Dukes of Stratosphear (contd.) Psonic Psunspot |Twilightzone

The Dukes Of Stratosphear "Psonic Psunspot" 1985

"On Psonic Psunspot the Dukes took it a little bit further. They tell stories about Jackie that disappeared, many open questions, no Answers, and everything in colourful pictures of the 60s. (...) ... also a musical discovery even today." (Good Times, February / March 2020)

What can follow a masterpiece like Skylarking? Well, at a distance, the answer would be two albums that were just as good: Oranges & Lemons and Nonsuch. But in the wake of Skylarking, an album that developed very slowly from a commercial point of view and culminated many months after the original release, XTC retreated to their alter egos, not as masked criminal street fighters in the main streets of Swindon, but as psychobilly followers who echoed the spirit of 67 with Psonic Psunspot, with 10 perfectly formed songs, culminating in "Pale and Precious", one of the best songs of the decade. - jpc

Performer: E.I.E.I. Owen, Lord Cornelius Plum, Sir John Johns, The Red Curtain (you know who they are!?)

01 Vanishing Girl 

02 Have You Seen Jackie? 

03 Little Lighthouse 

04 You're Good Man Albert Brown (curse you red barrel) 

05 Collideascope 

06 You're My Drug 

07 Shiny Cage 

08 Braniacs Daughter 

09 The Affiliadet 

10 Pale And Precious

XTC | THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR “25 O’Clock” 1985 | TWILIGHTZONE

The Dukes Of Stratosphear "25 o'Clock" 1985

“When I was a kid I wanted to be in a group, and that group are The Dukes.” 

- Andy Partridge, Swindon. December 1987.

If you are a fan of psychedelic rock then this album is a must have. A very rare find on record, it is worth every second of your time to obtain a copy. I picked up this album sifting through a stack of LP's in an auto bodyshop. Having never heard of the Dukes of Stratosphere and feeling skeptical of the 1985 release date, I finally decided that it was worth the 50 cents to buy out of pure intrigue. (Not to mention the fantastic album art.) So I took it home and gave it a spin. After 30 seconds I was blown away. Opening with the title track,"25 O'Clock", the album blasts off immediately and takes you back to 1967. "Love Explosion" and "Mole from the Ministry" are two more of the six far-out tracks on this oddity of an album. Influenced strongly by late Beatles and very early Pink Floyd, XTC wrote the best music of their careers under the top secret alias, Dukes of Stratosphere. If only more musicians droped acid instead of blowing all of that coke in the 80's; then maybe we wouldn't have all of these Yuppies running about today.
These is a real fun album doing a good impression of psychadelia in rocky/poppy late 1980's sort of way. It is actually XTC behind this. I had it on tape when it came out because I was a huge XTC fan. It was actually a really nice surprise because it is very different from XTC's normal output at the time - which was good too. C McGuigan

Dukes:
Sir John Johns (Andy Partridge), Red Curtain (Colin Moulding), Lord Cornelius Plum (David Gregory), and E.I.E.I. Owen (Ian Gregory).

Twilight Zone

Sound of The Day - Swindon Psychedelia! - DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR : Vanishing Girl

 THE DUKES OF STRATOSPHEAR - VANISHING GIRL

or the alter egos of XTC as they were/are known!