Amazon.co.uk Review
Chips from the Chocolate Fireball by the Dukes of Stratosphear--vocalist Sir John Johns, bassist The Red Curtain, guitarist Lord Cornelius Plum and drummer EIEI Owen--was a cunning ruse, an academically brilliant pastiche executed by Swindon's XTC in the mid-1980s. In terms of humour and artistry, the 16 tracks included here outwit The Rutles by some distance. The attention to detail is astonishingly refined: Yep, there's mellotrons, garage-band guitars, gongs, bongos, phased vocals, tapes going backwards, sitars, snippets of pot-headed fairytale poetry and a fair amount of cheekily crafted impersonation--Lennon's "I'm Only Sleeping" on "Collideascope",
Younger Than Yesterday-era Byrds on "You're My Drug", the brilliant Syd Barrett-eque "Bike Ride To The Moon (with Andy Partridge's affected Cambridge accent) and a host of other ideas cribbed from the likes of the
Electric Prunes, the
Idle Race,
Tomorrow, the
Move,
Smile-era Beach Boys, the
Hollies and--most of all--the
Beatles.
Chips From The Chocolate Fireball is possibly the most admirable instance of fraudulence in the history of pop.
--Kevin Maidment
From Amazon.com
XTC created the Dukes of Stratosphear almost on a lark, as an excuse to play the kind of music they grew up listening to and playing. The invention of the pseudonym gave them the opportunity to wear on their sleeves the influences they had only hinted at as XTC. The Dukes released two records between 1985 and 1987 and they are both compiled in their entirety on
Chips from the Chocolate Fireball. Listening to
Chips is like sifting through a '60s psychedelia bin at a good used record store. The only thing missing are the pops and crackles as you drop the needle onto the neglected vinyl. The best of the era is recreated here with reverence and an amazing attention to detail: Syd Barrett's childlike lyrics, the Blue Cheer fuzz-guitar frenzy, dissonant
Sgt. Pepper strings and horns, and good old Brian Wilson-style indulgences.
The record opens with "25 O'Clock," which instantly recalls the Electric Prunes' "I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night." From there the references become more obscure: the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" is invoked by the bombastic guitar sludge of Sir John Johns (Andy Partridge) and Lord Cornelius Plum (Dave Gregory) on "My Love Explodes," while "Bike Ride to the Moon" is demented enough to have appeared on Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Other high points include the Hollies-inspired "Vanishing Girl" and the Beatles-style piano stomp "You're a Good Man Albert Brown." The record closes with the priceless "Pale and Precious." With its dead-on Wilson brothers harmonies and faux theremin, the song plays like an undiscovered gem from the Beach Boys' Smile sessions. --Paul Ducey
