On September 5th, 1980 Gary Numan released his second solo album Telekon on Beggars Banquet. Upon its release, the record debuted at the top of the UK Albums Charts making it his third consecutive No. 1 album.
The album was a departure slightly from the previous year’s Pleasure Principle, featuring heavy use of guitars and strings, along with more complex synthesizer textures, resulting from Numan’s use of additional machines such as the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, ARP Pro Soloist and Roland Jupiter-4.
Despite a negative critical reception Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor has claimed to have listened to the LP every day during the recording of his debut LP Pretty Hate Machine.
Telekon featured three singles, one of which “I Die: You Die” is now the name of a long-running Industrial music blog, whose podcast, “We have a Technical”, is also named after a song by Numan featured on Replicas.
The other two singles were “We Are Glass”, and “This Wreckage”
“This Wreckage”, however, was the only single originally featured on the UK release of Telekon, as “I Die: You Die”, and “We Are Glass” were non-album singles added to the cassette and international releases.
The album track “Remind Me To Smile” was released as a radio promotional 7 Inch single as well during April of 1980, with the album track “I Dream Of Wires” as the b-side.
“I Dream of Wires” would later inspire the name of the definitive documentary on analog and modular synth released in 2014.
From late 1980 to early 1981, Numan toured the UK, Europe, and North America in support of Telekon with guest performing Nash the Slash, known for his use of violin, synthesizers, and wearing bandages on his face; Numan’s stage costume during this tour, was an iconic black leather boilersuit with interlocking red belts, has become enduring image associated with Numan’s history and persona.
Order Telekon here
