Thomas Morgan Robertson si guadagnò ben presto il soprannome di "Dolby" per via della sua passione riguardo le tecniche di registrazione.
Attualmente Dolby è proprietario della Beatnik, una società che si occupa di tecniche audio, e che ultimamente ha firmato prestigiose collaborazioni con grandi colossi internazionali.
Ma quest'inglese genialoide ha avuto anche un passato come compositore di synth-pop. Esordisce nel 1982 con quest'album dalla copertina insolita, che pare la locandina di un film di fantascienza (anche le grafiche dei suoi futuri lavori riprenderanno questo vezzo).
Dolby si rinchiude a casa col suo arsenale di sintetizzatori e forgia un ballabile funk-elettronico, col gusto per l'arrangiamento iper-curato, e dal sapore particolare per via di un melodismo che si fa a volte epico a volte futurista. In particolar modo Dolby sembra attingere alla tradizione delle colonne sonore per films di serie B, ed alle sigle televisive dei cartoni. Insomma un sapore da "scienziato pazzo" che si gusta subito una volta fatto girare il disco.
"She Blinded Me With Science" fu il singolo che gli regalò una discreta popolarità, col suo funk speziato da orientalismi elettronici. Ma già il power-pop di "Radio Silence" evidenzia l'aspetto ludico del suo lavoro, con tanto di voci di robot in corto circuito. La lenta "Airwaves" lo vede invece nei panni del cantautore atmosferico, mentre la successiva "Flying North" si leva su di un ritmo frenetico di drum-machine che accompagna la voce carica di eco di Dolby, impegnata a duettare con un giro di tastiere di immediata presa. Senza dubbio si tratta di musica da ballo ben architettata, certosinamente limata e rifinita, con un suono "plasticoso" tipico di molte produzioni '80.
L' irresistibile balletto di "Europa And The Pirate Twins" sembra una versione meno seriosa del John Foxx di Metamatic, mentre la filtratissima voce in lontananza che introduce "One Of Our Submarines" dà il benvenuto ad una melodia crepuscolare ed obliqua, sempre incalzata da un ritmo techno-pop.
Circondato da collaboratori di pregio come Lene Lovich ed Andy Partridge degli XTC, Dolby riuscì con "The Golden Age Of Wireless" a sdoganare il synth-pop dai gruppi patinati spesso creati a tavolino, rispolverando la figura di compositore "at home" che tanta fortuna avrà negli anni novanta sia nella scena house (si pensi ad Homework dei Daft Punk) che in quella low-fi americana.
Elenco tracce testi samples e video
02 Commercial Breakup (04:15)
Night so bright - transmission smooth
I take my head and I stuff it in the tube
I find something I can use
But there's no credit where credit is due
It cost me ten dollars
And in thirty seconds it's so clear
And I adhere - I'm only humanoid
Oh man - they're waving from the street again
"Hey Franz!" they're calling up to me
"We're living, we're living through the breakup,
commercial breakup, here it comes again."
Well just today you told me,
You told me 'bout the way it is
I walk on out and make me a few small purchases.
What was that name you called me?
What was that grin you grinned?
An expression so uncertain
that breaks a line so thin?
Now that 2D beckons - the colour is high
it seems so ripe - don't touch the line hold
Something has dropped me in the heat again
"Hey Franz!" they're calling up to me
"We're living, we're living through the breakup,
commercial breakup, here it comes again."
03 Weightless (03:45)
Some nights he's weightless
he has to travel
his mouth is gravel
and there's an empty feeling within his heart...
Eye on the fuelguage
Westchester Thruway
and triple octane
won't contain the empty feeling in Dolby's heart.
Same old insecurity strap him in his carseat
and a sump started leaking all over New Jersey
gas stations everywhere -
not one drop to fill me
Big hunk of carrot cake
Blueberry milkshake
fistful of coldrex
won't fix the empty feeling in Lizzy's heart...
So she flicks on the TV
takes in a movie
but all those memories
won't erase the empty feeling from in her heart...
Then a dog woke inside her head to watch the explosion
and a pipe started leaking as she bent to the basin
fruit juice everywhere -
not one drop to fill me
'You could have been the one' she whispered
'listen - love is all you've ever wanted
all you'll ever need'
End of our summer
your body weightless in condensation
my heart learned to swim
and the feeling was gone again.
