The Golden Age Of Tireless: Thomas Dolby Returns

By Jake Guidry in Arts & Entertainment on Oct 4, 2011 8:20PM

When considering London-born Thomas Robertson, a.k.a. Thomas Dolby, one might assume his 1982 hit, "She Blinded Me With Science" is his lone cultural contribution. But dig a little deeper and you'll find that Dolby is much more than a one-hit wonder. Over the past thirty or so years, Dolby has released six studio albums, produced and composed video game soundtracks, played as a session musician for Def Leppard and Foreigner, and acted as Musican Director for the yearly TED Conference - and that only scratches the surface. Dolby, long known as a tech maven, will be releasing his first studio album in twenty years in conjunction with a "social networking transmedia game" that he developed, titled The Floating City: A Dieselpunk Dystopia. This Friday at Martyrs', Dolby will be both lecturing about the game and performing songs from the new album, A Map of the Floating City.

Dolby describes The Floating City as "weary survivors of a global climate catastrophe bartering and trading to stay alive in the face of techno-piracy and mutant squid attacks!" Dystopian - to be sure - and successful enough this summer to engage over five thousand players to participate in three months of game-play, of which was littered with discoverable MP3 downloads, and concluded with a free private concert from Dolby for the winning "tribe". For his show Friday, Dolby will delve deeper into the production process of the game, as well as intersperse performances from the new album, A Map of the Floating City, out October 25 on Redeye. We've also been told he'll play some of the classics, which makes the whole thing totally worth it.

For those weary about a combination lecture/performance, fret not: Dolby and his band will embark on a proper US tour in 2012, including a few festival dates (Lollapalooza, anyone?).

Thomas Dolby is Friday October 7, Martyrs', 3855 N Lincoln Ave., $17, 6:30p.m.