Customer Reviews

Telekon

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is so much delightful Gary Numan music, but Telekon, as other reviewers have noted, is special. It really is an effective concept album, set sometime in the future. "And what if God's dead? We must have done something wrong." The opening song, "This Wreckage I call me" sets the tone. A super synthesized, plodding rhythm, and tongue-in-cheek lyrics. This is what makes Telekon so enjoyable. The music is precise and competent, the lyrics are a fantasy trip to a cold future, where love loses its allure, leaving only alienation and nostalgia. "The Aircrash Bureau" develops a more atmospheric aesthetic, which later will dominate the spectacular "Dance."

"Telekon," the title track, has a good danceble rhythm, a monotone melodic line that evokes robotic images. The following cut, "Remind me to smile" is a high point on this excellent album. The funky rhythms are foot-tapping and the techno orchestration grand. "Sleep by windows" is atmospheric. Numan introduces the lyrics by talking, and then soars into a lovely melody, "I don't love you; do you dream?" "We are glass" is a rocker that hearkens back to Numan's punk days. Well executed and a fairly driving.

"I'm an agent" originally began side two of the LP, and it's another winner. "You can be replaced, you know." "I dream of wires" is the most developed of Numan's futuristic real, quite amusing, and with an excellent beat, dazzling electronic embellishment. "Remember I was vapour" is yet another highlight. "Please push no more" features piano, an introspective work that leads nicely into the rocking finale, "The Joy Circuit."

The bonus tracks, as might be expected, are a mixed bag, but always fascinating and welcome. "I die, you die" is a good rocker." "A Game Called Echo" is very much in line with the sonic world created by Telekon. It fits in very well. "Photograph" is an innocuous piece for piano with a bit of synthesized accompaniment. The piano version of "Down in the Park" reveals what a lovely tune it is. Gary's cover of one of the Gymnopedies is not quite up to the original.

All in all, a homerun from Gary Numan, one of lasting impact.

I had the record as a kid and lost track of it. Stumbled across the CD a while back and grabbed it up in a fit of nostalgia and plunked down my money. On the way home, I decided that I'd probably hate it now. All those downbeat themes, his droning voice!

What a delight!! You just don't hear keyboards like this anymore, and I'm not sure we ever really did, really. Numan was not really making commercial music, like other keyboard heavy groups of roughly his time (Flock of Seagulls, Human League). He was really his own man.

I had forgotten that many of the songs are actually pretty uptempo, even if the lyrical themes are a bit threatening (don't expect to get in a good mood listening to this stuff). I DIE, YOU DIE is a fast-paced blast! JOY CIRCUIT is high spirited. Other songs, very slow and quiet, have a beautiful, delicate, fragile quality, like PLEASE PUSH NO MORE or I DREAM OF WIRES. The keyboards sound like smoke or fog would sound. Just barely there, like Numan's voice, and evoke a kind of sadness. You empathize with the singer, who seems isolated in a sterile world of computer generated music.

I don't know who I'd recommend this album to. It's not like anything else out there. If you want something that's not like anything else out there, give it a try. You'll discover a nearly forgotten work from an artist who never got his full due.

No, that's not an exaggeration. Any fan of New Wave or synth music who doesn't own this CD is missing a huge slice of the genre's history.

"Telekon" is Gary Numan at his absolute zenith. It's the sound of a master craftsman producing an unquestioned masterpiece.

Songs like "I Die: You Die" (my personal favorite), "We Are Glass", "The Joy Circuit", "I Dream of Wires", "Remember I Was Vapour", "I'm An Agent", and "This Wreckage" are some of the best tracks produced in the entire decade of the 1980s.

Numan had a few great albums before and since "Telekon", but this is the "Thriller" of New Wave. Buy it, find a quiet spot, slip on your headphones, and prepare to enter into a sonic journey of rare vintage. An unbelieveable musical accomplishment, this CD ranks as one of the best albums ever released. Five stars!

While the song "Cars" and the album it came from, "The Pleasure Principle", may be his best know works in the States, at that point Numan was only just getting better. This album, his follow up, is the very pinacle of his consciously "electronic" output.

Simultaneously catchy and alienating, "Telekon" perfectly illustrates the dicotomy that made him an international pop success, albeit briefly. Also found here are the first hints of the more adventurous sonic exploits to come on subsequent releases.

Along with all the original album tracks (from both US and UK versions), this CD remaster includes enough singles, b-sides and rarities to make it a terrific document of one of his greatest creative periods. Trainspotters will be be particularly tickled with the piano version of "Down In The Park" included as one of the extra tracks.

