Thomas Dolby - May The Cube Be With You (Live)

2007

Thomas Dolby - May The Cube Be With You (Live) (2007) Director: Peter Care Era: Post-Hiatus Comeback Era (2006–2007) - Thomas Dolby's live return to touring after a 15-year absence, debuting new material with jazz-inflected arrangements at SXSW 2007 High archival value as a document of Thomas Dolby's 2007 SXSW comeback performance, a culturally significant moment marking his full re-engagement with live music after a technology-sector decade. The jazz-horn reinterpretation of a canonical 1985 synth-funk track is a notable example of genre hybridization in live performance, and the footage captures an intimate festival energy that complements the slick production of the original studio video. Useful for comparative musicology and for studies of artist identity across radically different career phases. Context: This live recording documents Thomas Dolby's celebrated return to performance after a 15-year hiatus focused on technology entrepreneurship (Beatnik/Nokia ringtones). Captured at SXSW 2007 in Austin, TX with San Francisco's Jazz Mafia Horns collective, it reframes an archetypal mid-80s British synth-pop/funk track in an organic jazz-horn live context. The performance bridges Dolby's original 1985 Dolby's Cube project, a dance-oriented offshoot of his synth-pop catalog featuring collaborators such as George Clinton and Lene Lovich, with the mid-2000s indie festival ecosystem that welcomed 1980s-era artists as heritage acts. The warm, high-saturation stage palette and documentary-style camera work are characteristic of the SXSW showcase filming culture of that era. Director notes: IMDB and IMVDb both credit the original 1985 studio music video for 'May the Cube Be with You' to co-directors Peter Care and Thomas Dolby. The file being annotated is the LIVE version, a concert recording from Thomas Dolby's SXSW 2007 performance with The Jazz Mafia Horns (Austin, TX, March 15–16, 2007), released as part of the 'Live at SxSW' EP on Lost Toy People Inc. No separate director credit has been located for the live video capture. The original video co-direction credit is noted for archival context only; the live footage director is unconfirmed.