Telekon

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Telekon

Telekon is the fourth studio album, and second album under his own name, by electronic music

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology....
pioneer Gary Numan

Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of commercial electronic music and has been described as the "King of synthpop." Numan is widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars "....
, released in 1980.

The album debuted at the top of the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
charts in September 1980, making it his third consecutive (and to date, final) no.1 album.

Telekon is also the third and final studio release of what Numan retrospectively termed the "Machine" section of his career, following Replicas
Replicas (album)

Replicas is an album by Gary Numan and Tubeway Army, released in 1979. It was the second and final Tubeway Army Gramophone record, following a Tubeway Army the previous year....
and The Pleasure Principle
The Pleasure Principle (album)

The Pleasure Principle is the third studio album, and debut album under his own name, by electronic music pioneer Gary Numan, released in 1979....
in 1979.

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Encyclopedia

Telekon is the fourth studio album, and second album under his own name, by electronic music

Electronic music

Gary Numan

United Kingdom

Heroin

Heroin is a opioid synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-acetate ester of morphine . The white crystalline form is commonly the hydrochloride salt diacetylmorphine hydrochloride, however heroin Freebase may also appear as a white powder....
addict, on every track.

Overview

In contrast to The Pleasure Principle, with its lack of guitars and its harsh robotic sound, Telekon featured heavy use of guitars and strings along with richer synthesizer

Synthesizer

A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing a variety of sounds by generating and combining signals of different frequency....
textures, Numan broadening his previous synth palette with additional machines such as the Sequential Circuits

Sequential Circuits

Sequential Circuits Inc. was a California-based synthesizer company that was founded in the early 1970s by Dave Smith and sold to Yamaha Corporation in 1987....
Prophet-5

Sequential Circuits Prophet 5

The Prophet-5 was an analog synthesizer manufactured by Sequential Circuits in San Jose, California between 1978 and 1984. The Prophet 5 was groundbreaking in that it was one of the first analog synthesizers to implement patch memory, a feature which stored user settings of every parameter on the synthesizer into internal memory....
, ARP Pro Soloist

ARP Pro Soloist

The ARP Pro Soloist was one of the first commercially successful preset music synthesizers. Introduced by ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1972, it replaced the similar ARP Soloist in the company's lineup of portable performance instruments....
and Roland

Roland Corporation

is a Japanese manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, electronic equipment and software. It was founded by Ikutaro Kakehashi in Osaka on April 18, 1972, with ?33 million in capital....
Jupiter-4

Roland Jupiter-4

The Roland Jupiter 4 was an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation of Japan between 1978 and 1981. It was notable as the company's first self-contained polyphony synthesizer, and for containing digital electronics control of analog circuits , allowing for such features as programmable memories and voice assignment modes....
.

Lyrically, whilst continuing Numan's exploration of a dystopia

Dystopia

A dystopia is the vision of a society that is the opposite of utopia. A dystopian society is one in which the conditions of life are suffering, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution....
n future in pieces like the title track and "I Dream of Wires", the album also took stock of the artist's sudden celebrity and the apparently overwhelming adulation of his fans in songs like "Remind Me to Smile" ("Reconsider 'fame' / I need new reasons / This is detention / It's not fun at all ... Keep your revivals / Keep your conventions / Keep all your fantasies / That's all we are") and "Please Push No More". The album's musical style ranged from upbeat songs such as "I'm an Agent" and "The Joy Circuit" to mood pieces like "Sleep by Windows" and "Remember I Was Vapour".

