Telekon

In contrast to Numan's previous album The Pleasure Principle, Telekon featured heavy use of guitars and a richer, more complex sound with a broadened use of different synthesizers in combination with viola and violin. The album's sound ranges from heavier tracks such as "I'm an Agent" and "The Joy Circuit" to more sombre, melancholic songs such as "Sleep by Windows" and "Remember I Was Vapour". Lyrically the album mixed dystopian themes on tracks such as "I Dream of Wires" and "The Joy Circuit", with more personal lyrics such as "Remind Me to Smile" and "Please Push No More" that dealt with Numan's feelings about his sudden fame and relationship with his fans.{{Cite web|url=https://wearecult.rocks/gary-numans-telekon-at-40 |title=Gary Numan's Telekon at 40 |publisher=wearecult.rocks |author=Ange Chan |date=5 September 2020 }} Several songs such as "Remember I Was Vapour" and "Please Push No More" suggests a goodbye, hinting at Numan's retirement from live work a few months later. "The whole album's got that little hint of goodbye in it", Numan confirmed in a 1981 interview, "In 'This Wreckage' the Japanese writing says 'I leave you'."{{Cite web|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/80s/81/Record-Mirror-1981-06-20-OCR.pdf |url-status=live |title=Gary Numan Interview |publisher=Record Mirror |date=20 June 1981 |page=6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211006161552/https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/80s/81/Record-Mirror-1981-06-20-OCR.pdf |archive-date=6 October 2021 }}

In an interview with Smash Hits magazine in November 1979 Numan hinted on initial plans that his next album Telekon was going to be about telekinesis.{{cite magazine|title=Playing to the Aliens |author=Savage, John |magazine=Smash Hits 14 November 1979 |page=7 }}

The recording of the album was reported to be nearly finished already in December 1979, but the release was held back to September 1980 due to Numan's one album a year contract with Beggars Banquet.{{cite magazine|title=Bitz |magazine=Smash Hits 13 December 1979 |page=9 }} The sessions also yielded the song "A Game Called Echo" which was not included on the finished album.

Telekon was released in September 1980. To boost initial sales in the UK, on first release the album came with a free single, in a plain black sleeve, including two live recordings from 'The Touring Principle' tour; "Remember I Was Vapour" and "On Broadway". A year later, in an attempt to further boost sales, the album came with a free poster in the UK using a photo taken from the main Telekon photo-shoot. The cassette release included the singles "We Are Glass" and "I Die: You Die" which were not on the vinyl LP.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/telekon.htm#top Telekon] nureference.co.uk

A number of Dutch releases were pressed on coloured vinyl.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/telekon%20dutcol.htm Telekon - Dutch Coloured Vinyls] nureference.co.uk The US, Canadian and Australian releases replaced the track "Sleep by Windows" with "I Die: You Die". The album was released on vinyl and cassette in Japan.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/telekon%20alt.htm#top Telekon World Releases] nureference.co.uk

Telekon was preceded by the two singles "We Are Glass" and "I Die: You Die", which were only included on the cassette release of Telekon and on later reissues. The album's opening number, "This Wreckage" succeeded the album and upon its release in December 1980, the single peaked at No. 20 in the UK. Numan later admitted that, regardless of its merits as a song, it was a "bloody stupid single".Stephen Webbon & Gary Numan (1985). "Complete Gary Numan UK Discography". Record Collector (December 1985, No. 76): p.15 The live version of "Remember I Was Vapour", released as a bonus single with the UK album, was released as a 12" single in Germany with the studio version on the B-side.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/RIWV.htm#nogo Remember I Was Vapour] nureference.co.uk "Remind Me to Smile" was released as a US single with "I Dream of Wires" on the B-side.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/RMTS.htm Remind Me To Smile] nureference.co.uk "Remember I Was Vapour" was also released as a 7" single with "On Broadway (Live)" as the B-side.

From September to November 1980, Numan toured the UK and North America in support of Telekon.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/Tour%201980%20Teletour%20UK.htm Teletour UK 1980] nureference.co.uk[http://www.nureference.co.uk/Tour%201980%20Teletour%20US%20Canada.htm Teletour US/Canada 1980] nureference.co.uk The tour was followed by three "farewell concerts" at Wembley Arena in April 1981 with guest Nash the Slash.[http://www.nureference.co.uk/programmes.htm Tour Programmes] nureference.co.uk

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 discussed (with interviewer Steve Malins) the making of Telekon, revealing that it is his favourite of his "early albums." Numan followed the 2006 tour with further "Classic Album" tours, for Replicas in 2008 and The Pleasure Principle in 2009.

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 into a new updated version...We expect this to be, with all the extra footage and interviews, a double disc DVD." On 19 March 2010, Numan announced that the Micromusic DVD would be released on 13 April.{{cite web |url=http://numan.co.uk/box/news.html |title=NuWorld: NEWS |accessdate=2008-10-11 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013054648/http://www.numan.co.uk/box/news.html |archivedate=13 October 2008 }} Micromusic was released on that date as a one-disc DVD; in addition to the concert itself, the DVD featured an hour-long interview with Numan as a special feature.

Like Numan's previous album, Telekon received a largely hostile reception in the British music press on its release, but has proved to be an influential work cited as a major influence by musicians such as Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails and Stephen Merritt of Magnetic Fields.

Upon its release in 1980, Smash Hits reviewer Red Starr found Telekon to be "better than The Pleasure Principle but not so good as Replicas" and that Numan was "recycling old ideas instead of pioneering new ones."

