The Modern Dance

noisy and chaotic but lowkey in a bad way. i dont like how it sounds most of the time its like a cat is scratching its nails on a wall (especially track 3)

All filler, no killer

Liked this one. Catchy and unique. Sometimes jarring and noisy but not junk.

This was an interesting listen and I’m glad I heard it. The noise at the beginning was annoying but what followed was same great music. People call it post-punk which is odd because punk was just about to hit. I did enjoy this. Even with the weird sound effects. They were really good.

Really enjoyed this. There are aspects of this album that would typically be very offputting, but here they just WORK. The first half is stronger, but it is a fascinating listen start-to-finish. Lots an catchy tunes, lots of avant garde oddness, what else could you ask for?!?

Fuck you for starting the album with straight up tinnitus. What the fuck is this shit. There's a song where there's a crowd cheering in the background, I don't believe that for a second.

Weird, but it’s a must-listen! 411

I've had a fair bit of challenging music in the past week, by which I mean music that is discordant and generally has low ratings on here. Personally I found listening to 50 Cent more challenging than most of these supposedly difficult albums. It definitely feels like a foundational record for post-punk and if you had told me this was a lost TV On The Radio album from 2009 I would have believed you, it feels that ahead of it's time. I'm not sure that two laps by the same band in the same year should be permitted -except maybe in very rare occasions where the influence of both was huge but I was also glad to get to hear more Pere Ubu. I liked it more than Dub Housing which I gave a 4, this is closer to a 5 but it also a bit too strange to be an immediate classic worthy of a 5. Favourite tracks were Non-Alignment Pact and Modern Dance. I read the lyrics to the 6 minute free form track Sentimental Journey and they are quite impressionistic but I interpreted as someone stalking or describing a journey following someone which added to the sinister mood that builds in the track.

It's very experimental. It sounds way ahead of its time! It's like no other album on this list. It seems kind of industrial, but I like that. Very good album!

4 out of 5. It goes hard and weird and I like it.

First couple of tunes are fantastic . Not so sure about the rest. Can see the influence and innovation but not that enjoyable of a listen

One of the albums of all time!

Pere Ubu are very much deserving of entries on this list. Original and interesting music. Not something I go to regularly, but often enough to keep me interested. This album flows well and is very entertaining. Solid four!

gosto de estranhices, mas nada me cativou aqui. ouvi na rua e não sabia o que era barulho e o que era o álbum.

nunca tinha ouvido falar! depois de tentar ouvir o disco entendi o motivo.

This wave of extremely early Post-punk that basically is just Punk Rock but quirky always interested me. Did everyone reach the end of what they could do with the Punk Rock sound in like one year, and realize they had to expand? A lot of the music here, like the first two songs, are basically early Punk songs (or just kinda Rock and Roll songs) with intentionally weird vocals, sprinkled with bells and whistles (weird percussion, samples, a weird blowing sound, etc etc). There's some cool dubbish influence, which is a sound I always love incorporated with Post Punk. Once you get past the vocals this is a very fun album, very great! It's funny that I imagine a lot of people feel pushed away from the pretentious and "arty" idea of this scene, meanwhile these guys seem to be screwing around, just making what they want to make.

The vocals are absolutely awful. The guitar parts are the most bland and repetitive punk riffs I've ever heard. The bass playing is pretty great, but the other aspects just stain it to the point of no return. Not to mention the earraping sound effects that add literally nothing to the album. The bagpipes are even worse like oh my god it's terrible. This sounds like something the CIA would use to torture experiments. Horrible listen, absolutely excruciating.

4/5 https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/pere-ubu/the-modern-dance/ Very interesting, and something that I need to hear more often to really judge well. Some parts are (intendedly?) insufferable, like the jazzy outburst on one of the first few songs, but other parts are so far ahead of its time. I hear ideas that Talking Heads would work out more on later albums, I hear weird vocal stuff that black midi/Geordie Greep would use 40 years later. Cool stuff!

