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Thomas Dolby / The Flat Earth coloured vinyl LP

Limited to 750 units

By Paul Sinclair

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29

Thomas Dolby’s 1984 album, The Flat Earth, will be reissued next month as a limited edition coloured vinyl pressing.

Now 40 years old, Dolby’s second album peaked at No 14 on the UK album chart and was a top 40 hit in the US. It features the single. ‘Hyperactive!’, ‘The Flat Earth’ and ‘Dissidents’.

The Flat Earth is pressed on 180g translucent blue vinyl for this reissue and is limited to just 750 numbered copies.

It will be released on 27 September 2024, via Music On Vinyl. Secure a copy from the SDE shop via this link or by using the button below.

Tracklisting

The Flat Earth Thomas Dolby / Limited blue vinyl

    • SIDE A
      1. Dissidents
      2. The Flat Earth
      3. Screen Kiss
      SIDE B
      1. White City
      2. Mulu The Rain Forest
      3. I Scare Myself
      4. Hyperactive!

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29 Comments

29 thoughts on “Thomas Dolby / The Flat Earth coloured vinyl LP”

  3. This is a great album but that price for a single color bare bones reissue is excessive. Before I shut my label down, I was receiving various contact from vinyl manufacturers advertising sales, lower prices, and in some cases pleas to work with them. The vinyl backlog of a few years ago spiked prices and manufacturers exploited the situation, so product prices went up. Now, with manufacturing prices dropping because of the various new pressing plants that popped up in the last couple of years who are now desperate for clients, there’s no reason this shouldn’t be a $24.99 reissue, or less.

  6. I wonder if MOV will release Aliens Ate My Buick and Astronauts And Heretics as well, the latter being very rare on vinyl. I hope so.

  7. Wouldn’t this be a perfect fit for another SDE exclusive Blu-ray pick? The entire album is great, but the production values even then signaled Mr Dolby’s impeccable taste and musicianship.
    Musically, of course Hyperactive was a hoot, but I Scare Myself is my favourite. The dreamy, flamenco-flavoured jazzy piece was years ahead of the jazz-pop extravaganza that arrived in mid- to late eighties.
    Fantastic!
    Too bad I don’t partake in vinyl, but if you tell me there is BR version – I’ll be first to pre-order.

    1. You should read his book mate! Youv will find that him and dolby noise reduction/ surround sound are on very bad terms or where in the early 80s great book ,a lot more to that man than a magnus pike video!

        1. Weird because he did remix contests from his site back when they were trying to drive fan traffic there before other kinds of social media became dominant.
          I think The Golden Age of Wireless in all of it’s iterations would make a fantastic SDE BR.
          His book is so-so, the first half is more interesting although his work with Ryuichi Sakamoto is barely mentioned and his time with Prefab Sprout, which should easily receive a chapter, is given much less attention. The second half of the book describes his time in the tech world and unless you find that sort of thing interesting…it isn’t. He also comes across in that section as someone suffering from clinical depression, it’s a fairly disjointed narrative that the tech time wins out on for the chunk of the content.

  10. Very happy with my 2009 Collector’s Edition CD, ta. The Flat Earth is such a great album, and sadly one of too few Dolby LPs in this world. Recent interviews indicate he may be active/touring but there’s no new material imminent.

    What’s slightly mind-bending is that when this LP was first released in Feb ’84, also vying for space in the new release racks were Talk Talk’s It’s My Life, Simple Minds’ Sparkle In The Rain, Julian Cope’s WSYM, Nik Kershaw’s Human Racing, debut LPs by The Smiths and Dead Can Dance, Thompson Twins’ Into The Gap, Felt’s Splendour Of Fear, Fad Gadget’s Gag, and Laurie Anderson’s Hey Mister Heartbreak. A bloody expensive month, but God, we had it good back then, pop pickers.

    1. My ideal release would be the (sadly final) gig by Fad Gadget in support of Depeche Mode. As there are official live videos of tracks from that tour surely the estate could release them again sadly so very little releases by another sorely missed artist. Frank clearly updated older tracks with a superb heavy synth sheen it’s criminal they aren’t available. Not that the originals lacked synths of course but the live versions were impressive in their own right.

  11. I was excited a few days ago when I read there was a 40th anniversary expanded reissue of The Flat Earth with extra tracks too…
    …but that I found out it’s a digital only release.
    A real missed opportunity I think!

    Here is the tracklisting for those interested (the album tracks, and the other tracks that were included on the 2009 expanded version have not been remastered again from what I read):

    1. Dissidents
    2. The Flat Earth
    3. Screen Kiss
    4. White City
    5. Mulu the Rain Forest
    6. I Scare Myself
    7. Hyperactive!
    8. Get Out of My Mix (Dolby’s Cube)
    9. Puppet Theatre
    10. Dissidents: The Search for Truth, Pt. 1 Francois Kervorkian Mix
    11. Hyperactive! Heavy Breather Subversion AKA 12″ Mix
    12. May the Cube Be With You
    13. Don’t Turn Away
    14. The Devil Is an Englishman
    15. Puppet Theatre (alt)
    16. Dissidents (Single Edit)
    17. I Scare Myself (Single Edit)
    18. Therapy/Growth (Demo)
    19. Audio Lecture/White City (Live)
    20. Marseille (Live)
    21. I Scare Myself (Live)
    22. New Toy (Live)
    23. Dissidents (Live)
    24. The Flat Earth – (Live)

  12. Ordered, thanks Paul. Would have preferred a 2lp set with extra tracks but this will do nicely. I Scare Myself was the other single off this album. The latest edition of Electronic Sounds magazine has a 7″ single with Hyperactive and Mulu The Rain Forest.

  13. I’m off to see Thomas Dolby tonight in Newcastle, with Martin McAloon supporting, playing Prefab Sprout songs. All it needs is for Paddy to come on for a song, and for Thomas to supply some backing keyboards for a little bit of heaven on earth. We Let The Stars Go By would be ideal.

    2. I was there last night, and Glasgow before it. He’s so good live. Not too much from “The Flat Earth” but kicking off with his take on “Blue Monday” is inspired!
      I’m a big Prefab Sprout fan and it’s great to hear the songs live again but Martin solo just isn’t for me. As Wendy Smith was there I was hoping she’d get up to sing one or two but alas no.

  15. Want to get excited about this, but really wish there were some demos and live material as extras. The remastered CD from 2009 sounds great and has a decent clutch of B-sides, mixes and live tracks, but I’d love to see a more thorough examination of this classic Dolby record.

  16. Ouch that is expensive stick with the remastered CD from a few years back, Record companies are greedy charging this much…shocking

    1. Although no fan of vinyl isn’t £25-30 the going price these days? Not saying it’s a fair price but some CDs are the same particularly European and US imports to the UK.

  17. I would have bought the debut album right away, but Flat Earth felt always disappointing. Hyperactive is the only interesting track, but it always felt like he was trying to create SBMWS part 2

  18. This album is begging for an Atmos release. The title track is so dense and layered. Absolutely loved all of side A and Hyperactive! @Paul – an upcoming SDE Surround Series entry? Instrumentals, music videos, and maybe some choice remixes in Atmos would be fantastic!

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