The Modern Dance

Weird AF. Some of it is really good. The rest is complete suck. If it wasn’t so screechy I would rate it higher.

My initial thoughts on this one a few tracks in were a bit subsided as the album moved along, but overall I thought this was too bland for the ambition it was attempting. I wanted a bit more dynamics to flesh out what I feel like the band was trying to achieve. Maybe it was intentional. The vocals were mixed wonderfully, which made the whole experience even more off putting given the less-than-stellar production everywhere else. There aren't too many memorable tracks here either, and when a good chunk of the 36-minute runtime is taken by sound effects and in-betweener songs, you need to have something with more sticking power.

An angular album uncompromising in its abstract chaos and unquestionable in its importance for the development of post punk and art rock.

Was waiting to hear this one... I love On the Surface and knew this was their classic. Love this weirdos, solid 4

I always associated this band with a pretentious hipster douche that I knew. This was one of his "you just wouldn't get it. It's just too intelligent for people who aren't me" bands. Well "HA!" because I do dig this. It isn't as deep as ass hat claimed it to be, but it definitely isn't going for the mainstream. I liked it but I didn't want to because of the association. I also hate that band name; it enrages me for no reason. I'm still slappin' a 4 on it

At times Devo like.

Experimental rock. Some very dissonant sirens and horns throughout. Our dogs hated it.

Had not heard of this band before, and I don't think I'd heard any of their music before, either. It's quite wild and rough at times and it seems to me that's exactly what they meant to do. The bass and drums are great. Guitar is solid, too, and interesting. I get that vocally they were trying to be outlandish, or something like that, and I can appreciate what they were going for, but as a listener, it's not my thing. Overall, though, quite good.

Ah the streak of the bottom of the barrel continues. Feels like I'm making up for lost time. The other Pere Ubu album was my first 1 star and compared to that one, this is certainly better, but that's really not saying a whole bunch. Like this piece of shit is less smelly than another piece of shit. Still absolute garbage.

Artist not available to stream on Spotify, but songs I was able to locate on Youtube are quite good

Well this was the weirdest album ever. Weird is usually good - but not always.

Really interesting. Really cool. I had no idea what to expect from this and was pleasantly surprised when this turned out to be a rowdy, avant-garde take on punk. I will listen to more from this band.

Inventive and progressive sounding art punk. 7.5/10

3

I mean, there are moments here that I totally get what the band and singer are going for. But at the same time, the band feels like it's venturing close into Beefheart territory. It feels more like if Colin Hay was trying to sing The Shaggs. Are they brilliant? Or just brilliantly terrible? I'm veering more the second camp, although there was a track or two I liked, like "Real World." Still, not enough for me to recommend.

Not a great start to the album - that piercing squeal to kick off Non-Alignment Pact is excruciating. The rest of the song wasn't bad though - kind of a fun, rocking beat. The album is a bit strange, but on first listen I'd say I didn't get to another song where there were unbearable noises (Thomas' singing and his oboe?) until song 6 and Life Stinks. But the very next song Real World also started with some annoying music and/or noises and unlike the first song it didn't really get better. Sentimental Journey was downright awful. There were moments where I was reminded of the Talking Heads or Pixies, but not quite measuring up. I was intrigued and conflicted enough to give it a second listen, mainly to see if I could justify giving the album a 3. I couldn't quite get there.

I had a tough time choosing between a 1 and a 2 for this album. For me, a 1 is "absolutely no redeeming value, I hope to never hear this album again." A 2 is "I dislike a lot of it, but there's some redeeming value." Pere Ubu managed to kill almost every song with awful sounds - piercing shrieking noises, bizarre instruments, etc. Sadly, without that crap I think I would have liked this album. Most of the underlying songs sound good. David Thomas's singing is interesting and both he and the band are clearly a pre-cursor of the Pixies, 10 years in advance. But the sounds are such a killer that I'm not sure I can give it a 2. Is it enough that some songs are potentially good, and maybe a couple are actually good? Is it worth rounding up to a 2 because they influenced other acts I like (e.g., Pixies, Joy Division)? I'm going to go with no, and give it my first 1 rating. It only took 297 reviews for me to get here, so I guess that's a good thing. LEAST FAVORITE TRACKS: Non-Alignment Pact, Laughing, Life Stinks (a great example of an underlying song that could have been cool, but then has absurd noise - what the heck is happening in the middle of this song??), Sentimental Journey (absolutely horrendous). Songs that I could see myself liking, if I could get past the noise: Street Waves (a pretty good song, but with just a horrible grating synth noise under much of it), Chinese Radiation (first half was good, and then it gets insane, then ends nicely. Go figure), Real World (Talking Heads-ish, with weird grating sounds), Over My Head, Humor Me. Song I actually liked, but not enough to overcome my dislike of the other tracks: Modern Dance (very Pixies-ish, again 10 years before the Pixies).

Fuck yes.

Awful album

"So this is one of those bands where the singer can't really sing. Got it." This was my first thought when the vocals first came in on the first song. But hey, it's punk. No one ever said a punk singer needed to actually be good. There is some great stuff here. But the instrumentals are often overshadowed by the brutal and sometimes grating vocals. I hear a lot of other bands here though, which speaks to its importance and influence. I hear Talking Heads. I heard Dead Kennedys. I hear Black Flag. I hear Roxy Music. I hear also hear more recent bands like The White Stripes and Black Keys. It's clearly an influential album. But that doesn't make listening to it enjoyable enough to give it more than 2 starts. I don't think I'll seek this one back out. Standout tracks: Non-Alignment Pact, Laughing, Life Stinks, Over My Head As an aside, I've assigned different meanings to each star in the rating system: 1. I HAD to hear THIS before I died? 2. I had to hear THIS before I died? 3. I had to hear this before I died? 4. I had to hear this before I died. 5. I HAD to hear this before I died.