Telekon was preceded by two hit singles, "We Are Glass

We Are Glass

"We Are Glass" is a Gary Numan single released in 1980. Its up-tempo beat, scratchy guitars and Portamento synthesizer effects made it a prime example of the synthpop of the time....
" and "I Die: You Die

I Die: You Die

"I Die: You Die" is a Gary Numan single from 1980. Released shortly before his fourth album, Telekon, it continued the anthemic style Numan had begun earlier in the year with "We Are Glass"....
", though neither of these was included on the album in its initial UK vinyl release (overseas releases such as the US and Australia added "I Die: You Die" in place of "Sleep by Windows"). Early UK pressings came with a limited edition live 45

Single (music)

In the record industry, a single is a song usually used from a current or upcoming album to promote the album. Singles are distributed through a number of ways; originally, they were packaged as "single" records with one or two other songs and sold before the release of the album....
, "Remember I Was Vapour" b/w "On Broadway

On Broadway

"On Broadway" is a song written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil in collaboration with the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller....
", and all of these tracks, along with B-sides and the outtake "A Game Called 'Echo'", were subsequently included on various CD

Compact Disc

A Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store Data , originally developed for storing digital audio. The CD, available on the market since October 1982, remains the standard physical medium for sale of commercial Sound recording and reproduction to the present day....
reissues. Numan had premiered "Remember I Was Vapour" during the UK leg of 'The Touring Principle' in late 1979, preceding its appearance on Telekon by a year. He also premiered "We Are Glass", "I Die: You Die" and "Remind Me to Smile" during the April 1980 leg.

The only single taken from the album was the opening number "This Wreckage

This Wreckage

"This Wreckage" is a song written and performed by Gary Numan. It was featured as the opening track on his 1980 in music Gramophone record Telekon and was the third and final Single to be released from that album ....
"; though it failed to chart higher than number 20 and the composer admitted that regardless of its merits as a song it was a "bloody stupid single". Surprisingly – and to his later regret – Numan declined to issue the anthemic "Remind Me to Smile" as a single (although it was released as a promo single in the US).

Track 11, "The Joy Circuit", uses a combination of synths and string instruments, notably the violin, to create an orchestral ambience. Lyrics include the then-trademark reference to William Burroughs, notably "We're on joy circuit / The image fix / Rewind, cry / Well its somewhere to go".

From late 1980 to early 1981 Numan toured the UK, Europe and America in support of Telekon with guest Nash the Slash

Nash the Slash

Nash the Slash is a Canada progressive rock, european classical music, and Alternative rock musician. Though a multi-instrumentalist, he is known primarily for playing electric violin and mandolin, as well as harmonica, Keyboard instrument, glockenspiel, and other instruments ....
and a lavish stage set; Numan's stage costume - a black leather boiler-suit with interlocking red belts - would be an enduring image. An early performance of 'The Teletour' was captured on the album Living Ornaments '80 and in a rendition of "Down in the Park

Down in the Park

"Down in the Park" is a 1979 single written and recorded by Gary Numan with his band Tubeway Army. The first cut from the album Replicas , it was not a hit when released but has long been a critical and fan favourite and for many years was nominated by Numan as his best composition....
" for the movie Urgh! A Music War
Urgh! A Music War

Urgh! A Music War is a United Kingdom film released in 1981 in film featuring performances by punk rock, New Wave music, and post-punk acts, filmed in 1980....
(both 1981). The 2005 CD re-issue of Living Ornaments '80 included the original 10-track album and a recently re-discovered soundboard recording of the entire concert. The Teletour concluded in April 1981 with three sold-out nights at Wembley Arena

Wembley Arena

Wembley Arena is an indoor arena in Wembley, London, UK. The building is opposite Wembley Stadium. It was built for the 1934 British Empire Games by Arthur Elvin, and originally housed a swimming pool, as reflected by its former name, the Empire Pool....
where Numan brought down the curtain on this phase of his career in extravagant style, as recorded in the accompanying video Micromusic (soundtrack released in 1998 as Living Ornaments '81). Although these were billed as Numan's farewell concerts, he would play a series of US club dates the following year and returned to large-scale touring in 1983.

