Description

Bored Retro-ists searching for new points of 80's inspiration should give this a whirl, the relic of Dolby's great lost career. In the 90's he went all California and disintegrated into flippant, irritating anglo-pop, but for years this album was as interesting and as durable as anything before or since, and still sounds good.What Dolby pulled off was to make the routine tools of the day - long discarded Simmons drums, analogue synths, white noise handclaps - somehow gel together into timeless and dramatic creations. Like Bjork today he met the future before it had happened and commanded it rathermore… than followed it - even the poppier tracks (Science, Europa) have this sort of surreal substance, with an atmosphere and poignancy that contemporaries never matched.Even the sleeve art had a pleasing sense of dotty detail and thoroughness, with Dolby coming across like a well-travelled Victorian anthropologist beamed onto a C20 "floor of a Pan Am lounge". At the time, it was a bizarre concept to blend modern with retro, when eneryone else was only just unpacking their brand new Roland synths. Airwaves hinted at a gifted balladeer, but to me the best tracks are the 4 extraordinary and unique pieces Windpower, Weightless, Flying North and Shingle Street. These desolate, strange pieces seem tied to a kind of historical melancholy and loneliness, with weird English reference points, unbelievable sounds and textures (espec. for 1982), avant garde clusters and tonalities - and incidentally for any Dolby fan who still hasn't visited Shingle Street itself then some interesting surprises await you.Dolby's name is so naff these days that I never hear him get a mention; but it's clear that many producers must have this record tucked away somewhere. You can trace it through Eno, Dolby, William Orbit, and though later Dolby was an embarrassment as a funkster no-one will ever come close to the awesome bassline behind Windpower.He was never this good again but then again this is an album which will never lose its impact - a genuine essential purchase.

Tracks

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Info:

Category:

Music > Albums

Case Type:

CD

Release Type:

Retail

Comments:

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Cover Info:

Title:

Thomas Dolby - The Golden Age of Wireless (1995) Retail CD

Part:

CD

Dimensions:

806 x 800 px

Size:

91 KB

Downloads:

178 (0 today)

Uploaded:

Report a Problem Wrong Cover Duplicate Image Bad Quality Wrong Info

07/05/07 by allcdcovers

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