I hear a lot of fantastic later bands in this record, and the best parts have this sublime controlled hysteria to them, but I have owned this record for over ten years and never feel like putting it on. A great three out of five record!

I really wanted to like this, as I know the "hits"; unfortunately it starts with two absolute bangers and then - nothing much else happens. My eldest thinks Thomas sings like Peter Griffin. Was hoping for more Gang-of-Four-like action and less obtuse weirdness. Gotta appreciate the history, however

Garbage and there's 2 albums !!!!

40% music I might enjoy listening to, 60% 1920s experimental music where the squeak of a ladder being dragged across a concrete floor might be considered percussion. Sentimental journey was a journey of pain. A high 1.

Jodå, ganska hygglig stundtals.

meni dobar album, zadovoljan sam, ima dobrih stvari kojima bi se mogao vraćati

What the actual fuck? Those are the only words I can think of to describe this. Listen, I would consider myself a fan of post-punk. I love me some Marquee Moon or Remain in Light here and there. So I was intrigued when I saw this. But like a parent who found out their kid cheated on a math test, I’m not even mad, I’m just disappointed. There are so many things to talk about. Like how, for one, this barely feels like music at some points. There is a lot of really weird synth and guitar ambiance that feels like someone has pushed you off a cliff and you are just dangling by a rope. I can respect the fact that this is actually experimental in a way, but it doesn’t always make for very interesting and compelling songs. This feels like something a music nerd would tell a girl to listen to at a bar instead of whatever “shitty mainstream normie” music she listens to. Like “you don’t get it until you’ve heard it ten times all the way through”. Whatever Brian. It lacks a lot of conventional music things that exist to make music sound good. Which is cool if you are into that. But I’m not. This barely even feels like punk music. Even though Marquee Moon came out the year before this, I don’t think post-punk became something noteworthy until the years after this. Also I have to speak about the singers. This may sound dramatic, but I immediately hated it. Aside from parts in the last song, I can’t name one second of this where I thought the singer sounded good. In an album filled with some of the strangest choices in songwriting I’ve ever heard, he still manages to sound out of place. In a year where we got albums like Music for 18 Musicians, Hemispheres, Die Mensch-Maschine, and Ambient 1: Music for Airports, this doesn’t feel like it should be as liked as it is. But I guess that’s why music is subjective. Rating: 3/10

Quite a lot of shouty punk, but also some more progressive music. Although marginally more listenable than Dub Housing, it is still a long way from my taste.

Nice

The last time I listened to a Pere Ubu album was much earlier in this project, over 700 albums ago. Although there are times where it still sounds like an unsupervised middle school band room, I am wondering if I have developed more tolerance for such cacophony or if I liked this one better. I think it may be tolerance. For God's sake, the thing starts with what sounds like a smoke detector going off. Not a great way to start a groggy morning commute. My spouse later walked into the room with the sounds of glass breaking and some shrill reed squawking and wasn't impressed. So, the fact that I didn't hate this must mean something has happened to me in these two years. Mind you, I still didn't like it. But it was certainly remarkable and quite unforgettable.

I recall that my first encounter with Pere Ubu was not well-received, so I wasn’t expecting much this time. Maybe that low expectation helped, but I found myself kind of interested in what they offered in this album…really enjoying some moments. By the end I was barely hanging on though.

Wow! Didn't expect to enjoy so much of this. For the first half, I thought it was gonna be a 5. Actually sounded like music for several of the tracks. Eventually, it sounded like a lunatic locked themselves in the recording studio but I actually want to hear a lot of this again. Nice surprise!

My first opportunity to hear Pere Ubu was months and months ago in this project when I made the acquaintance of their second album, Dub Housing. I was surprised to find this is their first album, also released in 1978. What reasons for offering two albums up on this list when they were created so close together? As expected, this was an off-the-wall, wacky affair that started with an alarm clock beeping then some very weird music that was supposed to include Sentimental Journey but I couldn’t make it out. I kind of enjoyed this in some weird way.

I dont get it. Starting an album off with some fuckawful noise doesnt help too. I dont really get this album honestly. Significant 36/112 Liked 17/112 Added 4/112 NNN

I didn’t hate it. After reading a couple reviews, I thought I would. It was interesting and I can see why people like it. Once is enough for me

That is one of the most annoying ways to start an album I have ever heard. It just felt like they were trying too hard to be alternative. There were some parts that I really wish had been whole songs, but they veered back into cooky sounds. Felt like they could have integrated their sounds more into the songs.

This album is so terrible that it could be used in psychological warfare. I had a headache after the 3rd song.

Kann weg. Lärm.

Wtf

I know of Pere Ubu from back in the day, and I have the 1976 single “Final Solution” on a compilation album. But this album will be new to me. I’m pretty interested to listen to this. I “warmed up” by playing the aforementioned Final Solution, which I like (rated 3/5 stars on my iTunes). So on to the album. I like the overall sound here, a little “unpolished”, good driving rhythms. Not a huge fan of the vocal stylings, but reminiscent of Television. And some of the more experimental passages aren’t my favorite. But this isn’t boring, it’s different, and there’s several high points that take me right back to 1978. Really, this is the kind of album I came to this project to hear. That said, this is certainly niche, and not something I expect to purchase. Solid 3/5 for being ambitious, and interesting.

Started as 'variable' and a 2* review. But by the end, it's 1* as some of the tracks were just complete dross.