In a retrospective review for Pitchfork Media in 1999, Michael Sandlin wrote: "On Telekon, Numan is a master texturalist, skilled in creating synth parts that perfectly coalesce and swim melodically around each other; an interplay much like Television innovated in the mid-1970s using guitars. He works wonders with his arsenal of simple synthesizer effects. He also utilizes acoustic piano, and occasionally integrates electric violas, violins, and flecks of distorted rhythm guitar. And he uses this many- sided approach to optimal effect; the piano and synthesizers trade off carrying melody and countermelody, while some Moog parts are used expressly for atmospheric effect or layered to build the rhythmic girth of a song. Numan's ideas no doubt serve as a template of sorts, and many of these compositions have more than withstood the trials of time. Many of today's legions of sample- happy, MIDI- obsessed nerds claim to have learned a thing or two from Numan's intelligent compositional craft."

NME used the track title "I Dream of Wires" as the name for a fictitious synth-pop act about which they published a series of spoof articles in early 1995, culminating in reports of the alleged band's death in a coach crash in Eastern Europe.{{cite web|title=Dreaming of Wires: The Rise And Fall of Our New Electro-Pop Overlords|date=2012-07-10|website=Lazer Guide Melody|url=https://lazerguidedmelody.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/dreaming-of-wires-the-rise-and-fall-of-our-new-electro-pop-overlords/|accessdate=2020-01-15}}

"I Dream of Wires" was covered by English singer Robert Palmer on his 1980 studio album Clues, featuring Numan on keyboards and synthesisers.{{Cite web |last=Sexton |first=Paul |date=2022-09-06 |title='Clues': Robert Palmer Takes Soul Into The New Wave |url=https://www.udiscovermusic.com/stories/robert-palmer-clues-album/ |access-date=2023-05-05 |website=uDiscover Music |language=en-US}}

"I'm an Agent" was covered by English pop punk band Kenickie as a bonus CD track on CD1 of their January 1997 number 24 hit single "In Your Car".

All songs written and composed by Gary Numan except for "Trois Gymnopédies (First Movement)", which is a composition by Erik Satie.

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| title1 = This Wreckage

| length1 = 5:26

| title2 = The Aircrash Bureau

| length2 = 5:41

| title3 = Telekon

| length3 = 4:29

| title4 = Remind Me to Smile

| length4 = 4:03

| title5 = Sleep by Windows

| note5 = replaced with "I Die: You Die" on North American and other overseas releases

| length5 = 4:58

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title6 = I'm an Agent

| length6 = 4:19

| title7 = I Dream of Wires

| length7 = 5:10

| title8 = Remember I Was Vapour

| length8 = 5:11

| title9 = Please Push No More

| length9 = 5:39

| title10 = The Joy Circuit

| length10 = 5:12

}}

The vinyl album also included a 7" single:{{cn|date=December 2024}}

A-side - "Remember I Was Vapour (Live)"

B-side - "On Broadway (Live)"

{{Track listing

| headline = Side one

| title1 = This Wreckage

| length1 = 5:26

| title2 = The Aircrash Bureau

| length2 = 5:41

| title3 = Telekon

| length3 = 4:29

| title4 = Remind Me to Smile

| length4 = 4:03

| title5 = Sleep by Windows

| length5 = 4:58

| title6 = We Are Glass

| length6 = 4:47

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Side two

| title7 = I'm an Agent

| length7 = 4:19

| title8 = I Dream of Wires

| length8 = 5:10

| title9 = Remember I Was Vapour

| length9 = 5:11

| title10 = Please Push No More

| length10 = 5:39

| title11 = The Joy Circuit

| length11 = 5:12

| title12 = I Die: You Die

}}

{{Track listing

| title1 = This Wreckage

| length1 = 5:26

| title2 = The Aircrash Bureau

| length2 = 5:41

| title3 = Telekon

| length3 = 4:29

| note4 = alternative intro to vinyl release

| title4 = Remind Me to Smile

| length4 = 4:03

| title5 = Sleep by Windows

| length5 = 4:58

| title6 = We Are Glass

| note6 =

| length6 = 4:47

| title7 = I'm an Agent

| length7 = 4:19

| title8 = I Dream of Wires

| length8 = 5:10

| title9 = Remember I Was Vapour

| note9 = alternative mix to vinyl release

| length9 = 5:11

| title10 = Please Push No More

| length10 = 5:39

| title11 = The Joy Circuit

| note11 = alternative mix to vinyl release

| length11 = 5:12

}}

{{Track listing

| headline = Reissue bonus tracks

| title12 = I Die: You Die

| note12 = alternative mix to single release

| length12 = 3:48

| title13 = A Game Called Echo

| length13 = 5:07

| title14 = Photograph

| length14 = 2:28

| title15 = Down in the Park

| note15=piano version

| length15 = 4:15

| title16 = Trois Gymnopédies

| note16=First Movement

| length16 = 2:44

}}

• Subsequent digital issues of Telekon revert to the original intro mix for "Remind Me to Smile".

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Musicians

• Gary Numan – vocals, Minimoog, Polymoog, ARP Pro Soloist, Roland Jupiter-4, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Yamaha CP-30, Roland CR-78, Synare, guitar, piano, Minibass {{citation needed|date=March 2015}}
• Paul Gardiner – bass, backing vocals
• Cedric Sharpley – drums, percussion, backing vocals
• Chris Payne – viola, piano, Minimoog, Polymoog, backing vocals
• Russell Bell – guitars, violin, claves, backing vocals
• Denis Haines – Prophet-5, piano, ARP Pro Soloist, Yamaha CP-30, whistle, backing vocals
• John Webb, James Freud, Simple Minds – handclaps

{{Reflist}}

• Paul Goodwin (2004). Electric Pioneer: An Armchair Guide to Gary Numan
• [{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r171786|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic]

• {{discogs master|28733}}

{{Gary Numan}}

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Category:Gary Numan albums

Category:1980 albums

Category:Beggars Banquet Records albums