Gary Numan's second studio album TELEKON was released in 1980 and was his third successive #1 album in the UK. Gary refers to this album, along with its two predecessors, Tubeway Army's Replicas and his debut solo album The Pleasure Principle, as the “machine” phase of his career.
While it was hard to follow up the previous releases, Telekon proved to be hugely influential. Unlike its predecessors, Telekon had plenty of guitars, along with strings and lush synthesizer textures. Trent Reznor claimed to have listened to it every day during the making of Pretty Hate Machine.
Earlier this year, a visit to Gary’s archive allowed for a deep dig, and amongst all the treasures, unreleased Telekon material was found. We were going to wait until the 50th anniversary to expand this album further, but we couldn’t wait. We are excited to include four unreleased tracks on this expanded edition of Telekon. “Like A B-Film” is a completely unreleased, not quite finished track from the Telekon sessions. The other three tracks are previously unreleased early versions of “Please Push No More”, “Aircrash Bureau” and “I’m An Agent”.
On December 12th, a DELUXE VINYL EDITION will be available. This is comprised of a double LP pressed on rainbow sparkle vinyl and includes a replica of the original 1980 Telekon 12-page tour booklet. The 45th Anniversary Editions of Telekon have been remastered by Geoff Pesche at Abbey Road and include revised artwork by Michael Speed at Beggars, who has frequently collaborated with Gary on his Beggars reissues. All editions have the same track listing.
We asked Gary to reflect on 45 years of Telekon and he told us that “Telekon has always held a rather warm place for me whenever I look back at the early years. I was very proud of it. I thought the production had moved up a gear for one thing. I was also proud of the fact that I’d not gone the commercial route and tried to repeat the formula and sound of “Cars” and “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” I was still trying to move forward, find new sounds. It was a reasonably bold stance I think, to not follow a safer, more formulaic path, as I suddenly had a lot to lose after the success of the year before.”
A1. This Wreckage
A2. The Aircrash Bureau
A3. Telekon
B1. Remind Me to Smile
B2. Sleep by Windows
B3. I’m an Agent
B4. I Dream of Wires
C1. Remember I Was Vapour
C2. Please Push No More
C3. The Joy Circuit
D1. Like A B-Film (Unreleased Track)
D2. Please Push No More (Early Version)
D3. The Aircrash Bureau (Early Version)
D4. I’m an Agent (Early Version)