Classic! Standout songs: The Modern Dance, Real World, Non-Alignment Pact

Not a fan. A lot of noise and will not listen to it again.

Why so much screeching noises?

Not for me

Эээто... Очень странно, но классно, мне понравилось!

Good

Buenas canciones iniciales, malas en el medio, buenas al final

Detta var inte bra. Hatade allt.

I had Dub Housing before this, and like that, I appreciate the weirdness here of the art-punk.

This might be a bit more enjoyable than the other Pere Ubu album in here but really I just don’t understand why either of them were necessary

Alternately wow and annoying. Averaging 2 and 4

Fantastic! The kind of album i was hoping for when signing up for this project. Not quite a perfect album, but interesting, rocking, and enjoyable. Will be something i revisit.

Too "modern" by the peak of the disco fever

I like a lot of bands in this general vicinity, sonically, temporally, but I just cannot get into this. I don't know why. I have tried before. I kind of just keep it to myself.

This is the worst album I have ever heard. I'd rather listen to Trout Mask Replica. It's random noises and honking on a saxophone. It's weird with no purpose, which makes all the critics think "this MUST be deep. It must MEAN SOMETHING". Yeah, it means that the band fooled you into listening to this crap album. You receive no points, and may God have mercy on your soul. My rating:-10/5. But I have to give it a 1.

Ugh. If the whole album was like “Sentimental Journey” it would be an easy 1 star, but I liked some earlier stuff.

Why

Pretty brown. Hell yeah. Cool recommendation!

Would be a 3.5. Really like this and like how wild it is for the 70s, but its not my fav that I think I'd put on regularly

Holy fuck do not listen to the opening track with headphones on. Blew my fucking ear drum out.

Did not enjoy. The singer is just annoying.

That was interesting to listen to on my ride to work, but I doubt I'm going to listen to it again

1,5/5

Again tough one. Music I have never heard, and probably for good reason. I don't mind some of it, but most of it is just pure noise. That doesn't make it non valuable it is not my thing, but of course some of that should be here. It is better, I think, than there other record on the list so that means I should go up. It's a 2 from me again, but a better one, promise.

Ratings seem to either be a 5 or a 1. I kind of like about half of this. It does get a little repetitive, but this music often does. Gonna be generous and go 3.

Wtf is this weirdness

Eeeh.

"music".. This really comes close to defining the line between music and noise.

Musically I kinda liked what they were doing when they weren’t being dissonant for being dissonant’s sake, but they garbled vocals were a bridge too far, there were times I wasn’t convince English was the language being used. I almost felt like there was some commonality with Pixies, but yeesh, these are no Pixies

Perhaps the worst album I've ever listened to. Sounds like it was made by stray cats and a homeless dude

This album tried to run me off with a piercing sound in my right ear as the very first thing I heard. I’m glad I stuck around. This a fantastic, weird, cacophonous romp in someone’s garage. It has captivating melodies among chaos and a compelling lead singer. I love weird stuff and this certainly fits the bill. Nice discovery here.

Well this was certainly better than the last Ubu offering we had but then that’s probably not saying much!

A vast improvement on that other album that was headache inducing. This one has it’s moments where you can sense the artist is thinking “hmm this is a bit too melodic, better throw in some distortion and fingernail scraping on a blackboard “ fortunately that is only fleeting and the rest is very listenable.

I really wanted to give this a 1* as it annoyed me that I quite liked it and given I hated Dub Housing with a passion, and that album set the lowest bar of all 1* albums on this list. How can there be such a discrepancy between 2 albums released 6 months apart? Does this mean I’ll have to listen to Dub Housing again? Does a bear shit in the woods?

Frustrating - in almost every song there was a moment or two that was really great…but then the rest was accompanied by a third grader with his newly acquired recorder and a rubber chicken.

This is a quirky album with some very odd songs , but if that is what you are into than it's a good one to listen to. It borders on punk and sort of new wave and somewhat like an attempt to just be weird.

