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Stratosphearic Box Set

Posted Jan 15, 2010 by Clarisa Gerlach

Updated Jan 15, 2010 at 10:25 PM

The Dukes of Stratosphear was XTC’s psychedelic alter ego, a tribute to the acid-drenched sounds the band mates grew up with in the ‘60s.

XTC dove in head-first, with no sonic excess spared across a 1985 EP, “25 O’Clock” and a full-length album, 1987’s “Psonic Psunspot.”

The influences – Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd, “Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake,” The Hollies, Tomorrow, The Move et. al. – are obvious, and XTC’s tongues may have been in cheek, but the music was no less lovingly rendered for all that.

Combined since 1987 onto a single CD (“Chips From the Chocolate Fireball”), the two discs are now available individually again, with their original cover art restored (“25 O’Clock” sports a cover to make Cream’s “Disraeli Gears” look like “The White Album”) and filled out with bonus tracks.

In keeping with the music’s taste for excess, a box set, “The Complete and Utter Dukes,” was released late last year. It contains the two CDs as well as 180-gram vinyl copies of both discs in gatefold sleeves.

In addition, the box includes a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, a seven-inch single, and five Dukes pound notes, redeemable for a T-shirt.

For more information, visit XTC chieftain Andy Partridge’s Web site, http://www.ape.uk.net