Music Arcades: Pere Ubu: Dub Housing

Similar era to Psychic TV, or more accurately Throbbing Gristle — who I think of the same as PTV, even though, technically, they're not — I guess.

My Pere Ubu collection started with Terminal Tower — great — then progressed through The Tenement Year and The Modern Dance — both good — around the time the band re-formed in 1987. Then the rest of the back catalogue was released on CD, I think for the first time. The whole series had these new covers, a kind of homage to… well, I was going to say Mac System 7, but as this was about 1988, it would have been System 6 or even 5. I don't know why people mess with covers: this example may not be as egregious as Mingus Ah Um, but it always ends up that the original is the best.

Anyway I wondered which one to get. I can't remember whether it was a review, or the picture on the cover, or just the title of the album that attracted me, but it was Dub Housing that I chose. Twenty years later, it turns out that critical and fan appraisal validates this choice.

I happen to disagree. My Ubu collection stalled for several years after getting this CD, possibly until Raygun Suitcase, which reignited it. It's not that I dislike any of it — and tracks like Thriller! show just how brave bands, and by extension audiences, were prepared to be in 1978 — it's just that I like those other albums more.