Albums

• 1979: Looking For St. Tropez
• 1980: Neurovision
• 1981: Sex (released in some countries as "Birds and Bees" with a slightly altered track listing)
• 1984: Wonderful World
• 1986: Looney Tunes
• 2006: How Do You Dance?

Compilations and remix albums

• 1989: Les Rhythmes Automatiques (album of re-recorded back-catalogue))
• 1993: Belgium...One Point (a box set of the first five albums plus bonus tracks)
• 1994: Is Release A Humour? - We Love Telex (Japan only. remixed by Japanese DJs)
• 1998: I Don't Like Music (remixed by Carl Craig and others)
• 1998: I Don't Like Remixes: Original Classics 78-86 (a 'best-of' compilation)
• 1999: I (Still) Don't Like Music Remixes Vol. 2 (DJ remixes)
• 2009: Ultimate Best Of