Zuerst habe ja gedacht, das ist mal was anderes. Aber tut mir leid, aber das halte ich nicht aus ... Vote 1

Unique but nothing id come back to. Rating: 2.7

Definitely Avant Garde, but a decent album regardless. Probably nothing I would return to but I could understand its influence. 2.5/5

nice

Interesting. But not something I'd listen to everyday.

This is pretty weird but wonderful!

NON SE PODE POÑER UN 0? Meter ruido e acordes, non é facer música, ate me puxo de mala ostia

“What the hell” said like Tim Robinson

With a punk energy, explosive inventiveness, and a natural sounding chaos, it has everything I love about experimental rock.

The first Weird album! I was vaguely aware of this band's existence but never bothered to look into them. Quite listenable for something more 'avant garde', I liked it.

I'm afraid I didn't listen past track 3. This was not for me.

I haven't been so scared listening to music in a while. 'Laughing' - what am I even listening to? Like, it's as though they just decided to invite everyone in off the street 😂 Very experimental I suppose, but just too weird

Didn't listen properly but erm yeah, what was that?!

I went to apologise to my neighbours after listening to this, but they'd already moved out.

Yeah this one was definitely weird. Strange that the album would be called the modern dance and feel a decade late

Interesting at first but got pretty irritating by the time I was halfway through. Also incredibly repetitive. Relieved to finish it.

I tried, but I just couldn't get into this. I like the mix of the instruments. It's that rare occasion where you can actually hear the bass guitar separate from the guitars. The issue here is it all sounds bad. The vocals are monotonously annoying. Screeching sax that sounds like a Yoko Ono sabotage. Reading other reviews, people enjoyed the experimental punk aspect of it. It just doesn't sound good. There's no world where I would want to spend time listening to this on purpose.

Day 28 I was beginning to think I would not give any album 1 star, I was wrong. Very, very wrong. This was honestly painful to get through. No clue why this was on the list. I listened to it without checking ratings first and was very relieved to realize I didn't miss anything.

Pardon papa poum

a failli me creer des daddy issues

This was an absorbing listen and while it's not my speed, I could understand why this would be so influential.

I don't know why this group has another album on this list. It was weird and just ok. I made it through the whole thing and give it a rounded up 3

Not a fan of this really. I liked a couple of tracks but then again I don't think I'd revisit them.

I quite liked this but found it hard to understand the lyrics so I just pretended it was in a different language. I really enjoyed Modern Dance and Sentinmental Journey -- I will defintely give this anohter listen sometime.

Ooh, this is great - a bit more accessible than "Dub Housing", I think, but, you know, still not _that_ accessible. I was entertained, while listening, by trying to come up with similes for what I was hearing. "They're like The B-52's on a bad batch of meth!" "It's like the Pixies, but they fucking hate you!" I was thinking 4 stars, but I wanted to play it again immediately after after my second play through finished, so that, plus the broken glass sound effects rounds it up to 5! Fave tracks - any of the first 3 tracks, "Real World", "Sentimental Journey", I like the lot!

meh, a little more modern sounding on some places than most rock from this era, but it absolutely drags. had to force myself to push through.

Didn’t even get through the first song. If your album opens with tinnitus then go fuck yourself

I appreciate the craziness and the uniqueness of this whole album. Wild. Just don't think I'll need to relisten though 3.6

Nul à chier mais on s'y attendait vu leur autre album de la liste.

Pere Ubu vient récupérer sa première position au classement des pires pères du monde, devant l'incontournable Tim Buckley. Le génial père de robpierre ferme lui toujours la marche.

Not good

Not really what I needed to be listening to with an enormous hangover, but even through the discomfort of the often quite dissonant instrumentals, you can tell there's reason to the rhyme.

Doesn't sound as dated as I expected; very confident for a debut album; a clear influence on loads of bands I love, but falls just short of a fifth star - only just though!

Post-punk classic! Even within the varied field of post-punk they manage to stand out without resorting noise. Great record from a great band

Så bra skiva... fräschaste post punk bandet

Not as psyched with this one as I was the funkier, dance-oriented 'Dub Housing.' Starts off with some interesting industrial textures and the classic Pere Ubu experimentation, but starts to lose steam by the third track and never really recovered.

Zu wild, zu wirr, gefällt mir nicht

Ab 2. Lied wird's besser

Beetje gekkigheid ben ik niet vies van, maar dit valt me zwaar.

Sorry, maar dit soort avant-gardistisch geneuzel trek ik slecht.

En dan in het laatste nummer van dit album ineens komen met "It's just a joke man!". Goh, echt?

Yesterday I found out my son, who is in his 2nd year at university, has been suspended from school because he's failed most of his classes. So now he's coming home to try and sort things out and figure out where to go from here. Then last night my wife was taking down Christmas decorations and for some reason she stepped in the kitchen sink to try and reach something, and the sink separated from the granite countertop and collapsed. So I've been spending today dealing with both of those things. Anyway, on to the music. It's alright I guess. I feel like I'm a little sick of everything these days. 3 stars.

woah. pere ubu is a name i've always seen at record stores but i've never listened to them before. i had no idea what to expect. holy shit does this stuff rock. i'm kind of floored. it's very noisy, a bit unconventional in that sense, a lot of atypical instrumental choices (noise, an instrument i am learning is called the 'musette') but juxtaposed with that is some killer rock. really really cool stuff!

Delicately traverses the borderline between noise and awful music.

Apparently I'm too dumb to appreciate this and pretty much endured it. I find it unfortunate because there is some interesting stuff going on musically that gets drowned out by the art noise BS.