I bought the Telekon LP the day it came out way back when and it didn't leave my turntable for ages. I simply loved the power of the synths, the haunted voice that spoke cryptic lyrics and washes of layers upon layers of sound....the LP sounded different to me everytime I played it since I would discover another 'new' element each time. The remastered CD is long overdue but quite good in not only offering the complete original release, but including the original songs from the UK version ("Sleep By Windows")and the singles that were released from the LP's time period but not included on the album ("We Are Glass" which to this day is a Numan tour staple song)and associated B sides. I'm happy to finally be able to replace my worn, tired vinyl version of Telekon with this!

1980 brought us Gary Numan's fourth full feature album in three years(you CAN'T call him lazy) and is ripe again with those cuddly feelings of alienation and detachment. This time around, Gary's sound is aiming away from the purely Moogy 70's sound and into the slick, piano-laden, drum machine textures that were to define his lesser known mid-80's work. Telekon is the last album to feature Paul Gardiner on Bass, and is the last to rely prominently on the drum set. "We are Glass" is the most popular track, but "Telekon" and "The Aircrash Bureau" are invigorating sci-fi in musical form. Let's not forget the swank "Remind Me To Smile", which would have fit perfectly in an episode of Buck Rogers. Just picture Gary in that outfit waving that wand around with Gil Gerard and Erin Gray movin' to the beat. Dr. Theopolis would have been proud.

If you go into a music store and look under 'Gary Numan', you're likely to find 2 albums: 'The Pleasure Principle' and 'Replica's' as the only 2 options. I don't know why every music store I've ever visited only carries those 2 albums, but if you are faced in that dilemma, and feel the need to buy one of those two albums, may I suggest 'Replica's' it's electro/post-punk sounds are just as interesting today as they were in '78. Concerning one of Gary Numan's best albums of all times though, I would have to suggest to you 'Telekon'! My goodness, with the newly remastered version, so much great material is included along side the already interesting album! Several of the songs on this album were not included on the original vinyl album from '80. Gary Numan's cover of 'Trois Gymnopedies' is stunning! Imagine a very sweet synthized version of the original version to get some idea of how it sounds. The piano version of "Down In The Park" brings a new meaning to the song, suddenly "rape machines" and "Zom'Zom's" are not on my mind... The honesty of "Please Push No More", the themes of sensitivity in "We Are Glass"; I feel this is probably one of my favorite Gary Numan album of his 28-year carrier! Actually many of the 'New Romantic' artist of the early 80's found inspiration from this album. It's a shame that David Sylvian (of 'Japan') and Gary Numan never created a song together as they had originally planed shortly after the release of this album. If you admire that smooth 'New Romantic' sound of the group 'Japan' (their last 3 albums), might I suggest the album "Dance" by Gary Numan. Good luck in discovering such an interesting artist as Mr. Numan("Webb")! He is no doubt one of the most versatile artists of the last several decades and is not afraid to try something new with each album he releases! 5 Stars!

By the time I bought this album first time round, off the back of Pleasure Principle, the sudden change in Numan's mood and out look on the whole thing hit you right in the face from song one. Everything was becoming a struggle and tracks like Please Push No More and Remind Me To Smile give you an exact in sight on how Gary was by now feeling. Remember I was Vapour is a reminder to everyone that he's only human, just like me and you.Putting Gary inner sadness to one side, this is a mile stone in Garys career that I find myself playing quite regularly..Definate must in anyones collection

Not only is this one of Gary's highest points (in a career full of brilliance), but I'm surprised nobody here has noted that this new version contains several alternate versions of this classic, classic record.

Some are very subtle, like a pitch-shift effect on "Remind Me to Smile," or a different mix on "The Joy Circuit," which emphasizes the VU-style string madness at the end.

But it's really shocking to hear the COMPLETELY different "Please Push No More" (seriously -- the alternate synth lead is shocking) or to finally have the alternate take to "I Die: You Die" on CD (though its lead vocal isn't quite as powerful as the better-known version).

It'll be a tiny bit disappointing to anyone who doesn't have the original mix of the album on CD already, but the songs still carry the day effectively. Truly one of the best albums in my collection.

My mother bought this album for me from HMV on saturday when it was raining. I opened it up, and played it, as soon as I heard this wreckage, I knew the album would be good. Telekon, is slower than pleasure prinicpal / living ornaments, and is more depressing. But its really good and some songs are really fast.
BUT, this album is more important than you think it is. I bought the one with extra tracks (recording remastered), and it had a song called Trois Gymnopedies, that Gary replayed, it was amazing! And a few years later, I played Trois Gymnopedies electronically, and from there on I made the Electronic Classical Cd: Kulture.