Pere Ubu

A must-have collection of early essential sides from these seminal pre-punk experimentalists active in Cleveland during the mid 1970s. The first three songs alone on Terminal Tower are among the most influential singles of the time. To some degree, everyone from the Dead Boys to Mission Of Burma to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs owes a debt to Pere Ubu.

Side one is the long unavailable Datapanik in the Year Zero EP, itself comprising two indie singles and a compilation cut and as powerful a sequence as side one of Dub Housing nevertheless. Side two collects the kind of oddments that rarely cohere on LP, yet here the outtakes and B sides and stray singles come together as a record of David Thomas's slide or progress from willed optimism to blessed whimsy. In short, this is a gift from God--a third Ubu album from the former Crocus Behemoth's pre-God period. (Grade - A-)