Review - Happy Heroes

"Happy Heroes" wraps a series of cut-and-paste sonic segments around loosely unifying themes of advertising and commercialism. In terms of context, this disconcerting mix of fiction, sound collage and music is closest in spirit to Negativland's seminal avant-prankster recording, "Escape From Noise."

The title track is a five-minute discourse on stardom, dripping with spiky thorns of irony and set to the sort of music your cousins play at family reunions. Recurring character Eddie Idle's pitch for the "Black Hole Tube" is also worthy of mention, as is "Chicken Diction," in which Colonel Sanders -- sounding like he has had too many secret spices -- hilariously and incompetently attempts to hype his Kentucky Fried Chicken.

"Happy Heroes" is a heaping helping of brain food digestible in less than half an hour.