XTC as the Dukes of Stratosphear: 25 O'Clock (200g) [APE HOUSE]

Why you'll love it

This Ape House reissue is pressed on 200g vinyl in England and housed in a gatefold sleeve. In the UK the Dukes' records outsold XTC's own albums of the time, and "My Love Explodes" and "The Mole from the Ministry" are pitch-perfect 1967 tributes.

This edition

• 200g vinyl
• Gatefold jacket
• Pressed in England
• Stereo mix

About the album

Every band has a secret wish to be somebody else for a week. In December 1984 XTC got their chance, slipping into Chapel Lane Studios in Hereford with producer John Leckie and a new identity: the Dukes of Stratosphear, a mysterious act that Virgin was happy to keep mysterious.

Andy Partridge imagined the Dukes as all your favourite bands from 1967 rolled into one, and three rules applied: songs had to follow the conventions of 1967 and 1968 psychedelia, no more than two takes were allowed, and vintage gear was used wherever possible. Partridge wrote as Sir John Johns and Colin Moulding as The Red Curtain, contributing "What in the World??..." The title track swirls, "Bike Ride to the Moon" is a sweet psychedelic daydream, and "Your Gold Dress" gets heavy and hazy. "The Mole from the Ministry" closes with a fine, slightly sinister nod to late-60s studio trickery.

The Dukes went on to inspire the retro-minded Paisley Underground and returned for one more album, Psonic Psunspot. XTC later explained the band's absence by saying they had perished in a horrible sherbet accident, which remains the most British way any group has ever bowed out.

Also at Kops: more XTC on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Ape House (cat# APELP023), a reissue of the 1985 EP.