'Historical'-era Pere Ubu Albums

Jon Savage, Sounds, 2/11/78
Uh-oh, this is getting frustrating, trying to tell you how good this is-- black and white is an inadequate substitute for the impact heard... This is a brilliant debut. Granted it lacks the superficial accessibility of lesser works, but this time around the aroma lingers. This is built to last! Ubu's world is rarely comfortable, full of the space beyond the electric light and what it does to people, but always direct and unwavering. And courageous.

Ian Birch, Melody Maker, 3/18/78
It's a devastating debut...this album has struck me with a vengeance. Because it delivers such a powerful, complex and open-ended punch, it's almost impossible at such an early stage to explain why or how in full detail.

David Stubbs, Uncut, August 2006 - 5 Stars
Announced by the siren squeal of Allen Ravenstine's analogue synth which launches "Non-Alignment Pact," The Modern Dance is a product of Cleveland, the living model of punk's post-industrial wasteland. Yet this is a far more cerebral, imperishable proposition than a mere local cry of urban discontent. The Eraserhead-style sad-clown personna of singer David Thomas, Tom Herman's nerve-shredding slide guitars and Ravenstine's abstract electronics combine to form a rock music as visceral and essential as The Stooges, yet which reaches parts of the brain untouched by their peers, predecessors or successors... An album that's only gRest of Worldn more awesome with age.

#63 of 100 Most Influential Debut Albums, Uncut #111, August 2006.

#82 of 100 best pop/rock albums of all time, "Yediot acharonot," Israeli newspaper.

Produced by Pere Ubu & Ken Hamann.
Assistant engineers: Paul Hamann & Mike Bishop.
Recorded at Cleveland Recording and Suma (Painesville OH), 1976-1977.
Original artwork designed by S.W. Taylor from an idea by David Thomas.
Photo by Mik Mellen.

* - Digital transfer and eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994.
Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

+ - Remixed in 5.1 surround sound by Chris Haynes, Silverline Studios, Los Angeles CA, June 15-17 2005. Digital transfer by Suma. David Thomas and Paul Hamann remastered the original stereo album mix in DVD audio format (96khz/24 bit) and in "standard" cd audio (44.1khz/16 bit) at Suma, August 16 2005.

The DualDisc format is two-sided. One side is a DVD featuring a 5.1 surround sound remix of the entire album, a 30 minute interview with David Thomas, as well as a new mastering of the original stereo album mix at DVD audio quality (96khz/24 bit). The other side of the disk is a cd audio format of the new mastering of the original stereo album (44khz/16 bit) playable on standard audio cd players. Silverline Records are distirbuted by Essential Music UK.

Release History
Radar Records RDR1
  (UK) April 1978 12" vinyl ep.
  (New Zealand) October 1978 12" vinyl ep.

Jon Savage, Melody Maker, 11/4/78
A week is a month and you could be forgiven for thinking that the times would catch up with Pere Ubu (and overtake them) as they do so many others... Here, on their second album, Pere Ubu outflank and transcend these pressures. Not gratuitously but through the breadth and consistency of their vision. (I think I like it.) At very first, "Dub Housing" appears harsh, impenetrable and repellent... it seems to be working on some hidden internal logic, from some parallel (and disquieting) universe. On subsequent listens, the "logic," if indeed the tapping of the subconscious and intuition can be called "logic," becomes clearer; the album remains baffling, infuriating, haunting, menacing and ferociously funny... As in "The Modern Dance," they stomp all over "rock n roll's" accepted language and then create, with fire and discipline, one of their own...This album will last.

New Musical Express
Considered in a reasonably recent rock stream, it [Dub Housing] is more aggressively "symphonic" than Henry Cow (deep), but more sympathetically alienated or alienating than The Sex Pistols (shallow). Conventional avant garde music can sometimes be too wrapped up in educated guesswork. Pere Ubu play within terms of a possible resolution, but not into one. People are annoyed by Ubu's accessibility. Or ashamed!

Sounds
But please, please, try and keep that 'difficult' myth well away if, as a result, you'll skip by this frequently beautiful, always highly listenable disc when it appears in the local racks. Because it seems to me there's no mystification like Ubu mystification...'Dub Housing'-- a triumphant addition to an already stunning body of work, more subtly cohesive than almost everything that's gone before. I don't think I've heard more exciting sounds all year.

What's On, 10/11/99
When they write their lists of the great under-rated bands of the 20th century, Pere Ubu will surely be up there... These re-releases [Dub Housing & New Picnic Time] showcase a brilliant band breaking every rule of aesthetics.

Alternative Press (10/99, pp.105-6)
"Ubu were some of the most danceable freaks in all of post-punk America...if David Thomas' caterwaul and Allen Ravenstine's mind-altering keyboard riffs don't get you leaping around...you're not really alive and you never were."

Produced by Pere Ubu & Ken Hamann.

Engineered by Ken Hamann.
Recorded and mixed at Suma in 1978 on July 31, Aug 1, Aug 7-10, Aug 28-31, Sep 4-7, Sep 14-15, Sep 17-20, and Sep 22 and 24.
Portions of Thriller! were recorded at the Discohome, Bellfield Rd, Cleveland Hts, OH.

