SHARE: The Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Volume 215
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2022 12:06 amThe Unknown Beauty Of The 80's Vol. 215 - The Thomas Dolby Connection
Again a thematic Volume centered around Thomas Morgan Robertson, born on 14 October 1958 in Cairo, known by the stage name Thomas Dolby. He is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher.
His father is an archaeologist and Thomas travels with him through the culturally rich Europe. He learns to touch the piano keys and comes into contact with jazz; the pop music broadly passes him by. Not until he lives in London and the punk in '76 erupts, he becomes interested, although his taste remains refined to say the least. Groups as Television and Talking Heads encourage him to continue in music. He begins to string together fragmented ideas into fragments of songs, but he writes real songs not yet; he prefers to concentrate on the use of electronics. With a self-built P.A. installation he hires out as a sound engineer to bands such as The Fall and The Passions and thus encounters Buggles founder Bruce Woolley, who asks him to join his Camera Club, which offer he eagerly accepts. The group flops, but Thomas takes a liking to it; he completes his songs and writes the single New Toy for Lene Lovich. His talents don't stay unnoticed; his musical help is requested by artists as diverse as Joan Armatrading and Foreigner and he himself will play in '81 in the studio formations Low Noise and Fallout Club. With Low Noise he records the single Jungle Line (a Joni Mitchell composition) and with Fallout Club Dream Soldiers and Wonderlust co-written with singer Trevor Herion (from singer Herion appears later, in '84, a solo album full of white disco). Between the acts he starts a solo career. The first Dolby single, Urges, will be released in February '81, followed by the song Airwaves on the compilation cassette From Brussels With Love, the single Europa & The Pirate Twins and finally The Golden Age Of Wireless, released in May '82 on its own Venice In Peril label.
Dolby's music is intelligent and imaginative, full of computerized synthesizers, but also with refined handicrafts, brought together in beautiful balance. The Dolby met vocals in an unmistakable Bowie intonation, lyrics center around themes such as travel, air, planes and radios, giving him the image of a somewhat otherworldly, musical scientist. After the single Windpower, his breakthrough follows in spring '83 when the strong She Blinded Me With Science suddenly makes it to a large audience; Dolby reaches to the American Top 5 and is, shy as he is, suddenly the center of attention. After that blow, things stay quiet for a while. Dolby continues to work calmly and accurately on what will become his second album, The Flat Earth, preceded by the single Hyperactive. It is again a very neat and balanced successor to The Golden Age Of Wireless, in which faint synthesizer sweeps and strong melodies set the tone. Also his live performances, including in the Netherlands, are well received. All the nuances in Dolby's music, both the romantic and the humorous, are immaculately presented, partly with the help of two round video screens on either side of the stage. The album subsequent singles as I Scare Myself (Barry Reynolds) and Dissidents, however good, make little impression on the hit-sensitive big public. Little is heard of Dolby on the record front, until his name reappears in the spring of '85. He produces the second album of the British Prefab Sprout and was involved on the new album of Joni Mitchell.
In the 1990s, Dolby founded Beatnik, a Silicon Valley software company whose technology was used to play internet music and later polyphonic ringtones, including the Nokia tune. He was also the music director for the TED Conference. On the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University since 2014, Dolby leads Peabody's Music for New Media program, which enrolled its first students in the fall of 2018.
For those interested in Thomas Dolby there is a nice book written by Dolby himself called The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers between Music and Technology - A Memoir.
