Search - Gary Numan & Tubeway Army :: Telekon (Reis)

Five is not high enough for this one

Shaw N. Gynan | Bellingham, WA USA | 02/13/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Great fun to rediscover this album

RMurray847 | Albuquerque, NM United States | 01/09/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"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."

Best of his "techno" period

John Dennett | Longmont, CO USA | 02/05/2001

(5 out of 5 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."