Chips from the Chocolate Fireball

Artist: The Dukes of Stratosphear
Label: Geffen Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 720642416921
EAN: 0720642416921
ASIN: B000000OQR

Release Date: 1990-10-25

Chips from the Chocolate Fireball

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General

| Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Neo-Psychedelia

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

Pop Rock

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

| Rock | Styles | Music

Psychedelic Rock

| Classic Rock | Styles | Music

Tracks:

25 O'Clock
Bike Ride To The Moon
My Love Explodes
What In The World??...
Your Gold Dress
The Mole From The Ministry
Vanishing Girl
Have You Seen Jackie?
Little Lighthouse
You're A Good Man Albert Brown (Curse You Red Barrel)
Collideascope
You're My Drug
Shiny Cage
Brainiac's Daughter
The Affiliated
Pale And Precious

Similar Items:

Skylarking
English Settlement
Oranges & Lemons
Nonsuch
Black Sea

Amazon.com essential recording

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 re-created 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

Album Description

Remastered reissue of 1987 compilation for XTC's psychedelic side-project combines their debut EP '25 O'Clock' with their full length 'Psonic Psunspot'. 16 tracks. 2001 release.

Customer Reviews:

Love the Beatles, XTC and Britpop? You'll love this!.......2007-04-24

if you like britpop, the beatles and/or xtc, this is a clever and fun collection of the entire Dukes library, the alter ego of XTC, in homage to the Beatles.

some of the tunes are just so well done, and the hooks so well crafted that you'll find this is an enjoyable revisit, year after year. you are unlikely to sell this one used.

just simply fun, and much more creative and loyal to the sound of the Beatles than anyone else has done.

Phun, Phun , Phun.......2007-03-17

This recording by the Dukes, aka XTC, is just plain fun and entertaining. The problem with a lot of the music from the psychedelic era was that while they may have included the prerequisite sound effects or drug themes, the tunes themselves were just plain stupid. XTC's strong suit has always been clever songwriting and knowing not to take themselves too seriously. The playing on this collection is great. The bombastic drums, guitars and terrific vocals put to shame most of what passes for rock music today, and these guys were just screwing around for the fun of it. Even though this was a fun recording as homage to the psychedelic peroid, it still contains all that fans of XTC have come to expect from their work: clever wordplay in the lyrics, great musicianship and pristine production. They even have a few special effects here and there that would have made the best of sixties psychedelia (Beatles, Pink Floyd) proud.

Not Quite The Beatles or Pink Floyd, but...........2007-03-10

The record starts off with a cheezy tribute to Pink Floyd, that I think is worthy of Spinal Tap. I still don't know if this was serious, or tongue-in-cheek. While this album will never be my favorite, I am liking it more with each play. "Vanishing Girl" is the one tune that really stands out. If you are new to XTC, I would hold off on buying this CD and go for "English Settlement" or "Skylarking".

Glean from the Peppermint Ice Cube.......2006-10-30

As funny as it is beautiful.

And its really really...both.

XTC as '60s psychedelic popsters........2006-07-22

In the mid-80s, XTC, at the height of their pop powers, released and EP and a short album under the name the Dukes of Stratosphear. The project was designed as an outlet for the band's psychedelic music fantasies-- a chance to record music in the form the Beatles and Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. The EP ("25 O'Clock") sticks to this a bit closer than the album ("Psonic Psunspot"), and this anthology, "Chips From the Chocolate Fireball", collects all the material on a single disc. Admittedly, reviewing this material is a bit difficult for me-- as a music fan, I look for stuff that sounds like nothing else, whereas this project was intentionally an attempt to sound LIKE something else. The good news is that my love unerring pop hooks makes pretty much any work by Messrs. Partridge, Moulding and Gregory fair game in my book.

As a piece unto itelf, I actually find "25 O'Clock" a bit tedious. Yeah, this was all recorded firmly tongue in cheek, and at times it can be intriguing and a lot of fun (the opening title track with its pseudo-Indian-tinged guitars and melodramatic and at times fierce vocal, the Andy Partridge channels Syd Barrett of "My Love Explodes" features some downright explosive psych slide guitar), but for the most part, I find the pieces tend to drag on a bit too long ("What in the World??...", "The Mole From the Ministry", although the chorus is downright brilliant, the verses I can't digest), but then again, I've made the same complaints about much of the music from the era this is inspired from, so I suppose it's not a huge surprise.

"Psonic Psunspot" is a little bit different-- the band drops a lot of the mellotron and backwards guitars and the like and instead opens up to cover a wider range of '60s pop. At it's best, the craft of the pop song shines brightly through-- opener "Vanishing Girl" blends acoustic and cleantone electric guitars and uses an angular vocal style sweetened with fantastic three part harmonies to allow one of Colin Moulding's great pop hooks to really shine and "Brainiac's Daughter" likewise ends up being one of Andy Partridge's finest pop moments, providing a lilting piano melody and a chance for Partridge to show off his upper register. But perhaps closer "Pale and Precious" is most attention-getting-- coming off like a muddling tempo "Good Vibrations" (complete with theramin), Partridge's delicate melody comes to a head in a chorus of soaring vocal harmonies that's one of the great homages to Brian Wilson. And while "Psonic Psunspot" has its share of pieces that aren't my style (particularly the grating "Collideascope"), I find it as a piece it's a lot of fun and well worth a listen.

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