Telex (band)
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| + | '''Michel Moers''' (1947) is a Belgian composer and guitarist most famous for being the singer of [[Telex]]. | ||
| - | The [[Belgium|Belgian]] pop group '''Telex''' was formed in [[1978 in music|1978]] by [[Marc Moulin]], [[Dan Lacksman]] and [[Michel Moers]], as a kind of elaborate [[joke]]. Mixing the [[aesthetics]] of [[disco]], [[Punk rock|punk]] and experimental [[electronic music]], they released a stripped-down synthesized [[cover version]] of "[[Twist à St. Tropez]]" by [[Les Chats Sauvages]]. Their debut album, ''[[Looking for Saint Tropez]]'', featured the worldwide hit single "[[Moskow Diskow]]", one of the first ever electronic dance/pop songs. | ||
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| - | 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 And The Family Stone|Sly Stone]]. | ||
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| - | Like [[Kraftwerk]], Telex built their music entirely from [[synthesizer|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. | ||
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| - | In [[1980 in music|1980]] Telex's [[manager]] asked them to enter for the [[Eurovision Song Contest]]. They did so, and somehow managed to get sent to the finals. Their song "[[Euro-Vision]]" was a cheerful bleepy song with deliberately banal lyrics about the contest itself. | ||
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| - | The [[audience]] clearly wasn't sure how to react to this self-referential joke, and after the band stopped playing there was mostly stunned silence, with scattered polite applause. Dan Lacksman took a [[photograph]] of the bewildered audience. The band walked off amidst sounds of muttering. When the vote-counting began, the verdict was so clear that when [[Greece]] actually awarded Belgium three points, the announcer thought she had misheard and tried to award the points to [[The Netherlands]]. | ||
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| - | All of this was clearly bad news for the band's English record label, [[Virgin Records]], who were trying to pass them off as part of the [[New Romantic]] movement. The self-mockery of tracks like "We Are All Getting Old" didn't help either. | ||
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| - | For their third album, ''Sex'', Telex enlisted the suddenly hip US group [[Sparks (band)|Sparks]] to help write the lyrics. However, the band still refused to play live and preferred to remain [[anonymous]] — common practice in the [[techno music]] artists they later inspired, but unusual in [[1981 in music|1981]]. The fourth Telex album, ''Wonderful World'', was barely distributed. | ||
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| - | In [[1986 in music|1986]], [[Atlantic Records]] inexplicably signed Telex and released ''Looney Tunes''. By then, the band's earlier sound had influenced many other groups, but they had abandoned it in favor of [[sampling (music)]] and a more up-tempo humorous style. "Temporary Chicken", for example, was a strange joke track about a man so desperate for work that he accepts a part time job in a [[chicken]] [[costume]]. It was [[social commentary]], but so bizarre as to be almost incomprehensible to most listeners. Predictably, the album had no commercial success. | ||
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| - | In [[1989 in music|1989]], Telex revisited all of their old tracks and remixed them to resemble the [[house music]] and other genres they had allegedly inspired. The result was ''Les Rhythmes Automatiques'', which vanished into obscurity, but not before apparently inspiring [[Kraftwerk]] to do the same for their album ''[[The Mix]]'' in [[1991 in music|1991]]. | ||
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| - | After almost two decades of silence, Telex makes a come-back in March [[2006 in music|2006]] with ''How Do You Dance'' on [[EMI]]. It comprises 5 original compositions as well as 5 covers. Their last release, as of 2006, is a cover of "[[On the Road Again (Canned Heat song)|On the Road Again]]", originally by [[Canned Heat]]. They also began producing [[remix]]es for other artists' [[single (music)|single]] releases, including "[[A Pain that I'm Used To]]" by [[Depeche Mode]] and "[[Minimal (song)|Minimal]]" by the [[Pet Shop Boys]]. | ||
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| - | == Discography == | ||
| - | *''[[Looking For St. Tropez]]'' 1978 | ||
| - | *''[[Neurovision]]'' 1980 | ||
| - | *''Sex'' 1981 (released in some countries as "Birds and Bees" with a slightly altered tracklisting) | ||
| - | *''Wonderful World'' 1984 | ||
| - | *''Looney Tunes'' 1986 | ||
| - | *''Les Rhythmes Automatiques'' 1989 (all traks are [[remix]]ed or re-recorded) | ||
| - | *''Belgium...One Point'' 1993 (a [[box set]] of the first five albums plus bonus tracks) | ||
| - | *''Is Release A Humour? - We Love Telex'' 1994 (Japan only. [[remix]]ed by Japanese DJs) | ||
| - | *''I Don't Like Music'' 1998 ([[remix]]ed by [[Carl Craig]] and others) | ||
| - | *''I Don't Like Remixes: Original Classics 78-86'' 1998 (a 'best-of' compilation) | ||
| - | *''I (Still) Don't Like Music Remixes Vol. 2'' 1999 (DJ remixes) | ||
| - | *''How Do You Dance?'' 2006 | ||
| - | ==See also== | ||
| - | *[[Telex]] | ||
| - | *[[Yello ]] | ||
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Michel Moers (1947) is a Belgian composer and guitarist most famous for being the singer of Telex.
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