having been pointed in the direction of this new album by several well respected people, i eventually succumbed once i heard the mad opening track, the mischief of cloud six, on the radio.
as prior to hearing this revelation in genre stretching pop, i was one of those people who just lumped the band in with their previous one hit status.
you know the score, this is the band that had a track of theirs soundtrack a levis jeans advert, so naturally everything they release is surely no longer worthy of anybodies attention ?
unmitigated rubbish, and an opinion for which i can but apologise.
you see, for this 3rd album, the well connected finnish duo ( i’m sure one of them moonlights as a journo for a website here and there), along with a whole host of guest appearances, threw away their well trodden samplers, and set forth to scour the planet, and a few others i suspect, for old original studio equipment that allowed them to recreate mind altering sounds and styles long assigned to the late night playlist of radio 2.
so gone are the tired loops and samples, and in comes 60s psychedelic pop, 70s prog excess, sky reaching melodies, and a myriad of surreal weirdness that only the brilliant alterego of xtc, the dukes of stratosphere, would be able to fathom out.
basically in the space of 10 tracks the listener is taken on a wonderful and yet very listenable journey through space and time, revisiting the twisted psych pop of pink floyd, (syds era of course), nuggets styled garage beat pop, the drawn out meanderings of the moody blues, off the wall lounge music, and so much more besides, with even a nod towards the most 70s of all bands, led zeppelin in the hammond organ and guitar chaos that is go for blue.
the result is a funny, mad, and a truly wonderful album that will have you hitting the replay button far more than you ever expected.
oh and for more fun(k), the sleeve art totally makes the real world version essential as opposed to getting this via any mp3 options.
more detail : here