What's worse - David Thomas' awful voice or his horrendous musette? Even though this debut is MUCH better than the following Dub Housing, those two “instruments” really prevent it from being an enjoyable listening experience.

Almost infinitely better than the follow-up, Dub Housing, which is almost unlistenable.

Rode the Street Waves in the Real World on this one. Kind of like Chinese Radiation.

Hieman kunnianhimoinen nimi albumilla, tosin muutamien biisien junnaavuus taitaa täyttää sen (voi tanssia monotonisesti). Hieman liian surinaa, taiteelliset pyrkimykset tulevat selvästi naiiviuden pinnan alta.

Niin kauan kuin punk riittää, tai punkkia riittää, levy vähintään menettelee. Annoin pari mahdollisuutta, mutta puolivälissä näyttää tapahtuvan väistämätön nukahdus.

As before, the impact of what this was at the time is lost to me, certain songs drag on too long even for a short album, when it gets going it's pretty good. can appreciate, will never listen again.

Bleh. Why does this list include a lot of this shit

Una lliçó sobre com retorçar el rock, trepitjar les estructures habituals del génere, innovar en les composicions, i sonar rellevant i interessant, conservant el sentit musical. Una lliçó mal apresa per la majoria de grups que han tractat de fer quelcom semblant

Punk.

Fuck this man

it was pretty cool i think, but that's about it. 7.7/10

Bof c'est correct pas plus. Je n'ai pas mit mon review le jour même et je me souviens de rien donc pas très marquant mais pas mauvais 3

Rock experimental. Un rollo que quiere ser moderno metiendo ruidos... Un 2.

post-punk. Me ha sorprendido para bien.

Delightfully odd! A mashup of TV On The Radio’s singer and Fugazi’s music. A few moments of brilliance.

3/10. What if we took the all the abrasive sounds of Watermelon Man, but made them into something really boring?

Not a fun listen. 3/10

This album was released the same year as 'Dub Housing,' and album I have already reviewed. Much of what I said for that album applies here. If any band deserves to be called art punk, it's this one. This album is dynamically varied, and utilizes noise well. Despite its chaos, it is very carefully constructed and skillfully executed.

Unfiltered master piece. A collection of great punk songs that became legendary. Great album!

Drunk uncle jam sesh

Didn’t enjoy the hat at all 1*

Thought it was OK to start with but bored by the end.

Tough album to rate on one listen. I really dug some parts and others were skippable. Overall, I’d give it another spin at some point, so I’ll round it up.

Not what I expected given the album cover/title! Proud of myself for making it all the way through whatever this is supposed to be. There are parts of it that I liked, but mostly unlistenable. Hard to rate considering it’s not trying to be good in any conventional way. Rounding up to a 2, giving extra credit for making an album filled with breaking bottles and high pitched squealing sounds (bagpipes? recorder?!) making a list like this 50 years after it was made

3.5 . Post-punk in the middle of the punk rock movement. Theres alot of elements that I recognize as being influential to others, and theres some stuff that doesnt quite work. Bonus points for lineage to Rocket from the Tombs and Dead boys. I will say the recording sounded pretty good considering its a low budget (i assume) avant garde album

Honestly? Dub Housing is better. They sound like they are really having fun there. Here just feels like a warmup.

Better than Dub Housing, but not by much.

Somewhat random art noise that didn’t excite me

Punky

Really enjoyed a lot of this

I enjoyed this! Felt like something that would’ve sounded contemporary 25 years after it was released, aside from a few of the more discordant for discordance’s sake tracks.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The vocals sound like they could be from recent series of south park. Pretty fun

It's avant-garde punk rock, and pretty good for a first album. Some of the songs work, some don't. The band would improve over the years.

Vähän kokeellista dressman rockia missä on hiukkanen elektronista seassa joissain kappaleissa. Lievästi kaoottista myös

groovy

Disappointed honestly, felt like a collection of noises and annoyances. Genuinely surprised how many of these albums have made it onto this list. 1/5.

It was kind of great but leaning towards OK

I really liked how weird this album was, but sometimes it got too shrill for me. "Sentimental Journey" is basically unlistenable. But, I ended up listening to it 3 times and would definitely listen again.

Way more interesting than I thought it would be

Deeply annoying. Not a redeeming song on the whole album.

Nope. Quite frankly I'm tired of all the post punk experimental/noise rock that's been showing up. FFS, there are different genres, and if I'm being honest, better genres.

Ahh my old pal/nemesis Pere Ubu - my first experience of what can only be described as headache inducing euphoric psychosis was back at the start of this project. This is slightly more accessible but still fucking way out there man. It's made me surprisingly tempted to go back and listen to Dub Housing again (a task I swore I would never willingly subject myself to after my first listen) to understand where the differences between the two lay. I think the accessibility of this one comes from the fact that although it's still rife with seemingly non-sensical horn and synth key bashing, each track ultimately opens up into pretty strong, pretty funky post punkesque riffs - something which I seem to remember Dub Housing definitely not doing. Okie dokie have just got to Life Stinks and they are back to their old tricks again and I love it. They are definitely going down as one of the most interesting finds within 1001 and I am super glad they snuck two albums in, have really enjoyed the point of comparison. I've mentioned before that Post Punk is my favourite genre and I think it could be argued that these guys (along with Talking Heads, Devo etc) are probably responsible for the genre as we know it. ALL HAIL PERE UBU

Kind of a Dead Kennedys meets the Pixies with a sound machine vibe.

I loved this album when it first came out. So jarring. It still holds up.