Up for one week
CD1
01. Adele Bertei - Build Me A Bridge (6:22)
02. Devi - Feel Your Sex (4:13)
03. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - Dancing With The Sporting Boys (3:34)
04. Dolby's Cube - May The Cube Be With You (3:49)
05. Joni Mitchell ft. Billy Idol & Tom Petty - Dancin' Clown (3:53)
06. George Clintin - Thrashin' (5:41)
07. Low Noise - Urban Tribal (3:44)
08. Belinda Carlisle - Fool For Love (3:56)
09. Dolby's Cube - Get Out Of The Mix (4:44)
10. Lene Lovich - Rocky Road (4:19)
11. Prefab Sprout - King Of Rock 'N' Roll (4:22)
12. La Uniøn - Vivir Al Este Del Edén (4:04)
13. Girls At Our Best! - Goodbye To That Jazz (3:42)
14. Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - Leipzig (4:29)
15. M - Eureka (original version) (3:16)
16. Screamin' Lord Byron ft. Thomas Dolby & Timothy Spall - The Devil Is An Englishman (3:30)
17. Local Heroes SW9 - Love Is Essential (3:14)
18. Thompson Twins - Living In Europe (3:25)
19. Alex & Christina - Dulce Maldición (3:04)
CD2
01. Devi - Arabian Nights (5:39)
02. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - Howard The Duck (4:00)
03. Foreigner - Break it Up (4:13)
04. Joni Mitchell - Good Friends (4:29)
05. Prefab Sprout - Goodbye Lucille #1 (4:29)
06. Ofra Haza - Taw Shi (3:28)
07. Trevor Herion - Kiss Of No Return (4:25)
08. Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch (4:42)
09. Joan Armatrading - Eating The Beer (3:00)
10. Lene Lovich - New Toy (3:19)
11. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - It Don't Come Cheap (4:49)
12. Ryuichi Sakamoto ft. Thomas Dolby - Field Work (London mix) (4:05)
13. Local Heroes SW9 - Hippy Street (3:23)
14. Mark Beer - The Small Death (3:46)
15. The Group - Technology (extended club mix) (8:30)
16. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - W.W.9. (instrumental) (0:44)
17. The Fallout Club - Pedestrian Walkway (3:11)
18. Roger Waters - Another Brick In The Wall (part 2) (live in Berlin) (6:26)
CD3
01. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - Hunger City (4:14)
02. Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour - Year 2000 (3:30)
03. Jack Heard - Sex Machine (2:27)
04. Noice - Europa (3:10)
05. Whodini - Magic's Wand (5:27)
06. Thompson Twins - Runaway (5:22)
07. George Clinton - Some Of My Best Jokes Are Friends (6:00)
08. M - Dance On The Ruins (4:06)
09. Prefab Sprout - Faron Young (3:42)
10. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Love (4:45)
11. Roger Waters - The Trial (live in Berlin) (7:23)
12. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - Goodbye To Yesterday (reprise) (2:24)
13. Low Noise - Jungle Line (3:51)
14. Malvaho - Me cegó con su ciencia (she blinded me with science) (4:17)
15. Dolby's Cube ft. Tara Vega - I'm On My Way (2:57)
16. Ofra Haza - Fata Morgana (mirage) (5:00)
17. Mecano - Un año mas (4:29)
18. Thomas Dolby - Marseille (live) (4:41)
Involvement:
Arrangement: 1-10, 2-02, 2-07, 2-10 2-11, 3-01, 3-15
Electronics: 1-07, 3-13
Engineer: 1-02, 1-12, 2-01, 3-17
Featuring: 2-18, 3-11
Mixed by: 2-06, 3-16
Musician: 1-03, 1-04, 1-05, 1-06, 1-08, 1-09, 1-13, 1-17, 1-18, 2-02, 2-03, 2-06, 2-08, 2-09, 2-11, 2-12,
2-13, 2-14, 2-16, 2-17, 3-01, 3-03, 3-05, 3-06, 3-07, 3-10, 3-12, 3-16
Performer: 1-18, 3-18
Producer: 1-01, 1-04, 1-06, 1-07, 1-09, 1-11, 2-02, 2-04, 2-05, 2-06, 2-11, 2-15, 2-17, 3-01, 3-02, 3-07,
3-09, 3-13, 3-15, 3-16, 3-18
Recorded by: 1-19
Sequencer: 1-15, 3-08
Vocals: 1-06, 1-07, 1-09, 2-12, 2-17, 3-07, 3-11, 3-13, 3-18
Written: 1-04, 1-09, 1-10, 1-14, 1-16, 2-02, 2-10, 2-11, 2-12, 2-16, 2-17, 3-01, 3-02, 3-04, 3-12, 3-14,
3-15, 3-18
3-18 Written with Adele Bertei for a possible b-side of the single Build Me A Bridge.
The Link: ...
Enjoy.