Like all of Numan's commercially popular early records, Telekon received a largely hostile reception from contemporary music critics; nevertheless it proved to be an influential work. Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor

Trent Reznor is an American musician, singer-songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He operates under the studio name Nine Inch Nails, and was previously associated with the bands Option 30, Exotic Birds, and Tapeworm , among others....
claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of Pretty Hate Machine
Pretty Hate Machine

Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released in 1989 by TVT Records. The album was out of print from around 1997 to 2005 due to Reznor's much publicized falling out with the original publishing label of the album, TVT Records....
and Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt

Stephin Merritt is an United States singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles , best known as the principal singer and songwriter in the band The Magnetic Fields....
from The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields

The Magnetic Fields is a band led by singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt. Albums released by Merritt under the name "Magnetic Fields" often make extensive use of synthesizers underlying clever lyrics, often about love, that are by turns ironic, bitter, and humorous....
also became a Numan fan through the album. Merritt recorded "I Die: You Die" as his contribution to the Random tribute album in 1997, which also included covers of "I'm an Agent", "Remember I Was Vapour" and "We Are Glass". However the earliest cover of a song from this album was in the very year of its release when Robert Palmer collaborated with Numan on a version of "I Dream of Wires" for the Clues LP

Gramophone record

A gramophone record is an analog signal sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed modulated spiral groove usually starting near the periphery and ending near the centre of the disc....
.

In an unfortunate coincidence, Telekon was also released shortly before Post Office Telecommunications

Post Office Telecommunications

Post Office Telecommunications was set up as a separate department of the UK Post Office UK, in October 1969. The Post Office Act of that year was passed to provide for greater efficiency in post and telephone services; rather than run a range of services, each organisation would be able to focus on their respective service, with dedicated ma...
changed its name to British Telecom
BT Group

BT Group plc , is the privatisation UK state telecommunications operator. It is the dominant fixed line telecommunications and broadband Internet provider in the United Kingdom....
.

In December 2006, Numan undertook a Telekon "Classic Album" tour, comprising four concerts in the UK in which he played all the songs from the Telekon album (as well as its associated singles and B-sides). On the 2CD EKO: The Telekon 06 Audio Programme (sold at the 2006 Telekon gigs and from Numan's website), Numan discusses (with interviewer Steve Malins) the making of Telekon, revealing that it is his favourite of his "early albums."

In 2006, Numan promised fans a DVD release of the 1981 Micromusic video. On his official website in October 2008, Numan announced that the long-lost master tapes of the Micromusic concert had been found, "in excellent condition and, to make things even better, more footage has been found from two other camera positions that were not used on the original version. This new footage will be edited in to a new updated version...We expect this to be, with all the extra footage and interviews, a double disc DVD."

Track listing

All songs are written by Gary Numan except for "Trois Gymnopédies", which is a composition by Erik Satie

Erik Satie

Alfred ?ric Leslie Satie was a France composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
.

"This Wreckage
This Wreckage

"This Wreckage" is a song written and performed by Gary Numan. It was featured as the opening track on his 1980 in music Gramophone record Telekon and was the third and final Single to be released from that album ....
" – 5:26
"The Aircrash Bureau" – 5:41
"Telekon" – 4:29
"Remind Me to Smile" – 4:03
"Sleep by Windows" – 4:58
"We Are Glass
We Are Glass

"We Are Glass" is a Gary Numan single released in 1980. Its up-tempo beat, scratchy guitars and Portamento synthesizer effects made it a prime example of the synthpop of the time....
"* – 4:47
"I'm an Agent" – 4:19
"I Dream of Wires" – 5:10
"Remember I Was Vapour" – 5:11
"Please Push No More" – 5:39
"The Joy Circuit" – 5:12
"I Die: You Die
I Die: You Die

"I Die: You Die" is a Gary Numan single from 1980. Released shortly before his fourth album, Telekon, it continued the anthemic style Numan had begun earlier in the year with "We Are Glass"....
"* – 3:47
"A Game Called 'Echo'"* – 5:06
"Photograph"* – 2:43
"Down in the Park
Down in the Park

"Down in the Park" is a 1979 single written and recorded by Gary Numan with his band Tubeway Army. The first cut from the album Replicas , it was not a hit when released but has long been a critical and fan favourite and for many years was nominated by Numan as his best composition....
" (Piano Version)* – 2:27
"Trois Gymnopédies
Gymnopédie

The Gymnop?dies, published in Paris starting in 1888, are three piano compositions written by France composer and pianist Erik Satie.These short, atmospheric pieces are written in 3/4 time, with each sharing a common theme and structure....
(1st Movement)"* – 4:15

CD bonus tracks marked with asterisk.