It's like being in a drunken bar brawl with Talking Heads: you're never super sure where the next punch is going to come from. It misses more than it hits, but the hits feel solid enough. Call it a 2.5. Favorite tracks: "Life Stinks", "Street Waves"

Absolutely awful, 0 stars, couldn't even finish.

A strange arty punk/rock album that I'm not too sure of what to make of it. There were lots of weird sounds and beeps that I'm not sure what Pere Ubu was going for, but modern dance, I wouldn't have picked that from the overall listen. There were some glimpses of goodness, but overall a little lackluster. Best: Modern Dance Worst: Laughing 2.5 Stars

why do i have the best time with the weird albums

Kinda gratey on the ears

post-punk. Me ha sorprendido para bien.

Avant- garde punk. Some songs are great and hit hard. Others I wouldn’t listen to unless I were in the mood for experimental sounds. Classic album though.

Regardless of what my daily album is, I always listen to the whole thing. It was a tremendous struggle to make it through this one. Now excuse me while I help my wife get the knitting needles out of her ears.

This was bad.

A really great record! I never listened to it before but it is flawless in my opinion.

Holy fucking shit, this album kicks balls. I was originally going to give it 5 stars, but I’m torn because “Sentimental Journey” was the only low point that I thought didn’t come together. Everything else about the sound of the album is fantastic.

meh. the majority of the songs just don't do anything for me.

More interesting than awesome. There are some bits that are engaging alternative rock with a challenging edge, but there's also enough experimentation that doesn't work.

Punk with an experimental sound, that quite often was just noise that could induce anxiety.

"Modern Dance" has white noise that honestly made me think my headphones were faulty. :P

Summery: One of the rare albums that's genuinely hard to listen to. Solid bass and drum playing throughout (including some undeniably good bass riffs), but the vocals are consistently garbled and grating. It gets even worse when the vocal harmonies join in. Additionally, the sound effects are really, really annoying. I can see these songs being used to extract information from foreign espionage agents. Non-Alignment Pact: Punk, for sure. Very high drone in the right channel is annoying and unnecessary. Fantastic bassline begins to make itself known, and around 1:30 we get some really solid reduction in texture. The right channel is almost completely unlistenable - like the end of Queen's Sheer Heart Attack (the 1977 song), but for more than 3 minutes. Too irritating for my taste. Modern Dance: The right-channel noise has been replaced by literal static noise (a bit like the sound lava makes in Minecraft when it turns into obsidian), and it's a welcome relief. The song would be much stronger without it, though. Fun vocal back-and-forths, and an overall fast-paced groove. Unfortunately, though, Pere Ubu adds these really unappealing sound effects that make these songs go directly from 3-4 stars to 2 or less. Laughing: I sat through 125 seconds of painful, off-tune intro, before an equally out-of-tune shouting harmony ensued. At 2:50, the thinning of texture was again a welcome relief. Great bassline and decent drumming, but everything else is... not good... At least the ending was tolerable. Street Waves: Easily the best track so far, because it lacks the incredibly grating sound effects that dominates the earlier songs. Another solid bassline that steals the show, and a garbled, technically unsound vocal that brings the song up several notches as soon as it ceases. Chinese Radiation: It's alright until the loud-crowd section, which is bad. Strange piano-based section at the end that I can't really comment on. Life Stinks: The singing is actually pretty funny here. However, whatever's happening at around 0:55 is unacceptable. Real World: Pretty good, actually. Fairly nondescript. The singing is very weak. Over My Head: Floyd-esque whale noises, but the comparison ends there. The singing is okay, particularly the backup vocals (they're especially okay). Nice and chill. Sentimental Journey: The breaking glass probably means something. I wonder if it's a result of the vocal performance. Lots of nonsensical noises here, again reminding me of some early experimental rock piece by Pink Floyd (think Several Species from Ummagumma) or possibly Revolution 9. Not fun. Humor Me: At this point, you'd have to give me a Bohemian Rhapsody or Stairway to Heaven to bring this album up from 1 star to 2 stars, and this song wasn't either of those. It was pretty good though, especially the bassline. Good guitar playing, but whatever effect was used on it doesn't fit the song well (too much distortion). A decent ending to an indecent album.

This is SO weird, but I LOVE IT.

Is it weird I’ve never heard of this band? Sounds like the kind of thing I used to listen to a lot.

Ground zero for postpunk. The avant garage. The beauty of Cleveland pressed into vinyl... A band I'd probably have never got into, except for reading Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds amazing book on postpunk 78-84. I hear it very differently now. Not a perfect album, but the highs are totally exhilarating. 4.5*

sounds like local bands trying to make it. i appreciate these bands exist, but meh

Liked some of the later tracks a bit more than the first few but not for me. Might be one that would grow on me.

This was a tough listen. Really noisy and I played it way too early. It was interesting though and felt fresh and new despite its years.

great punk sound

I find the cover art 10% interesting and 90% off putting. Which actually makes it perfect for this album. Starts strong, but somewhere in the third song they lost me. It's interesting, but also a mess. A stressful listen, honestly. Songs like Sentimental Journey are just more work than I want to put in when trying to relax to some music. It is possible Pere Ubu belongs on this list. It is also possible The Modern Dance is mostly just noise. Maybe both can be true at the same time? 2.5 rounding down for the cover art.

I don't know if my tastes have evolved, but this sounds more accessible and melodic than Dub Housing. There are several catchy dance tracks, skewed toward the first half. The sparser, creepier tracks remind me of the post-rock band Slint. The Byrne-esque vocals are very dramatic and excessive, but just adds to the extremity of how hard music can be while still retaining some form and structure. The samples are a cool addition that add to the atmosphere. Bass is strong, which is also a standout to me in post-punk. There were several unsatisfying parts, but I had a fun time.

