TELEX
LOOKING FOR SAINT-TROPEZ
Looking For Saint-Tropez was Telex’s debut album originally released in 1979. It contains covers of Plastic Bertrand’s pop-punk “Ça Plane Pour Moi” and Bill Haley’s “Rock Around The Clock,” in which, so to speak, all of the rock is removed leaving nothing but the clock; a ticking, vocoderised, supremely deadpan robot parody of the original. Had Telex merely confined themselves to such covers they might have been regarded as a rather clever comedy band. But they also cut “Moskow Diskow,” a rollocking, swerving, steaming dancefloor classic, a track which lays down the railroad for as yet unimagined electronic musics such as House and Techno. Years ahead of its time, its reputation has only been enhanced over time, as other, more date stamped electropop has fallen by the wayside.