Прикольно

Очень экспериментально, очень шумно Всё как я люблю Особенно учитывая время выхода, звучит действительно революционно Оценка на сайте тоже понятна)

ожидания были скорее занижены, впервые слышу название группы и прослушиваний очень мало, но post punk/art punk/noise rock - все как люблю, по итогу понравилось на 3.5 с округлением в большую сторону

I have no idea what a Torment Nexus is, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's this album. Dog rapist vocals, wheelchair screeches, rubber duck squeeks - I'm sure that the static noises on this record come not from post-production, but from the microphones refusing to record this crap Put it on the next Voyager's Golden Record so that the aliens finally come over to kill us all

Some novel things, mostly run of the mill

Tough one. This is an album that I’ve known and have tried because the band has influenced many of my favorite bands. They haven’t been for me. After trying again, they still aren’t, but I respect that they pushed boundaries.

The singing sounded like animal sounds but apart from that it’s awful

Starting a song with high pitched wine is bold and while nowhere near as successful as Public Enemy this is at least interesting. The glass breaking also pails in comparison to that in the excellent “Heart Monitor Riddem" by Kurupt FM. https://open.spotify.com/track/61NiI5dYMLy7p1Cblkc6G6?si=dmfDlsX9QXqSWhX530YoXw&utm_source=copy-link Per Ubu are not quite a temu Iggy Pop per se but are close. More Per Unusual than Per usual. Not a perfect album, but the highs make it worth the effort

I initially enjoyed this crazy, noisy, messy little proto-post-punk album. I was engaged from the beginning and the highs were high but my interest waned in the 2nd half and I'm not sure whether the quality dropped or I just got distracted. I may return just to make a bit more sense of the whole of it

Common praise for this band includes the claim that, while they are talented musicians, they pretend to be bad when they play. WTF? How is that any different than just being bad musicians? And if this is making a statement, being satirical, or meant to be art, no reasonable listener can decipher the actual message. So, they've failed as musicians and artists. The claim to fame seems to be that they were the precursor to Captain Beefheart and that ilk. Woof. I don't think Atlas could shoulder that burden.

Oh dear. Not one for me I’m afraid. couldn’t get my head around. Clearly not cool enough!

Apparently I saw Pere Ubu supporting the Gang of Four in March 1981, although I don't remember the former. The death of David Thomas recently prompted a reappraisal of this album. At times it is a cachophonous racket driven by Thomas' grating voice. On closer listen, it has more depth and variety.

For the first 30 seconds I thought I was in for another throbbing gristle. Not that bad, but not much better. Throwing glass on the floor isn’t music.

Pure punk spirit mixed with experimentalism. When it works it really flies, though it can be painful when it doesn't. But it's brave, and never boring, and for that it will be back on the decks soon. 3*

This was kinda cool. Feels like a precursor to a lot of of alt music that came out in the late 90s early 2000s. That said some of the instrumental and vocal embellishments were pretty wack and some of the songs lacked serious substance.

No

Good, but not enough.

Sound so experimental and I really appreciate that but it’s not my taste sadly. But still kinda cool.

Its diferent an unpredictable experimental music. Its raw and punkish. Not sure what to think. Dont love it but do like it

Headache core

Hell yeah, headaches! 3/5

I couldn‘t even describe the music style. Nor the music neither the lyrics can convince me. Sorry 😦

Not really my type of music…

I ended up liking this quite a bit, listened to it twice in a row. Challenging at times, but in good ways.

Schreckliches gequietsche

Best Track - "Laughing"

Instrumentally quite interesting and you can tell how they would go on to influence bands of the 90s but the vocals really aren't for me and there isn't a singular song that jumps out at me.