Again a thematic Volume centered around Thomas Morgan Robertson, born on 14 October 1958 in Cairo, known by the stage name Thomas Dolby. He is an English musician, producer, composer, entrepreneur and teacher.
His father is an archaeologist and Thomas travels with him through the culturally rich Europe. He learns to touch the piano keys and comes into contact with jazz; the pop music broadly passes him by. Not until he lives in London and the punk in '76 erupts, he becomes interested, although his taste remains refined to say the least. Groups as Television and Talking Heads encourage him to continue in music. He begins to string together fragmented ideas into fragments of songs, but he writes real songs not yet; he prefers to concentrate on the use of electronics. With a self-built P.A. installation he hires out as a sound engineer to bands such as The Fall and The Passions and thus encounters Buggles founder Bruce Woolley, who asks him to join his Camera Club, which offer he eagerly accepts. The group flops, but Thomas takes a liking to it; he completes his songs and writes the single New Toy for Lene Lovich. His talents don't stay unnoticed; his musical help is requested by artists as diverse as Joan Armatrading and Foreigner and he himself will play in '81 in the studio formations Low Noise and Fallout Club. With Low Noise he records the single Jungle Line (a Joni Mitchell composition) and with Fallout Club Dream Soldiers and Wonderlust co-written with singer Trevor Herion (from singer Herion appears later, in '84, a solo album full of white disco). Between the acts he starts a solo career. The first Dolby single, Urges, will be released in February '81, followed by the song Airwaves on the compilation cassette From Brussels With Love, the single Europa & The Pirate Twins and finally The Golden Age Of Wireless, released in May '82 on its own Venice In Peril label.
Dolby's music is intelligent and imaginative, full of computerized synthesizers, but also with refined handicrafts, brought together in beautiful balance. The Dolby met vocals in an unmistakable Bowie intonation, lyrics center around themes such as travel, air, planes and radios, giving him the image of a somewhat otherworldly, musical scientist. After the single Windpower, his breakthrough follows in spring '83 when the strong She Blinded Me With Science suddenly makes it to a large audience; Dolby reaches to the American Top 5 and is, shy as he is, suddenly the center of attention. After that blow, things stay quiet for a while. Dolby continues to work calmly and accurately on what will become his second album, The Flat Earth, preceded by the single Hyperactive. It is again a very neat and balanced successor to The Golden Age Of Wireless, in which faint synthesizer sweeps and strong melodies set the tone. Also his live performances, including in the Netherlands, are well received. All the nuances in Dolby's music, both the romantic and the humorous, are immaculately presented, partly with the help of two round video screens on either side of the stage. The album subsequent singles as I Scare Myself (Barry Reynolds) and Dissidents, however good, make little impression on the hit-sensitive big public. Little is heard of Dolby on the record front, until his name reappears in the spring of '85. He produces the second album of the British Prefab Sprout and was involved on the new album of Joni Mitchell.
In the 1990s, Dolby founded Beatnik, a Silicon Valley software company whose technology was used to play internet music and later polyphonic ringtones, including the Nokia tune. He was also the music director for the TED Conference. On the faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University since 2014, Dolby leads Peabody's Music for New Media program, which enrolled its first students in the fall of 2018.
For those interested in Thomas Dolby there is a nice book written by Dolby himself called The Speed of Sound: Breaking the Barriers between Music and Technology - A Memoir.
