Track Listing

1. She Blinded Me With Science
2. Radio Silence
3. Airwaves
4. Flying North
5. Weightless
6. Europa And The Pirate Twins
7. Windpower
8. Commercial Break Up
9. One Of Our Submarines Is Missing
10. Cloudburst At Shingle Street

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75237 in Music
• Released on: 1995-04-03
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .21 pounds

CD Description
One of the most satisfying examples of the genre of early-80s British synthpop. Thomas Dolby's debut is surprisingly warm, human, and at times nostalgic, qualities not usually associated with synthesized music.
Ballads like "Airwaves", "Weightless", and the enveloping, operatic "Cloudburst At Shingle Street", are thoughtful and direct, and the more upbeat songs, like "Radio Silence" and the manic "Europa and the Pirate Twins" (featuring harmonica by XTC's Andy Partridge),are as fun and catchy as anything released in 1982. Puristsmay feel that the original version of the album, featuring two early tracks dropped off this second US edition, is superior, but in either incarnation THE GOLDEN AGE OF WIRELESS is a synthpop classic.

Customer Reviews

Dolby's Lost Gem
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 rather 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.

Pre-Dolby Digital
I first bought this album when I was a boy on vinyl and then the atmospheric nature of this fine piece of work struck a chord immediately. TD went straight for the eccentric angle and pulled it off with some style and room to spare. Now re-issued with one track missing (Wreck Of The Fairchild) and two new ones added (One Of Our Submarines and She Blinded Me With Science) and the playlist jumbled up a bit very little has distracted this from the promising debut. Airwaves is a towering ballad that used to fade into Radio Silence on the original - and somehow the pops and crackles of the vinyl used to contribute to the listening experience rather than distract - Weightless is an all-time classic and in direct contrast to the tight pop of Commercial Breakup. Europa and the Pirate Twins - so long a favourite of mine now sounds dated but this is a small price to pay for the mans genius. Finally Clouburst at Shingle Street is just plain mad, finishing in a raucous operetta meets heavy drumming and just leaves you reaching for the repeat button.

A defining moment in early 80's synth pop
I originally bought this album when it was first released and I still regularly play it. This CD is the repackaged version that was originally released to accomodate the massive US hit 'She Blinded Me With Science" and its excellent b-side "One of Our Submarines" and my only gripe is that "Wreck of the Fairchild" has been taken off. This album highlights how good a song writer Dolby was in his younger days and the track 'Airwaves' for me is the pinnacle in his whole career and has stood the test of time. Other tracks such as 'Europa', 'Weightless' and 'Windpower' show Dolby's innovative use of the Fairlight and drum computers. Listen out also for appearances on the album by artists such as Andy Partridge from XTC, Matthew Seligman, Kevin Armstrong and Akiko Yano.