You do not want to start this album with your headphones on!! Wow, that's ear splitting and super annoying! I know the name but I also know they're not my thing. The industrial nonsense they have as background on "Non-Alignment Pact" (their most popular song!!?) was so unnecessary. His voice blows. The title track is half party noise, and half good. This is too underground for me. The weirdness and annoying instruments ("Laughing") overshadow what they're attempting. The title track is half party noise, and half good. "Street Waves" is the same mix of random sound, then song. "Chinese Radiation" lulled me to sleep before the same crowd from "Non-Alignment" woke me up. This is horrible music, I only got 7 songs in. No one has played this on Spotify, the listener counts are super low. This isn't popular, no hits, no influence from what I heard, avante garde nonsense at times. Hated it. This has no place in a Top 1001 list! Hard to give it two full stars, more like 1.5.

this is ASS

Tällä levyllä oli hetkensä. Tykkään David Thomasin tumman karheastä äänestä.

6/10

Noisy. Wrong. Painful. I loved it.

People really called this unlistenable? Just noise? It's barely even abrasive. Sure the high pitched whine at the start is annoying but that's it. The rest of the album is just sorta boring unfortunately. I appreciate it being 'weird' and avante garde for the late 70s I guess but I expected more.

I kinda love it. Fucked up and they own it. Drop that honking sax and I'm all in, Comrade.

Pretty average to me. Have tried to get more into this band but outside of a few songs they just don’t do it for me. I get they’re pioneers in post punk but others have come along and done it so much better. A lot of these albums feel like you had to be there to really appreciate what it did for music, but not all of them stand the test of time

truly terrible could not finish. Oh my god.

Avant-garde musicians are distinguished by the fact that they can play instruments quite well, but pretend they can't. The debut album of a band I've already seen on the list, Pere Ubu, is a case in point, and once again it's incredibly interesting to listen to and appreciate how ahead of its time it was. Compared to their second album, this one is more traditionally rock, but it's still post-punk, refined in its crookedness, mixed with electronics and strange vocals, and completely unsellable. Just like the cover — a worker performing ballet in front of his factory. A strange sight? Of course. Would anyone stop him from doing that? Of course not. I was ready to give it four stars because I like the broken guitar riffs mixed with synthesizers. I didn't do it because I don't like songs that start with a transition to ultrasound or consist of six minutes of the sound of bottles breaking.

Seems to influence a lot of later stuff that I like

Cleveland is a weird place, man. It isn't for everyone, just like this album--but if you get it, you get it. 2 kepeers in 10 (20%). 2 klunkers (20%). Math says 1 star. Heart says 3. Split the difference, call it 2.

I appreciated some of what they were going for, it just didn't click with me. I almost feel bad giving it a 2, but there is no 2.5 option, and I wouldn't give it a 3 from me.

unfortunately, this gets a 2/5 from me in a similar way that the jazz albums i've gotten before did.  i appreciate what they're doing, there's an undeniable energy going on, and i can see its influences on bands i like, but it's just not for me

I’m not sure of the correct genre for this type of music, but it was a no for me.

🥹✌️idk

Interesting listen

The Pere Ubu formula seems, on paper, ridiculously simple, this is basically a combination of artsy, quirky post punk, and just *absurdly* abrasive sounds. But the incorporation is really the magic. Pere Ubu is already kind of a strange band, finishing with their extremely odd vocalist, who theatrically howls and laughs, and I think even blows a raspberry at one point. But when they really crank up the noise, you end up with some *extremely* odd stuff. This album begins with a painfully pitched buzzing noise, which proceeds to go on for like 30 seconds. There are times where it genuinely feels like I'm listening to a Wire song in my left ear and a Throbbing Gristle song in my right. And, even the result of this all isn't *always* enjoyable, it *is* genuinely fascinating, and deserves admiration. The joy with which Pere Ubu destroy what would have been relatively accessible songs is truly inspiring, and to be honest, as I spend time here, it *is* growing on me. Honestly, a lot of these songs *were* even good on a first listen, Modern Dance, Chinese Radiation, Life Stinks, and more pretty much clicked immediately. Also, I listen to so much noisy, fucked up music, that I always love an artist who is able to show me something that even *I* think is a bit much.

Not bad