'Historical'-era Pere Ubu Albums |
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Our motto: Ars longa, spectatores fugaces ("Art is forever, the audience comes & goes.")
The Modern Dance • Datapanik In The Year Zero (EP) • Dub Housing • New Picnic Time • The Art of Walking • 390° of Simulated Stereo • Song of The Bailing Man • Terminal Tower • One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams • Datapanik In The Year Zero (Box Set)
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The Modern Dance
(Jan 1978) Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann. Cooking Vinyl Cook CD 141 (UK) Jul 2008 cd. 2005 Master. Ubutique stocks it for $12. Geffen Records (US) Jun 1998 cd. 1994 Master. Bomba Records BOM812 (Japan) 6/28/98 cd. 1994 Master. RTI Records CKV 2114 2 (Italy) cd. 1994 Master. Silverline Records 284402-2 (UK) 7/31/6 DualDisc DVD. 5.1 Master. |
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 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 gotten more awesome with age. |
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Lyrics • FAQ • The Annotated Modern Dance
Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann.
NB. A pressing plant error meant that old artwork was used to package the one pressing run of the 2005 Master. In these cases there's a sticker on the front identifying it as the 2005 Master and the cd label is black and white with an Avant Garage logo.
1994 Master: Digital transfer at 44.1khz/20-bit and eq by David Thomas and Paul Hamann at Suma in 1994. 5.1 Master: This release was 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 2005 mastering of the original album 2-track mix tape at DVD audio quality (96khz/24-bit). The other side of the disk is a cd audio format of the 2005 mastering of the original album at 44khz/16-bit playable on standard audio cd players. Silverline Records are distirbuted by Essential Music UK.
David Thomas, who attended the surround sound remix session by Chris Haynes, reports: "This is the way we heard The Modern Dance in the studio... no, it's better than that, it's the way we heard it when we were playing it. The detailing is fantastic. The space reveals everything while still retaining the album's intensity and original intention. And the best thing is, if you want to hear something louder or quieter you just move your head a foot. Everything is there!" Nonalignment Pact and Modern Dance
Recorded January 1977 at Cleveland Recording and engineered by Ken Hamann. Modern Dance is a remix of the Hearpen 45 side.
Street Waves
Recorded and mixed October 1976 at Cleveland Recording engineered by Ken Hamann. It is a remix of the Hearpen 45 side.
Laughing, Chinese Radiation, Life Stinks, Real World, Over My Head, Sentimental Journey and Humor Me
Recorded and mixed November 1977 at Suma, engineered by Ken Hamann.
Songs written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Thomas - Ravenstine, except "Life Stinks" written by Laughner.
©1978 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada. ©1978 EMI Music in Rest of World. Pere Ubu (v.3.0): David Thomas - vocals, musette, percussion Tom Herman - guitar, backing vocals Allen Ravenstine - EML 101 & 200 analog synthesizers, sax, tapes Tony Maimone - bass, piano, backing vocals Scott Krauss - drums
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Datapanik In The Year Zero
(April 1978) Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann. Out of print. These songs were reissued on Terminal Tower. |
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Artwork by John Thompson. Photos by Mik Mellen. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo and Heart of Darkness
Pere Ubu (v.1.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Peter Laughner, Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
Cloud 149
Originally released as Hearthan Records HR101 in the USA, 1975. The ending to Heart of Darkness is faded early on the Radar Records release. Engineered by Bill Cavanaugh at Audio Recording. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo written by Thomas - Laughner - O'Connor. Heart of Darkness written by Herman - Laughner - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1975 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in US/Canada, and EMI Music in the Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.1.1): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Peter Laughner, Dave Taylor, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
Untitled
Originally released on the b side to Final Solution as Hearpen Records HR102 in the USA, March 1976. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Cloud 149 written by Herman - Krauss - Laughner - Taylor - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1976 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.2.0): Alan Greenblatt, Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
Heaven
Originally released on Datapanik In The Year Zero (Radar Records RDR1) in the UK, April 1978. Engineered by Mike Bishop at Cleveland Recording in June 1976. Written by Herman - Krauss - Ravenstine - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1976 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.3.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine and David Thomas.