04 Europa and the Pirate Twins (03:18)
I was fourteen
She was twelve
Father traveled � her's as well � Europa...
Down the beaches
Hand in hand
Twelfth of never on the sand
We swore a vow that day:
We'll be the Pirate Twins again, Europa
Oh my country, Europa
I'll stand beside you in the rain, Europa
Ta r�publique...
Nine years after, who'd I see
On the cover of a magazine? Europa...
Buy her singles and see all her films
Paste her pictures on my windowsill
But that's not quite the same � It isn't, is it?
Europa my old friend...
We'll be the Pirate Twins again, Europa
Oh my country, Europa
I'll stand beside you in the rain, Europa
Ta r�publique...
Blew in from the hoverport
She was back in London
Pushed past the papermen
Calling her nam
She smiled for the cameras
As the bodyguard grabbed me
Then her eyes were gone forever
As she drove her away...
We'll be the Pirate Twins again, Europa
Oh my country, Europa
I'll stand beside you in the rain, Europa
Ta r�publique...
05 Windpower (04:20)
Switch off the mind and let the heart decide
who you were meant to be
Flick to remote and let the body glide
There is no enemy !
Etch out a future of your own design
Well tailored to your needs
Then fan the flame and keep the dream alive
Of a continent
A continent a continent a continent a -
There is no enemy !
Switch of the mind and let the heart decide
We're a continent
A continent a continent a continent a -
Shatter the lens and grind it into sand
One measured exposure
Scatter the seed and furrow in our land
The future is roses! Roses!
Switch off the mind and let the heart decide
There is no enemy!
Lift up the hearts of this your only tribe
We're a continent
A continent a continent a continent a
07 Airwaves (05:12)
Strange how the scale forms In tiny patterns On my atenna and The Five O'Clock Show, hello hello ... Brooklyn is crawling with famous people I turn my vehicle beneath the river, west from south Through the airwaves- people never read the airwaves Do we only feed the airwaves I really should have seen through the airwaves Electric fences line our new freeway Here in the half-light, the motorhomes leave Knee-deep in water under a pylon How slow my heartbeat How thin the air I'm breathing in Through the airwaves - People never read the airwaves do we only feed the airwaves Or stamp them out at street level ? Airwaves - the dampness of the wind The airwaves - the tension of the skin The airwaves Be in my broadcast when this is over Give me your shoulder, I need a place To wait for morning No it was nothing - some car backfiring - Please don't ask questions I itch all over Let me sleep Through the airwaves - People never read the airwaves Do we only feed the airwaves Or stamp them out at street level ? Airwaves - the dampness of the wind The airwaves - the tension of the skin The airwaves I really should have seen through ...
08 Radio Silence (03:43)
Caroline
Makes the final adjustments
in her rear-view mirror
she's nervous and tense
but she's thinking it over
with logic and sense
she'll overcome her phobia...
oh to paint her eyes so red and her lips so blue
carve her legend on the bow - Caroline four-five-two
when they come to call for her I will be there too...
Observe Radio Silence observe
Radio Silence observe Radio Silence
maintain Radio Silence thoughout
...Now where can he be?
What's wrong with the parking meter? What's happening to me?
she'll burst a blood vessel if he doesn't show
she's caught up in traffic
and I'm on her radio...
oh to paint her eyes so red and her lips so blue
raise her likeness on the mast - Caroline four-five-two
when they come to call for her, I will be there too...
She tune in till the tune suits her right
she tune in till the dial come alright
she tune the dial till the needles-'s in the white
tune in tonight
tune in tonight
tune in tonight...
try to think of nothing
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09 Cloudburst at Shingle Street (05:45)
We climb the cliffs
and hang from trees
wrap the rocks and the beach
state of shock at flick of switch
(mindless) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in the sand for years
(headlong) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here.
Come out of your shell
and look at the sea
it may be just as well
you stayed here with me
private hell at turn of a key
(blindly) into the cloudburst overhead
I wanna get my face wet
been buried in these hands for years
(mindless) into the cloudburst naked
there's really no escaping it
there's gonna be a cloudburst here
and it's dawning on me
I've been a cork in the ocean, been bobbing in the North Sea
then take this vest of plaster, these boots of concrete
and make them down as surplus, return to Mulberry...
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
Cloudburst at Shingle Street
When I was small I was in love in love with everything
now there's only you
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