Up for one week
CD1
01. Adele Bertei - Build Me A Bridge (6:22)
02. Devi - Feel Your Sex (4:13)
03. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - Dancing With The Sporting Boys (3:34)
04. Dolby's Cube - May The Cube Be With You (3:49)
05. Joni Mitchell ft. Billy Idol & Tom Petty - Dancin' Clown (3:53)
06. George Clintin - Thrashin' (5:41)
07. Low Noise - Urban Tribal (3:44)
08. Belinda Carlisle - Fool For Love (3:56)
09. Dolby's Cube - Get Out Of The Mix (4:44)
10. Lene Lovich - Rocky Road (4:19)
11. Prefab Sprout - King Of Rock 'N' Roll (4:22)
12. La Uniøn - Vivir Al Este Del Edén (4:04)
13. Girls At Our Best! - Goodbye To That Jazz (3:42)
14. Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin - Leipzig (4:29)
15. M - Eureka (original version) (3:16)
16. Screamin' Lord Byron ft. Thomas Dolby & Timothy Spall - The Devil Is An Englishman (3:30)
17. Local Heroes SW9 - Love Is Essential (3:14)
18. Thompson Twins - Living In Europe (3:25)
19. Alex & Christina - Dulce Maldición (3:04)
CD2
01. Devi - Arabian Nights (5:39)
02. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - Howard The Duck (4:00)
03. Foreigner - Break it Up (4:13)
04. Joni Mitchell - Good Friends (4:29)
05. Prefab Sprout - Goodbye Lucille #1 (4:29)
06. Ofra Haza - Taw Shi (3:28)
07. Trevor Herion - Kiss Of No Return (4:25)
08. Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch (4:42)
09. Joan Armatrading - Eating The Beer (3:00)
10. Lene Lovich - New Toy (3:19)
11. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - It Don't Come Cheap (4:49)
12. Ryuichi Sakamoto ft. Thomas Dolby - Field Work (London mix) (4:05)
13. Local Heroes SW9 - Hippy Street (3:23)
14. Mark Beer - The Small Death (3:46)
15. The Group - Technology (extended club mix) (8:30)
16. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - W.W.9. (instrumental) (0:44)
17. The Fallout Club - Pedestrian Walkway (3:11)
18. Roger Waters - Another Brick In The Wall (part 2) (live in Berlin) (6:26)
CD3
01. Dolby's Cube ft. Cherry Bomb - Hunger City (4:14)
02. Jane Kennaway & Strange Behaviour - Year 2000 (3:30)
03. Jack Heard - Sex Machine (2:27)
04. Noice - Europa (3:10)
05. Whodini - Magic's Wand (5:27)
06. Thompson Twins - Runaway (5:22)
07. George Clinton - Some Of My Best Jokes Are Friends (6:00)
08. M - Dance On The Ruins (4:06)
09. Prefab Sprout - Faron Young (3:42)
10. Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Love (4:45)
11. Roger Waters - The Trial (live in Berlin) (7:23)
12. Bruce Woolley & The Camera Club - Goodbye To Yesterday (reprise) (2:24)
13. Low Noise - Jungle Line (3:51)
14. Malvaho - Me cegó con su ciencia (she blinded me with science) (4:17)
15. Dolby's Cube ft. Tara Vega - I'm On My Way (2:57)
16. Ofra Haza - Fata Morgana (mirage) (5:00)
17. Mecano - Un año mas (4:29)
18. Thomas Dolby - Marseille (live) (4:41)
Involvement:
Arrangement: 1-10, 2-02, 2-07, 2-10 2-11, 3-01, 3-15
Electronics: 1-07, 3-13
Engineer: 1-02, 1-12, 2-01, 3-17
Featuring: 2-18, 3-11
Mixed by: 2-06, 3-16
Musician: 1-03, 1-04, 1-05, 1-06, 1-08, 1-09, 1-13, 1-17, 1-18, 2-02, 2-03, 2-06, 2-08, 2-09, 2-11, 2-12,
2-13, 2-14, 2-16, 2-17, 3-01, 3-03, 3-05, 3-06, 3-07, 3-10, 3-12, 3-16
Performer: 1-18, 3-18
Producer: 1-01, 1-04, 1-06, 1-07, 1-09, 1-11, 2-02, 2-04, 2-05, 2-06, 2-11, 2-15, 2-17, 3-01, 3-02, 3-07,
3-09, 3-13, 3-15, 3-16, 3-18
Recorded by: 1-19
Sequencer: 1-15, 3-08
Vocals: 1-06, 1-07, 1-09, 2-12, 2-17, 3-07, 3-11, 3-13, 3-18
Written: 1-04, 1-09, 1-10, 1-14, 1-16, 2-02, 2-10, 2-11, 2-12, 2-16, 2-17, 3-01, 3-02, 3-04, 3-12, 3-14,
3-15, 3-18
3-18 Written with Adele Bertei for a possible b-side of the single Build Me A Bridge.
The Link: ...
Enjoy.