Originally released as the b side to Modern Dance on Hearpen Records HR104 in the USA, August 1977. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas. Published ©1977 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
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Dub Housing
(Nov 11 1978) Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann. Cooking Vinyl COOK CD170 11/17/08 cd. 2008 Master.
Ubutique stocks the 2008 Master of the Cooking Vinyl cd: $12.
Audio download available from hearpen.com. |
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! Artrocker, December 2008 Ancient modernism... A telescope into the future. And we're still not there, thirty years later. |
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Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann.
Original lp mastered at Air Studios, London.
©1978 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada. ©1978 EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.3.2):
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New Picnic Time
(Sept. 1979) Produced by Pere Ubu and Ken Hamann. Cooking Vinyl COOK CD171 3/22/99 cd.
Ubutique stocks the 1994 Cooking Vinyl cd for $11.
Bomba BOM817 (Japan) 12/20/98 cd. RTI Records CKV 2154 2 (Italy) cd. Get Back Records GET59 (Italy) lp. |
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 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. |
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Bug Report • Lyrics 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. Songs written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Thomas - Ravenstine.©1979 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada. ©1979 EMI Music in Rest of World. The words to "Voice of The Sand" were taken from a song by Vachel Lindsay.
Pere Ubu (v.3.2):
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The Art Of Walking
(Jun. 1980) Produced by Pere Ubu and Paul Hamann. Cooking Vinyl COOK CD157 (UK) 3/2010 cd. Director's Cut. 2008 Master.
Ubutique stocks the cd for $11.
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Chris Cutler, Melody Maker, 1980
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. |
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Bug Report • Lyrics • Press release Produced by Pere Ubu and Paul Hamann.
Engineered by Paul Hamann.
2008 Master: Digital Transfer at 192hz/24-bit and eq by Paul Hamann at Suma in 2008. For more detail click here. Cds from this Master are identified with the words "2008 Master" on the tray card in the lower left. This is the most "fluid" record in Ubu history. The Director's Cut contains all the variants as extras. For the whole byzantine story click here. Songs written by Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas - Thompson, except "Horses" written by Thompson.©1980 Bug Music / Copyright Control in US/Canada, except "Horses" which is Copyright Control. ©1980 EMI Music in Rest of World, except "Horses" which is Copyright Control.
Pere Ubu (v.4.0):
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390 Degrees Of Simulated Stereo
Out of print. Available only as an audio download from hearpen.com. |
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The Bootleg Sound
Tapes transcribed by Paul Hamann at Suma.
Recorded Dec 5 and 6 1978 by a 24-track mobile truck at the London College of Printing. Soundman was Paul Hamann.
Street Waves
Recorded May 5 1978 by Radio Crocodile at Theatre 140, Brussels, Belgium.
Real World and My Dark Ages
Recorded Feb 18 1978 on a reel-to-reel tape machine at Disasto 2, WHK Auditorium, Cleveland. Soundman was Pat Ryan.
Modern Dance
Recorded Mar 2 1979 on a cassette recorder at the 1st International Garage Exhibition, Cleveland State University. The event was the origin of the "Avant Garage."
Humor Me
Recorded Oct 14 1977 on one channel of a reel-to-reel tape machine at the Ubu rehearsal loft, West 6th Street, Cleveland OH. This is an early version of the song with largely mumbled phonetics for lyrics.
Can't Believe It, Over My Head and Sentimental Journey
Recorded April or May 1976 on a cassette recorder at The Mistake, Cleveland, Ohio. Currently only available via The Shape Of Things.
30 Seconds Over Tokyo
Recorded August 4 1977 on a reel-to-reel tape machine at The Pirate's Cove. Soundman was Pat Ryan.
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Lyrics • Press release
Produced by Adam Kidron.
Pere Ubu (v.4.1):
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Bug Report • Lyrics
The album collects the Hearpen singles from 1975 to 1977, the rarity "Untitled", the Chrysalis B-sides, and the Rough Trade single. There are some quality issues with Rough Trade and Twin Tone releases. See The Bug Report.
