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Midnight Star - The Midas Touch (Hell Interface remix)

(psst, hell interface is boards of canada.)

The original:

Telex - Looking for St. Tropez

RKM, 1979

Marc Moulin, the now-deceased frontman of Belgian synthpop trio Telex, once said of his music, “the best compliment anybody could pay us is that our music is disposable - that’s what all music should be.” Well, sorry Marc. It may be rather dated, but I love it.

And what’s not to love? It’s cheesy. It’s over the top. It’s almost unbearably catchy. It’s had a huge impact on today’s electronic music. Above all, it’s fun. Really fun. It’s like Kraftwerk with a lower budget, and a much better sense of humor. And they pretty much pioneered taking the piss out of Eurovision.

Be forewarned, though, most of this album is au francais.

Track Listing:

1 Moskow Diskow (4:12)
2 Pakmoväst (3:38)
3 Café De La Jungle (1:07)
4 Ca Plane Pour Moi (5:21)
5 Someday - Un Jour (1:11)
6 Something To Say (5:01)
7 Rock Around The Clock (3:54)
8 Victime De La Société #2 (3:53)
9 Twist A St Tropez (3:18)
10 Moskow Diskow (Maxi) (5:22)
11 Le Fond De L’Air Est Rouge (3:21)
12 Victime De La Société #1 (3:54)
13 Quelque Chose A Dire (5:12)
14 Ave Fifi (4:00)

Download!

Eurovision 1980

In 1980 Telex’s manager asked them to enter for the Eurovision Song Contest. They entered, and were eventually sent to the finals, although they apparently hoped to come last: “We had hoped to finish last, but Portugal decided otherwise. We got ten points from them and finished on the 19th spot” (Marc Moulin).

Their 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, and after the band stopped playing there was mostly stunned silence, with scattered polite applause; Marc Moulin took a photograph of the bewildered audience. The band walked off amidst sounds of muttering. A mark of the confusion caused by the performance was when vote-counting began, and Greece awarded Belgium three points, the announcer thought she had misheard and tried to award the points to The Netherlands.

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.