Not my thing! Started off good but didn't enjoy it all

It's good. I never heard of these guys before this book project. Now I know two of their albums. Great sound, interesting. I'd definitely keep listening. Standouts: Non-Alignment Pact, Real World 4/5

Can't blame anyone for not making it past the first few seconds. I guess that's how they let you know what you're in for. That opening is probably the worst part though. Not that the rest is really amazing, it's just not that bad.

Tried it twice, didn't get it.

I'm all for experimental music and the usage of unusual sounds in music, but..... There's got to be the music there to back it up. And in this case, for me, there just wasn't. Sorry 1

Complete nonsense.

A classic art-punk record which I listened to back in the late 80's, because a few friends used to be into them. Not revisited this since mind you. Not a lot like it back then or even now. Seems odd listening to it in perfect clarity instead of what was probably a very old worn LP! It's pretty good, best tracks; Street Waves, Real World . It gets a 3.

Not the finest thing punk has to offer

Random sounds with no coherence. Not enjoyable unless you actively want a headache

Interessert å høre på men ikke noe behagelig å høre på 3.5

Not great, didn’t make it through. Not bad, either.

Discarding all sense of musical conventions reminds me of both the fall and the minutemen but with less of an effort to make musical sense. Anti music Don’t take the brown acid, man. It’s “challenge music.” Side effects may include writer’s block, delusions of postmodernism, man’s inhumanity to man, and improper comparisons to abstract art.

I couldn't finish this one, it's a sensory overload. Can hear slithers of garage rock and hearty serves experimental rock from the tracks I could tolerate. Reminds me of J Mascis. Can understand the underground appeal. 4/10

Regular punk album. I'm sure it must have historical importance, but I didn't enjoy it that much.

Estilo un tanto underground y experimental. No me ha aportado nada especialmente. Flojo en muchos sentidos.

I LOVE POST PUNK!!!@ this is a good album, a bit too weird for me but I like the title track and a few others. very niceee

Lost me a bit towards the end but overall boundary pushing and solid

40 minutes of goofy caterwauling

Whenever I see an album tagged as "art rock" or "art punk" I reflexively lower my expectations a bit. As expected, this one shows promise at times, but more often is off-putting, I suspect simply for the sake of being inaccessible. It's a bit like early B52s or Talking Heads, but more abrasive.

Noisy and ridiculous, in the best ways. I used to really dislike Pere Ubu, but they've kind of grown on me over the years. Not everyday listening, but I appreciate this band's fearless creativity. Fave Songs: Street Waves, The Modern Dance, Non-Alignment Pact, Humor Me, Real World, Chinese Radiation

Meh.

I'd swivel between a 3 & 3.5 depending on my mood. Decent punk/post-punk.

Was just not that into it.

Really like this. I love the "avant-garage" description, I think that captures what they are doing. Their sound is solidly punk in some ways, but they are also freely experimenting, and the concoction is irresistable. Occasionally it got annoying, like that track with all the bottle smashing, but besides that I think I have a new band to dig into.

Simultaneously charming and off-putting. Seems more intentionally weird and difficult than their debut "Dub Housing," which I prefer.

Boy I know the name but I did not know the music. Vocals are very unique... I can see people absolutely hating them and I am not sure how I feel. I bet live this would be killer though. Definitely has avant-garde fuck you energy that I can get behind. I may need to revisit later.

Really dug this. It's got a raw, punk rock vibe to it.

Unable to stream

10/10 Pere Ubu has quickly become one of my favorite post-punk bands their stuff is incredible

Frantic, cynical and fun. I really enjoyed this album. Can't believe I've never heard of this band before.

Congratulations to anyone who got through the first 20 seconds of this album. You either weren't paying attention, or you're now clinically insane. The lead singer sounds a little too much like Pete Townshend. If you weed through the garbage, there are some gems here, moments of which are enough to push it up from a 2 to a 3. But Jesus Christ, do you have to kiss a lot of frogs. So many that it's almost not worth it. Avant Garde doesn't always mean "listenable". Oh well. I'm sure Yoko Ono is found of this.

Non-alignment pack is a pretty fun punk song and the rest of these are not

Much better than the other Ubu album on here (That's right there's TWO OF THEM) but only just. Some of the musical compositions are interesting, and I kind of like the humor in taking a groove and inserting some challenging sax bleats or whatever. Really it's the horrid, awful vocal wailing shit that I cannot stand.

It’s fine

Hard to listen to

As a punk fan I can appreciate elements, but this is just noisy.

What a shocking waste of time

Kinda weird but not bad

Oh god what the hell was that feedback noise at the beginning of Non-Alignment Pact!? That was especially horrible over my car speakers. Might not have sounded so bad in 1978. This ended up being okay, some neat early post-punk. Will I listen again? Probably not. Generally this wasn't my thing. It was just too unhinged with no real substance or direction to justify it. Seems very creative for 1978 though. Favourite: Modern Dance

Short angular dirty grooved funk rock. Bit like Talking Heads dirty uncle.

Rock experimental. Un rollo que quiere ser moderno metiendo ruidos... Un 2.

It's proto-punk, very much in the style of The Stooges or Dead Kennedys. Too discordant for me, a really difficult listen.

Wow! The album started out with a long annoying sound and managed to sustain that thru several tracks. Points of brilliance but nothing I will need to endure again

It's highly admirable that the list is inclusive of special needs musicians.

Horrible

Knotty, spiky and interesting at times. Bonus points for originality and willingness to experiment. Points off for lack of melody or anything remotely pleasurable.