Pere Ubu (v.1.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Peter Laughner, Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
Final Solution and Cloud 149
Originally released as Hearthan Records HR101 in the USA, 1975. Engineered by Bill Cavanaugh at Audio Recording. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo written by Thomas - Laughner - O'Connor. Heart of Darkness written by Herman - Laughner - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1975 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in US/Canada, and EMI Music in the Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.1.1): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Peter Laughner, Dave Taylor, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
Untitled
Originally released as Hearpen Records HR102 in the USA, March 1976. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Final Solution written by Bell - Herman - Krauss - Laughner - Taylor - Thomas - Wright. Cloud 149 written by Herman - Krauss - Laughner - Taylor - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1976 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.2.0): Alan Greenblatt, Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas and Tim Wright.
My Dark Ages
Originally released on Datapanik In The Year Zero (Radar Records RDR1) in the UK, April 1978. Engineered by Mike Bishop at Cleveland Recording in June 1976. Written by Herman - Krauss - Ravenstine - Thomas - Wright. Published ©1976 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.3.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine and David Thomas.
Heaven
Originally released as the b side to Street Waves on Hearpen Records HR103 in the USA, 1976. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas. Published ©1976 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.3.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine and David Thomas.
Humor Me and The Book Is On The Table
Originally released as the b side to Modern Dance on Hearpen Records HR104 in the USA, August 1977. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas. Published ©1977 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.3.0): Tom Herman, Scott Krauss, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine and David Thomas.
Not Happy and Lonesome Cowboy Dave
Originally released as the b side to The Fabulous Sequel on Chrysalis Records CHS2372 in the UK, October 1979. Engineered by Ken Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Humor Me recorded December 5 1978 in concert at London College of Printing, London. Written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas. Published ©1979 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada, and EMI Music in Rest of World.
Pere Ubu (v.4.0): Scott Krauss, Tony Maimone, Allen Ravenstine, David Thomas and Mayo Thompson.
Originally released as Rough Trade Records RT066 in the UK, Feb '81. Engineered by Paul Hamann at Cleveland Recording. Mixed by Adam Kidron, Geoff Travis and Mayo Thompson in London.
NB. The 1985 release on Rough Trade and Twin Tone substituted the hitherto unreleased Suma mixes of these tracks by David Thomas.
Written by Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas - Thompson.
Published ©1980 Bug Music/Copyright Control 1980 in USA/Canada, and EMI Music 1980 in Rest of World.
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One Man Drives While The Other Man Screams
(1989) Hearpen HR117 4/5/04 cd.
Ubutique stocks the cd at $11.
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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. Navvy, Street Waves, Heaven, On The Surface, Dub Housing and Caligari's Mirror
Recorded November 28 1978 at The Electric Ballroom, London. The recording was made by a cassette recorder with a direct line from the mixing desk. The soundman was Paul Hamann. The band was David Thomas, Tom Herman, Allen Ravenstine, Tony Maimone and Scott Krauss.
Small Was Fast, Misery Goats, Go, Ubu Dance Party and Birdies
Recorded 4-track July 1980 at The Mistake, Cleveland, by Mike Bishop. They were mixed by Paul Hamann at Suma. The soundman was Paul Hamann. The band was David Thomas, Mayo Thompson, Allen Ravenstine, Tony Maimone and Scott Krauss.
Rhapsody In Pink and Codex
Recorded March 1981 on a cassette recorder with a direct line from the mixing desk at the University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. The band was David Thomas, Mayo Thompson, Allen Ravenstine, Tony Maimone and Scott Krauss.
Navvy, Street Waves, Heaven, On The Surface, Dub Housing, Caligari's Mirror, Small Was Fast, Ubu Dance Party and Codex written by Herman - Krauss - Maimone - Thomas - Ravenstine.
©1978 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music in USA/Canada. ©1978 EMI Music in Rest of World. Go, Misery Goats, Birdies and Rhapsody In Pink written by Krauss - Maimone - Ravenstine - Thomas - Thompson. ©1980 Ubu Projex, administered by Bug Music / Music Language in US/Canada. ©1980 EMI Music in Rest of World.
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