Do you remember Telex? They appeared in the 1980 edition of the Eurovision song contest. Then it might be a surprise for you that Telex has existed for many more years after that Eurovision experience. One of the members – Marc Moulin – unfortunately passed away in 2008, but the two other members have decided to re-issue all Telex music on vinyl in a special boxset. Read the article that we kindly reproduced from Classic Pop Magazine.


Belgian synthpop trio Telex have announced details of a vinyl boxset, collating the remastered reissues of their six 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, Telexwill be available as a limited edition vinyl and CD boxset, and digitally on Mute on 3 March 2023.

The trio – Marc Moulin (1942- 2008), Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers – launched in Brussels in 1978 and, as one of only a handful of synthpop pioneers at the time, helped bring electronic pop to the mainstream.

TELEX EP 1 TRACKLISTING 

‘Rock Around The Clock’ (from Looking for Saint-Tropez)

‘Réalité’ (from Neurovision)
‘Sigmund Freud’s Party’ (from Sex)
‘Wonderful World’ (from Wonderful World)
‘Peanuts’ (from Looney Tunes)
‘How Do You Dance?’ (from How Do You Dance?)

The follow up, Neurovision, includes the track Eur o-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 story.

For 1981’s Sex, the trio teamed up with Sparks, a match made in heaven given both band’s determination to make electronic pop music suffused with conceptual wit. They got along tremendously, Ron & Russell Mael staying on in Brussels far longer than they’d originally intended, and Sparks 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.

It would have been great to have been the second white band on Tamla Motown. Iron Butterfly were the first,” says Lacksman.

That wasn’t to be, though, and the band instead worked on projects outside of Telex until 2006’s How Do You Dance?, an album that proves that Telex remained not only true to themselves but had grown with the new developments in musical software.

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.

The vinyl Telex boxset is released by Mute, and includes a 12-page booklet and audio download code. More info can be found here.

TELEX BOX SET TRACKLISTING

LOOKING FOR SAINT-TROPEZ (1979) – white vinyl
Moskow Diskow
Pakmoväst
Café De La Jungle
Ça Plane Pour Moi
Some Day / Un Jour
Something To Say
Rock Around The Clock
Victime De La Societe
Twist À Saint-Tropez

NEUROVISION (1980) – red vinyl
A/B
Réalité
Cliché
En Route Vers De Nouvelles Aventures
Tour De France
We Are All Getting Old
My Time
Plus De Distance (More Than Distance)
Euro-Vision
Dance To The Music
Lakelele
Soul Waves

SEX – orange vinyl
Brainwash
Drama, Drama
Haven’t We Met Somewhere Before
Long Holiday
The Man With The Answer
Carbon Copy
Exercise Is Good For You
Dream-O-Mat
Dummy
Sigmund Freud’s Party

WONDERFUL WORLD – yellow vinyl
L’amour Toujours
So Sad
Raised By Snakes
It Could Happen To You
Second Hand
Tell Me It’s A Dream
Vertigo
The Voice
Radio-Radio
Wonderful World

LOONEY TUNES – purple vinyl

I Don’t Like Music
Temporary Chicken
Spike Jones
Beautiful Li(f)e
Dingo Bells
I Want Your Brain
Baby, When?
Peanuts
Happy End (I Wanna)
Rendez-Vous Dans L’espace

HOW DO YOU DANCE? – green vinyl
On The Road Again
How Do You Dance?
This Is Your Song
The Number One Song In Heaven
J’aime La Vie
White Noise
Move!
Jailhouse Rock
Do Worry
La Bamba-X