Geeze. What a trainwreck of an album. Just awful. The musicianship is rudimentary, the production values are non-existent, and the writing is primitive. There's literally nothing redeeming in this garbage fire of an album. No. Take this off the list. It's trash and deserves to be forgotten.

3.75

Wtf.

Not these idiots again... It is completely fucked that Pere Ubu gets at least 2 albums on this list, while many more deserving bands didn't even get recognized. Whoever made this list needs to get their priorities straight. Is dude singing in English?!? The track "Laughing" sounds like noises coming from a Kindergarten music class. Fuck Pere Ubu. Absolute garbage. Came close to turning this record off. No redeeming qualities. This influences nothing. These tools should pay fines for every set of ears they make bleed with their shitty music. Favourite songs: Street Waves is the least annoying of the lot, but still sucks ass Least favourite songs: Sentimental Journey, Laughing, and the rest of this bullshit album. Why is breaking glass sounds, and recorders shoved up peoples arses considered music?? 1/5

It’s weird, too weird for me like I tend to enjoy most post punk and vocals aren’t usually an issue but I didn’t find this fun 2/5

I'm delighted that Dimery's list has weird art-rock records like this. It's important that all sorts of music are represented, in spite of all the reviewers in here grumbling about this one and giving it low grades (I'm talking about music from the "western" world and using the album format, at least). Besides, Pere Ubu is an act so bizarre that it literally can't age. Some reviewers talking about the two Pere Ubu albums selected by Dimery referred to recent groundbreaking bands like Squid or black midi so as to give their opinions and try to explain what those LPs are all about. And I'm also glad about this. There's definitely an affinity between Pere Ubu's own off-kilter sound in 1978 and the one played by quite important rock bands that don't want to fully rehash the past these days. The good news is also that, contrary to *Dub Housing*, *The Modern Dance* more or less manages to keep momentum for the duration of its ten tracks. "Non-Alignment Pact" and the title-track offer great moments right off the bat. David Thomas' frantic voice, somewhere between Jello Biafra and David Byrne, is an acquired taste, of course. But once you find your footing with it, it becomes quite fascinating. After that great start, "Laughing"'s deconstructed, sax-enhanced shenanigans are a bit of a letdown, yet Thomas's voice does a good enough job getting you hooked in spite of the overaffected free-jazz surroundings. And then "Street Waves" quickly surges anyway--with one bridge containing a classic guitar solo that will easily rock your socks off, and another bridge where eerie wind sounds will suddenly keep you on your bare toes as you force them to walk on ice. Funny how those two bridges actually epitomize the two sides of the word *art-rock* all by themselves. Following "Street Waves", you have "Chinese Radiations", another "deconstructed" cut going from a slow ambient mood to a more lively conclusion. Yet this time, said "decontructed cut" is fortunately far more efficient and evocative. Thomas then goes totally bezerk on bonkers "Life Stinks"--the rhythm section is on a full punk mode here--before centerpiece " Real World" ensues--some sort of dub track that goes off the rails to become far more at the end: a mesmerizing-yet-hectic plea and a proto-Talking Heads gem all at the same time. After that, calm "Over My Head" and its haunted background vocals provide a welcome respite--with another lovely guitar solo for its bridge. Concluding the album, you have "Sentimental Journey", a self-indulgent, seemingly improvised number where the most recognizable pattern comes for the sound of breaking glass (the studio's floor was notoriously littered with broken bottles after they recorded that cut). And then, you have the mock-reggae of "Humour Me", with fun clapping hands helping you digest all the guitar and synth harmonies around them--weird ones for sure, yet also poignant, oddly enough. That last guitar solo, short but epic, is a major plus to turn that closer into a highlight. Voilà, to put it in a nutshell. *The Modern Dance* is a mid-western, no-wave version of Roxy Music. As such, it's "out there" and sort of a mixed bag, but it's still a fun listen if you open your mind and try to forget the usual expectations of run-of-the-mill rock and punk-rock. It sure won't send you to the highs that Wire or Gang Of Four can aim at (two bands that Spotify's algorithm played after *The Modern Dance* ended--which was highly predictable, lol). But it's still a success in its own (admittedly bizarre) terms. After all, you can find other admirable players in second leagues sometimes. Number of albums left to review: 442 Number of albums from the list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 260 Albums from the list I *might* include in mine later on: 133 (including this one) Albums from the list I will certainly *not* include in mine (many others are more essential to me): 168

Never heard of these guys before this project. Great stuff - the more I hear it the better it gets! Standouts: The Modern Dance, Real World, Humor Me, Non-Alignment Pact, Laughing, Life Stinks, Over My Head, Sentimental Journey. 4/5

noise

Irredeemable. Beneath my contempt

There's a lot to digest here. Not the most listenable album, but definitely worth listening to for the ideas and imagery it spontaneously generates.

lost interest halfway through

More cranky, hanky stuff like Dub Housing, but it feels slightly more like organised chaos here. In some senses, that's great, this album has ten actual songs, but on the other hand, I quite liked the terrifying unpredictability of the former. In short, both are great, the people low balling this just want everything in varying shades of grey and beige.

Had some real chaotic energy, was mostly fun to listen through. A 3.5

Interesting sound. Never heard them before. 3/5

Didn’t know this band. Lots of interesting stuff going on. Probably needs another listen or two to land on proper rating.

literally begins so egregiously with that high pitched squeal i cannot give it anything but

Niet slecht.

very good...kind of niche rock and jazz fusion.

