Pere Ubu - new picnic time (1979)

Pere Ubu showed no signs of slowing down with New Picnic Time.

It starts with the (un)easy-listening watercolor splash "The Fabulous Sequel" (basically Thomas raving over a lounge-jazz theme gone wrong, cacophonous guitar and air-raid-like synthesizers). "49 Guitars & One Girl" is even more fragmented and menacing, as if someone cut the previous song to pieces and played it at the wrong speed. Then "A Small Dark Cloud" really goes out of order, with an industrial acid-trip amidst a setting of runny sound-effects, a deflating bassline, sparse accompanying and insane cartoonish vocals. "Small Was Fast" instead opts for a dramatic feel with an emphatic beat and baroque choir effects. "All the Dogs Are Barking" continued in this vein but with a more floating, somnambulism-like tone.

"One Less Worry" was one more gag that veered towards damaged funk and the most acid psychedelia, while the industrial, whimsical uneasy-listening "Make Hay" reflected the spirit of "The Fabulous Sequel". The far-out psychedelic ethnic dirge "Goodbye" continued to push forward with new sketches for their deformed show, which culminated with their latest modern-dance "Kingdom Come".

Third masterpiece on a row. Clearly, Pere Ubu were on a roll between 1978-1980.

Get it here. Kindly contributed by Nexd.