Original lp mastered at Air Studios, London. Original artwork designed by John Thompson. Photos by Mik Mellen. Digital transfer & eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994. Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

Release History
Chrysalis Records:
  CHR 1207 (UK) Nov 1978 lp mc.
  CHR 1207 (US) April 1979 lp.
Chrysalis/Phonogram 6307 646 (France) lp.
Rough Trade Records:
  Rough Benelux RB1 (NL) 1985 lp.
  Rough CD 6002 (UK) 1989 cd.
  Rough US 14 (US) 1989 cd.
Thirsty Ear Records thi 57069.2 (US) 6/22/99 cd.
Get Back Records:
  GET 58 (Italy) 4/99 vinyl lp (180g).
  GET 90058 ??/04 red-vinyl lp (140g) "lo-cost" logo on sleeve.
Base Record (Italy) vinyl lp.

Band:
David Thomas - vocals, Ace-Tone organ, percussion, musette
Tom Herman - guitar, bass, backing vocals
Tony Maimone - bass, guitar, piano, organ, backing vocals
Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers, sax
Scott Krauss - drums, organ, percussion

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Dave McCullough, Sounds, 9/15/79
Yes, I like what I hear very much. It's a drunken, wanton, wilful sounding album with a spine as elastic and as totally absorbing as Beefheart...exhilarating, funny, somehow very vital music.

John Orme, Melody Maker, 9/8/79
They don't ask to be loved, but they do invite it. Whichever, they are open to instant embrace or rejection. Their music doesn't float on calm waters: it submerges, spurts, takes rapids, often half-dRest of Worldns on its back...Having fallen in a big way for the last Ubu album, I approached "New Picnic Time" with much suspicion, and almost half the album merits such temerity as the band overbalances into a world of half-formed ideas that lack the strength to carry their intent. For the rest, Ubu have developed a wider maturity in scope, feeling and atmosphere, and I can only praise them for it. Don't forget to laugh.

Scott Laurence, Herald-American, 7/5/99
Weird. Weird and wonderful. Weird, wonderful and so far beyond the expected that these deconstructions of popular music [Dub Housing & New Picnic Time] are as charmingly retro as the Beatles and as modern as today's blendings of funk, hip-hop and alt-rock. Revolutionary and demented yet full of fun, Pere Ubu are indispensible to any collection of 20th century rock... "New Picnic Time" spins wildly out of control, even for Pere Ubu, and resulted in frightening away Chrysalis, their record company at the time.

Alternative Press, 10/99, pp.105-6
"A moodier, artsier record, with more experimental tracks...and less outright boogaloo madness. It's still vital to continued spiritual health, though..."

Produced by Pere Ubu & Ken Hamann.

Engineered by Ken & Paul Hamann. Recorded & mixed May 21-30 and June 4-28 1979 at Suma. Original lp mastered at Sterling Sound, New York City, under the supervision of Ken Hamann & Scott Krauss.

Original artwork designed by John Thompson. Photos by Mik Mellen. Digital transfer & eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994. Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

Release History
Chrysalis Records CHR 1248 (UK) Sep 1979 lp.
Chrysalis/Phonogram 6307 678 (Germany) lp.
Rough Trade Records:
  Rough Benelux RB2 (NL) 1985 lp.
  Rough CD 6003 (UK) 1989 cd.
  Rough CD US 20 (US) cd.
Get Back Records:
  GET 59 (Italy) 4/99 vinyl lp (180g).
  GET 90059 ??/04 red-vinyl lp (140g) "lo-cost" logo on sleeve.
Thirsty Ear Records thi 57070.2 (US) 6/22/99 cd.

Band:
David Thomas - vocals, wood-flute
Tom Herman - guitar, bass, pan-gong, bkng vox
Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers, piano, dice
Tony Maimone - bass, guitar, piano, organ, bk vox
Scott Krauss - drums, percussion

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Chris Cutler
Ubu are moving even further from the conventions of rock music -- and from their own past-- but still moving forward, without a doubt, and losing none of their integrity as a group. Much of the music operates like a loose-bound net, where apparently hardly connected parts can co-exist, somehow still adding up at the end to an irreducible whole... this is a record of unique beauty-- a beauty marked by truth and thus also tragic and sometimes painful.

Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 8/30/80
It is obvious that (the history of) Pere Ubu should not be thought of in terms of a linear development-- reducing its entire operation and presence to an exclusive concern for 'working and succeeding in' rock and roll. Unfortunately, most criticism-- of Pere Ubu, of many other folks-- assumes that words have one meaning, that desires point in a single direction, that ideas are logical; it ignores the fact that the world of language, noise and desire is one of lack, insecurity, interruption, struggle, blundering, disguises, ploys, embarrassed grins.

