Telex on the road again

telex_band.jpg A rather curious act is the Belgian trio Telex. Formed in 1978, they played a sort of electro pop inspired by Kraftwerk and disco, with sleazy synths and vocoder voices.

I still play their debut LP ‘Looking For Saint Tropez’ now and then, with danceable hits like ‘Moskow Diskow’ and the covers ‘Rock Around The Clock’ and ‘Ca Plane Pour Moi’.

telex_eurovision.jpgTelex were known for their cartoon-like image and tongue-in-cheek humour. In 1980 they even performed at the Eurovision Song Contest, with a song appropriately entitled ‘Euro-Vision’ (watch video).

In the late 80’s Telex made their last record for a long time called ‘Looney Tunes’. Since then only compilations and remix releases appeared, like the not too interesting I Don’t Like Music, featuring amongst others Carl Craig. Throughout the years Telex has been named as an influence by various house, techno and electro producers. Last month Telex was suddenly back with a new album called How Do You Dance on Labels. In their own words Telex has not reformed, cause they never split up. They just didn’t want to do something for a while…

On the new album not much has changed in the Telex universum, who also recently remixed Depeche Mode’s single A Pain I’m Used To. They play broadly the same type of electro wave pop with vintage synths, with perhaps a little updated sound. Still they should not be taken too seriously, with hilaric lyrics and funny covers, like ‘La Bamba’, Sandra Kims ‘J’aime la vie’ and the single ‘On the road again’ (from Canned Heat). But it’s certainly entertaining.
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Watch the funny video of On the road again or listen to samples of the album.