Musicians

Gary Numan
Gary Numan

Gary Numan is an English singer, composer, and musician. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of commercial electronic music and has been described as the "King of synthpop." Numan is widely known for his chart-topping 1979 hits "Are 'Friends' Electric?" and "Cars "....
- Vocals, Minimoog
Minimoog

The Minimoog is a monophonic analog synthesizer, invented by Bill Hemsath and Robert Moog. Released in 1971 by the original Moog Music, it was among the first widely available, portable and relatively affordable synthesizers....
, Polymoog
Polymoog

The Polymoog is a polyphony analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on divide-down oscillator technology similar to organs and string synthesizers of the time, and this led to a certain lack of flexibility compared to later polyphonic synthesizers such as the Yamaha CS-80 and the Seque...
, ARP Pro Soloist
ARP Pro Soloist

The ARP Pro Soloist was one of the first commercially successful preset music synthesizers. Introduced by ARP Instruments, Inc. in 1972, it replaced the similar ARP Soloist in the company's lineup of portable performance instruments....
, Roland Jupiter-4
Roland Jupiter-4

The Roland Jupiter 4 was an analog synthesizer manufactured by the Roland Corporation of Japan between 1978 and 1981. It was notable as the company's first self-contained polyphony synthesizer, and for containing digital electronics control of analog circuits , allowing for such features as programmable memories and voice assignment modes....
, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5

The Prophet-5 was an analog synthesizer manufactured by Sequential Circuits in San Jose, California between 1978 and 1984. The Prophet 5 was groundbreaking in that it was one of the first analog synthesizers to implement patch memory, a feature which stored user settings of every parameter on the synthesizer into internal memory....
, Yamaha CP-30, Roland CR-78
Roland CR-78

The Roland Corporation CompuRhythm CR-78 is a drum machine launched in 1978. Although primitive by today's standards, the CR-78 represented an important advance in drum machine technology at the time....
, Synare
Synare

The Synare was a series of electronic drums made by Star Instruments in the late 1970s through the 1980s.External links*...
, Guitar
Guitar

The guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that is used in a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six Strings , but Tenor guitar, Seven-string guitar, Eight-string guitar, Ten-string guitar, Eleven-string guitar, Twelve-string guitar, Thirteen-string guitar and doubleneck guitar string guitars also exist....
, Piano
Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard instrument. Widely used in Western music for solo performance, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to musical composition and rehearsal....
Paul Gardiner
Paul Gardiner

Paul Gardiner was a British musician best known for playing bass guitar with Gary Numan and Tubeway Army. He also released material under his own name....
- Bass
Bass guitar

The electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a larger body, a longer neck and Scale length, and usually four strings tuned to the same pitches as those of the double bass, whic...
, Backing vocals
Cedric Sharpley - Drum
Drum

The drum is a member of the percussion instrument group, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of implement such as a drumstick, to produce sound....
s, Percussion
Percussion instrument

A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration....
, Backing vocals
Chris Payne - Viola
Viola

The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position....
, Piano, Minimoog, Polymoog, Backing vocals
Rrussell Bell - Guitars, Violin
Violin

The violin is a Bow string instrument with four strings usually tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello....
, Claves, Backing vocals
Denis Haines - Prophet-5, Piano, ARP Pro Soloist, Yamaha CP-30, Whistle, Backing vocals
John Webb, James Freud
James Freud

James Randall Freud is a former Australian Rock music star, member of Models and author of the tell all autobiographies I Am The Voice Left From Drinking and I Am The Voice Left From Rehab detailing the highs and lows of his career in music entertainment....
, Simple Minds
Simple Minds

Simple Minds are a rock music band from Scotland, who had their greatest worldwide popularity from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. The band, from the south side of Glasgow, produced a handful of critically acclaimed albums in the early 1980s, and later went on to produce some politically inspired and critically praised work....
: Handclaps