Dave McCullough, Sounds, 8/30/80
So, things being as they are, we're supposed to keep our eyes firmly closed (lest they reveal the relative dirgeness of all else) when a record as exciting and as funnily subversive as 'The Art of Walking' comes around...If [it] is difficult then I'm much much cleverer than I thought, and every other 'successful' music I've heard this year in comparison must be roughly equivalent to sticking your thumb in your mouth and sucking long and hard... The only way [it] isn't a record full of much excitement, fun and compelling interest is if you don't want it to be so.

Time Out
"These re-releases [AOW & SOBM] showcase a brilliant band breaking every rule of aesthetics... and sounding all the more exciting for it."

Produced by Pere Ubu & Paul Hamann.

Engineered by Paul Hamann. Recorded & mixed January 1980 at Suma. Artwork by John Thompson. Photos by Mik Mellen.

Digital transfer and eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994.

Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

NB. Two versions of the album were released. See the Bug Report. The 1994 digital remastering restores the album to its "original" conception. It includes the instrumental "Arabia," a longer, rambling "Young Miles In The Basement" and the jews harp verses to "Misery Goats." The vocal "Arabian Nights" is added at the end as an extra.

Release History
Rough Trade Records:
  Rough 14 (UK) June or August 1980 lp.
  Rough US 4 (US) 1980 lp.
  Rough CD 14 (UK) 1989 cd.
  Rough US 4 (US) 1989 cd.
Base Records Rough 14 Y5 1980 vinyl.
Rough Trade / Japan Records RTL-4 lp (1981).
Rough Trade/Barclay Records 200171 (France) lp & mc.
Thirsty Ear Records THI 57079.2 (US) 11/16/99 cd.
Get Back Records:
  GET 81 (Italy) ??/01 vinyl lp (180g).
  GET 90081 ??/?? red-vinyl lp (140g) "lo-cost" logo on sleeve.

Band:
David Thomas - vocals, Vox Continental Baroque organ, drums ("Lost In Art")
Mayo Thompson - guitar, piano, backing vocals, lead vocal: "Loop" & "Horses"
Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers
Tony Maimone - bass, piano, organ
Scott Krauss - drums, horn, piano, drum machine

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Tapes transcribed by Paul Hamann at Suma.
Artwork by David Thomas.
Photo by Mik Mellen.

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David Fricke, Melody Maker(?)
"Song of the Bailing Man" is an inspired, invigorating, confounding, disturbing... yeah, one hell of a swinging way to go. Still the futility Ubu must have felt making far sighted music in a chronically near-sighted world is pressed hard into these grooves.

Time Out
"These re-releases [AOW & SOBM] showcase a brilliant band breaking every rule of aesthetics... and sounding all the more exciting for it."

Alternative Press, 4/00, pp.95-6
"Continues the downbeat trend, with even its more rocking tracks...suffused with melancholy confusion....This disc is an essential purchase, but they're definitely not dancefloor or party fodder."

The Wire, 4/00, p.63
"Swathed in layers of reverb-as-sugarcoating and [drummer, Anton] Fier's backbeats ensure that every song here moves several bpm faster than anything else in [their] catalog....easily Ubu's most accessible material."

Produced by Adam Kidron.

Engineered by Paul Hamann. Recorded & mixed in August & December 1981, and January 1982 at Suma. Trumpet overdubs recorded in London. Mastered March 1982. Eddie "Tan Tan" Thornton played trumpet.

Artwork designed by David Thomas. Photos by Mik Mellen.

Digital transfer and eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994. Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

Release History
Rough Trade Records:
  Rough 33 (UK) 1982 lp.
  Rough US 21 (US) June 1982 lp.
  Rough CD 33 (UK) 1989 cd.
  Rough US 21 (US) 1989 cd.
Thirsty Ear Records THI 57080.2 (US) 11/16/99 cd.
Get Back Records:
  GET 90 (Italy) ??/02 vinyl lp (180g).

Band:
David Thomas - vocals
Mayo Thompson - guitar
Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers
Tony Maimone - bass
Anton Fier - drums, piano, marimba, percussion

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Andy Gill, NME, 11/30/85
Yet by 1978 they had achieved what no other group would even attempt, before or since, they had become the world's only expressionist Rock `n` Roll band, harnessing a range of rock and musique concrete elements together in a sound which drew its power from, and worked on, levels of consciousness previously untouched by popular music. The music Ubu made in 1978 was heart and soul, body and mind, in one.

Paul Mathur, Melody Maker, 11/30/85
I have an idea that, when the final card is dealt and the last chip hurled into the centre, Pere Ubu will be looked back on as the most important group to have come out of America in the last decade and a half. Either that or they will be entirely forgotten...Some of the greatest moments from the constantly reshaping line-up are certainly pinned down here, and it's only when they ARE paraded next to one another that you realise just how widely influential Ubu have been...this is darned near to being the most important record you'll buy all year.

Digital transfer and eq by David Thomas & Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994. Original artwork & photos by Mik Mellen. Reissue package designed by John Thompson.

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Reissue edit and mastering by David Thomas at Suma with Paul Hamann engineering.
Re-packaging by John Thompson / idrome.
Original artwork by John Thompson.
Photos by Kathy Ward and John Thompson.

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