Telex – Marc Moulin (1942- 2008), Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers – launched in Brussels in 1978 and, as one of only a handful of synthpop pioneers, helped bring electronic pop to the mainstream at a time when the genre was regarded as novelty, with suspicion, as a harbinger for future dystopia and alienation.

Telex were concerned about the consequences of new technology for human communication, their name is taken, ironically, from a now obsolete piece of communications technology, adding a retro-futurist air to their legend. However, it was on their cover versions that they deliberately played up the disparity between the ice-cool electronic approach and the sweaty, fleshy, frenetic passion of pop. On Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’, which saw the band perform on Top of the Pops, all of the rock is removed leaving nothing but the clock; a ticking, vocoderised, supremely deadpan robot parody of the original. ‘Moskow Diskow’, one of their best-known tracks, lays down the railroad for as yet unimagined electronic musics such as House and Techno, and proves the band are as serious as they are funny.

Telex were always reluctant to show their own faces as a visual accompaniment to the music. However, when the band’s management asked them to enter the Eurovision Song Contest for Belgium, far from rejecting the idea, they jumped at the chance. They resolved either to come first or last but alas, they neither won nor did they attain the cherished goal of “nul points”. They did, however, give us ‘Euro-vision’, and went on to record with Sparks, and create many more incredible albums before retiring when Moulin died in 2008. Recently the band signed with Mute, “newly mixing” their catalogue for a series of release and box sets.