You might not choose to believe it, but there was actually rather a lot going on musically in Belgium in the 1980s – especially where it concerned clever modern men and their analog synthesizers

Three of those gents made up the Brussels trio Telex, who forwarded a brilliantly cheeky mix of synth-pop, disco, irony, Situationism and questionable sartorial choices. They actually hung about until around 2006, then disappeared for more than a decade. No surprise, Mute – the very crucible of electronic music – recently revived them with the announcement of a forthcoming, career-spanning compilation…as well as a new video for their 1979 hit ‘Moscow Diskow’. (Dan Lacksman and Michel Moers remain, Marc Moulin passed away in 2008.)

They became Euro-famous due to their clever alterations of other people’s hit songs, including head-tilting updates of Plastic Bertrand’s ‘Ça Plane Pour Moi’ and Sly Stone’s ‘Dance to the Music.‘ And now to keep the 2021 party going, they have produced a new video for their version of the Beatles’ ‘Dear Prudence,’ cobbling it together from assorted archival footage. Their cover of ‘…Prudence’ is a languid, ennui-laden re-imagining of the Lennon-McCartney psychedelic classic, that sounds more like Stereolab than it does anything by those four lads from Liverpool. But the hyper-sensory video comes off like a quick-cut visual autobiography of Telex, with guest appearances by a little brown bunny, a couple of jellyfish, and geek’s wet dream of vintage studio equipment.

The track will also appear on the aforementioned compilation, the edifyingly titled This is Telex – which will be released by Mute April 30, and can be pre-ordered here. And what better soundtrack to the Second Spring of Covid?