Rating: 7/10 Best songs: Modern dance

willfully ugly

I was hoping to pass this off a amateurish and give it 2 starts, but no, it’s fucking annoying.

Best Song: Life Stinks. The one song that was appreciably punk. Worst Song: Non-Alignment. Who decides to kick off an album with such an insufferable noise? "Hey, you know how we should start the album? How about a metro train screeching into the station, but worse?" Overall: Not every obnoxious art project is accidentally great art. This is mostly just directionless, uninspired nonsense. I bet they had fun making the album, and I love that for them, but it sure isn't fun to listen to.

What a weird album. Some parts were actually listenable. Other parts were really bad such as instrument being played off key. Then it became just random noises. The lyrics are meh if they can be called that. I have no desire to revisit it. I will round down

Got half way through. That was fucking awful.

Punk is fine, but once you start calling it art punk maybe the original intention is being lost. Anyway I found this a difficult listen.

I really did not care for this at all.

This list is a real treasure trove of experimental rock and early punk. There are a lot of bands I'm learning about for the first time. The sort of bands that your favorite bands probably listened to. Pere Ubu sounds at times like a less polished B-52's. A little more wild and out there and experimental. Something I've learned by going through this list is that punk and post-punk basically happened around the same time. The name 'post-punk' can be misleading because it suggests that it could have only happened after punk became popular. But it seems like almost right away, a lot of experimental bands picked up on the energy of punk and twisted it in new directions. ("Chinese Radiation" is a good example of post-punk on this album.) Maybe post-punk is a good descriptor of bands that were influenced by experimental 60's rock and just happened to be continuing those sounds alongside punk rock. I also read something recently where a music critic argued that bands don't think about genre as much as fans and critics do. They just make the music they want to make and it gets labelled after. That seems right. Pere Ubu is a band that clearly made whatever crazy music they wanted to make. I don't think they thought a ton about music history when recording this album. The first half felt more focused than the second half. A few tracks lost me in the back half, particularly the nonsense noise of “Sentimental Journey.” 2.5

Cool sound. The immediate drastic panning of instruments is very annoying. I've written before about how I think it's very easy for panning to hurt a song's overall production and how frequently this kind of stark/heavy handed panning was happening in records from the 50s up to the 80s. I am enjoying track 2 "Modern Dance". It's got this cool repetitive riff and yelping vocal part that I find attractive. Track 3, "Laughing" is cool too. I like how improvisational it feels. That is a musical concept that I feel like this list has been avoiding. Overall I give it a 3.

I have to be in the mood, but when I am I like them.

Late 70s was an interesting time for music. The cool musicians were leading the charge to trying to get run away from disco as fast as possible. This coupled with economic woes resulted in an environment ripe for creativity and change. This album was one of the results. Sure there is a lot of noise and at times it sounds like a novelty act but it’s still a good example of the creativity that came out of that period.

This album has a much more Ramones-y, rock&roll feel to it than their other 1001 offering, Dub Housing. Yet there are still a few avant-garde pieces thrown in to please the lovers of noise.

Pere Ubu has always one of those bands that I struggle to "get into". They're similar to say The Residents or Captain Beefheart with Kraut Rock sensibilities. With no discernable melodies and purposely ugly vocals, its a challenging listen. But I guess this is intentional as they're reflecting the angst and chaos of their apocalyptic world.

How do you say that

Some of it was interesting some of sounded like a bratty 5 year old with a toy trumpet

Second album by this guy, second load of shit. 1/5.

Very offbeat and quirky.

HL: "Non-Alignment Pact", "Street Waves", "Humor Me" Listening to this made me go back to Surfer Rosa, for two reasons. One, I underappreciated it the first time, plus this generator has blessed me with a tolerance for noisier rock I may not have had then. And two, there has to be some of Pere Ubu's David Thomas in Black Francis's vocal stylings. This isn't an easy listen, but it's surprisingly catchy at times. I actually liked the spooky synth, but I was less enthused when it was isolated in my right ear. Just put the damn oboe down 3*, I’m feeling generous August 3, 2023

I've got no language for Pere Ubu's early genus. No positive language, at least, which made the trip from second to first release a search for flaws. I suppose there are plenty: It's a rough album, deliberately spiky at all kinds of levels. But breaking glass fills the brain-space prepared for it more than perfectly. I'm no dancer, so even the title is appropriate. Glad there are several more hours of this somewhere out there.

Great sound, but not terribly moving for me.

This sounds like a cross between Hawkwind and Television, albeit some rather twisted, scary versions of both bands. Does that sound like the perfect blend to you? It does to me

Cool instrumentals like 25% of the time, purposefully, irritatingly bad vocals 100% of the time and instrumentals 75% of the time. Get out of my life.

Hämmentävä levy! Laidasta laitaan matskua niin postrockia kun reggaetakin. Jotenkin sellanen popedamainen versio talking headsista tulee mieleen. Täytyy kuunnella uudelleen myöhemmin jos sit vaikka hiffais onks tää birdy vai fisu 3/5

Huh en ihan tällaisen häröilyn fani ole, vaikka onkin suht kiinnostava. Livenä saattaisin innostua.

Vinksahtanut ja ihan hauska levy, alku vahvempi kuin loppupuoli joka menee jo vähän kikkailun puolelle. 3/5

3.5 stars. Started off great for being pretty out there. But second half faded and got too harsh. Standout is "Non-Alignment Pact".

I begin to get really irritated at the recommendations for 40 minutes of nonsensical noise.

I enjoyed this album

One guy on Rate Your Music said this is his favorite album ever. I disavow that.

purposely bad. fuck off.

If I wanted to listen to random noises I would listen to my butt cheeks.