Here we are in 1978. There aren’t many world-wide events in this year, but lots of bits and pieces that still have ramifications today. President Carter’s administration agreed (68-32 votes) to transfer control of the Panama Canal to Panama by 1999. He also initiated the Camp David Accords to broker peace between Israel and Egypt. Meanwhile the Khmer Rouge continue to massacre people in Cambodia, and Vietnam goes to war with them.
There are ups and downs for gay rights – this year sees the start of the Sydney Pride Parade (not called that yet), and the first use of the rainbow flag in San Francisco. Meanwhile Harvey Milk is assassinated and gay rights are rolled back in St Paul, MN.
Elsewhere, the Jim Jones cult drink the Kool-aid, the first episode of the radio show of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is aired and, relevant to this list, Keith Moon and Jacques Brel die.
And now on to the music.
The first of the year is Pere Ubu, an outfit that is largely the project of David Thomas. It feels recently like death is following this list. At the time of writing it’s not that long since Sly Stone passed away, and in researching this album I discovered that Thomas died only a couple of months ago from the perspective of writing (almost a year from the perspective of publication).
My first impression is that this is what it would sound like had Eno had produced Wire’s album; a mix of sparse punky tunes run through strange artsy production. Foremost is Thomas’ use of the musette, a high-pitched oboe, to give a squeaky atonal accompaniment that makes Andy Mackay’s contributions to Roxy Music feel mundane by contrast. Allen Ravenstine fulfils the Eno role of synthesiser sounds, often a dark and disturbing noise-scape.
The tracks are very varied. At best they’re a kind of art-punk like the title track. Life Stinks is a short, thrashy number that’s closest to bands like Wire. Sentimental Journey is nothing like the Doris Day song – it's a piece of musique concrete that starts off with a minute of the sound of smashing bottles before turning into a trippy number with Thomas’s groans and incoherent utterances over Ravenstine’s sounds. Over My Head is mellow and trip-hoppy.
The final track, Humor Me (a plea from Thomas to the audience?) sounds more like Talking Heads, especially if Talking Heads collaborated with Captain Beefheart. I also got a bit of Eels at the beginning, but the track becomes a bit too animated for Eels.
My old pal Robert Christgau says that the good bits are worth putting up with the bad bits, and I’m inclined to agree. Like most of the arty albums (including Trout Mask Replica, The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter and others) it was a fun, if strange, listen but probably not one I’d come rushing back to.
Comments
Post a Comment